Hope College Totally Explained

Everything about Hope College totally explained

Hope College is a medium-sized (3,200 undergraduates), private, residential liberal arts college located in downtown Holland, Michigan, a few miles from Lake Michigan. It was opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. (The first freshmen college class matriculated in 1862, and Hope received its state charter in 1866.) It has been historically associated with the Reformed Church in America (a Calvinist denomination), and it retains a Christian atmosphere. The school's campus - now 91 acres (368,000 m²), adjacent to the downtown commercial district - has been shared with Western Theological Seminary since 1884. Since 1999, Hope has been led by current president and alumnus Dr. James Bultman.

Academics

The college offers 83 majors leading to a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, or Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. It has a student population of about 3,200 and a student-to-faculty ratio of 13:1.
   In 2003 U.S. News & World Report's college rankings listed it 4th in undergraduate research after the University of Michigan, Stanford University, and MIT. Graduates applying to medical and dental schools have 90% and 94% acceptance rates, respectively. As of 2006, it was the only liberal arts college in the country to receive national accreditation in all four areas of the fine arts: art, music, dance, and theater. It is in the top 5% of liberal arts schools whose graduates go on to earn a PhD. In addition, U.S. News & World Report in 2007 included Hope among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation.
   Hope College faculty rank fourth nationally among all liberal arts institutions for numbers of faculty research publications and 14th overall for highest impact of those publications as measured by the Science Citation Index. Since 1990, more than 300 undergraduate students have co-authored research publications with faculty.
   The college offers off-campus study programs in several US cities, including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, and overseas programs for the summer, semester, or an entire academic year. Among its international programs, a long-standing summer semester in Vienna is fairly popular among students.
   Hope College is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

Athletics

Hope College competes in the MIAA conference, and is a Division III member of the NCAA. It fields 18 men's and women's varsity teams. In 2005, Hope began use of a new 3,400-seat field house, and it shares the 5,000-seat Holland Municipal Stadium with the city of Holland. In 2006, the women's basketball team won the National Championship in its division, the second in school history.
   Hope has won the MIAA All-Sports championship more than any other member school. Winners of the All-Sports championship 21 times since 1980, Hope has won the honor a league-leading 29 times, including the 2006-07 school year. In 2006-07 Hope athletes and/or teams qualified for 12 NCAA championships.
   The school's athletic teams are called the Flying Dutchmen (men) and the Flying Dutch (women). The school colors are blue and orange (possibly chosen because the Dutch royal family is the House of Orange-Nassau). The college has 27 competitive intramural sports teams.
   National Championships:

1990 - Women's Basketball (NCAA Division III)
2006 - Women's Basketball (NCAA Division III)

National Runners-up:

1994 - Women's Swimming and Diving (NCAA Division III)

1995 - Men's Swimming and Diving (NCAA Division III)

1996 - Men's Basketball (NCAA Division III)

1998 - Men's Basketball (NCAA Division III) Club Team National Runners-up:

2003 - Men's Ice Hockey (ACHA Division III) The men's basketball team also takes part in a storied rivalry, the Calvin-Hope rivalry

Campus Life

Housing is provided by 11 residence halls, 15 apartment buildings, and 72 houses (called "cottages") that the college owns near the campus. A small percentage of students - mostly juniors and seniors, and Holland residents - live off-campus. The majority of Hope students come from the greater Great lakes region- in 2006 approximately 90% of the student body came from the states of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.(External Link

). Approximately 91.5% of the student body is white, students from minority backgrounds account for about 6.5% of the student body. Approximately 2% of the student body is international.(External Link

)
   Traditions at Hope include "The Pull" and Nykerk cup, events which pit freshman and sophomore classes against each other. In "The Pull," freshmen and sophomore men engage in an elaborately prepared three-hour tug-of-war across the nearby Black River, with women students acting as moralers. This event was started in 1897. The Nykerk Cup is a competition between freshman and sophomore women (with men as moralers) in music, drama, and oration, held annually since 1936. Since both traditions strongly encourage separate duties based on gender, they've come under continuous criticism as sexist institutions. Nevertheless, both events are well attended and enjoy strong support from the campus community.
   Student activities include Dance Marathon, FM radio station (WTHS), newspaper (The Anchor), literary magazine (Opus), and yearbook (Milestone), plus a variety of clubs, musical and choral groups, spiritual, literary, social and athletic groups. About 10-12% of students belong to social fraternities and sororities, which are local to Hope rather than chapters of larger organizations. The college holds Sunday evening worship services ("The Gathering") and Monday/Wednesday/Friday chapel services on campus. Attendance at these events has been voluntary since 1970.
   There is also a student-run concert series(External Link

) with performances by various Christian and secular bands. The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series regularly brings in prominent authors for free public readings. Previous visiting writers include David Kirby, Marilynne Robinson, and Li-Young Lee, amongst many others. The Series was recently renamed in honor of poet and professor Jack Ridl, who founded the tradition in 1982. It is a student-run organization under the coordination of professor Carla Vissers, with a number of volunteers and student interns.

History

Hope's motto is taken from Psalm 42:5: "Spera in Deo" ("Hope in God"). The college's emblem is an anchor. This is drawn from a speech made by Albertus van Raalte, the leader of the community, on the occasion of the founding of the Pioneer School in 1851: "This is my anchor of hope for this people in the future," (an allusion to Hebrews 6:19). The primary-level Pioneer School was later expanded to secondary, and soon after, college level education as Hope College. Van Vleck Hall, which originally housed the Pioneer School, is the oldest building on campus (1858) and now serves as a dormitory. It is the second oldest building in the city. The college admitted its first female students in 1878.

Notable alumni

Sylvia T. Ceyer, Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Max DePree, writer; industrialist; former CEO of Herman Miller, Inc.

Pete Hoekstra, U.S. Representative

Jim Kaat,* 25-year Major League Baseball pitcher

Terri Lynn Land, Michigan Secretary of State

Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda, founder of Slashdot

Craig Morford, acting United States Deputy Attorney General

A. J. Muste, pacifist, labor, and civil rights activist

Milton J. Nieuwsma, author, filmwriter-producer

Eric Christian Olsen,* actor in Beerfest

Rachel Reenstra, host of Ms. Adventure on Animal Planet

Robert A. Schuller, televangelist, son of Robert H. Schuller

Robert H. Schuller, televangelist, host of The Hour of Power

Richard Smalley,* Nobel prize-winning chemist

Sufjan Stevens, musician

Lynne Stewart,* activist civil rights attorney

Guy Vander Jagt, U.S. Representative

Carol van Voorst, US ambassador to Iceland

Annette Ziegler, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice * attended but didn't graduate from Hope

Further Information

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