For those of you who might be wondering what a typical day at Hope College is like, this blog post is for you. One of the most frequently asked questions from students visiting colleges is “what is a typical day like here?” So, here’s a schedule of a typical week:
Classes: At Hope, classes are held either Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 50 minutes or Tuesday and Thursday for an hour and 20 minutes. Most students take 16 credits, or 4 classes, during a semester.
Homework: Homework in college is a little different than homework in high school. Most professors at Hope agree that for every 50 minutes you are in class, you’ll have 2 hours of homework. While this isn’t true for every class, Hope is academically intense so you can expect to spend a nice chunk of time doing homework or studying.
Meeting with Professors: Because Hope is a small college, students have the opportunity to get to know their professors. All students are assigned an academic advisor from their major that guides and mentors them throughout their time at Hope. Most students meet with their academic advisor once or twice a month just to catch up and discuss how the semester is going.
Chapel: Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a 30-minute Chapel service happens. While Chapel is not required, a lot of students do attend regularly.
Gathering: Each Sunday at 8:00 PM, Campus Ministries has a church service – The Gathering. Again, like Chapel, The Gathering is not required, but many Hope students attend.
Work: Most students at Hope work somewhere, whether that is on-campus or off. I know that several of my friends work as Residential Life Assistants, Student Overnight Hosts, Student Teaching Assistants, or Office Receptionists – each of these jobs works with class schedules so you will never have to worry about missing class for work. Also, I have known others who have worked off campus at stores or restaurants around Holland.
Pull or Nykerk Practice: Hope College has two very unique traditions: The Pull and Nykerk. Pull is a huge tug-of-war across a river in Holland, and Nykerk is a competition involving singing, oration, and play. Freshmen and Sophomores compete against each other in these two events. The Pull takes place at the beginning of October, and Nykerk takes place the first weekend of November.
Intramural Sports: One of the goals of every Hope student is to win an Intramural Championship T-Shirt. I have never won a shirt but the good news is that I still have time. Some of the sports that you can play are tennis, softball, basketball, flag football, and volleyball.
These are just some of the activities that would take place during a typical day at Hope. Most students are very involved on campus which allows them to make great friends while receiving a first-class education.
Hopefully this post gave y’all a good idea of what Hope is like and “hope”fully I will see some of you on campus in the next year!
Go Hope!!