Admissions Requirements

1. High school completion

   • Current high school transcripts may be accepted for conditional admission*

   • Completed high school transcripts and/or a high school diploma will be required for full admission*

2. The Hildegard College Application 

3. Academic (1) and personal (1) reference letters**

4. An admissions interview

5. Acknowledgement of Hildegard College’s Honor Code

*Mail official transcripts to: Hildegard College Admissions, 150 Paularino Ave. Bldg. B, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

**Email reference letters to admissions@hildegard.college

Highly Recommended

1. A 3.2 or higher GPA

2. The Classic Learning Test

Hildegard College strongly values consideration of the whole person in the admission decision. Please see below for additional information and recommendations. 

Application Overview

The purpose of the Hildegard College application is for us to learn about you academically, personally, and spiritually. We want to know what makes you unique, what motivates you, and why you believe Hildegard College may help you become the kind of person you want to be. 

We recommend preparing and uploading your personal introduction, short essay responses, unofficial transcripts, and other documents before submitting the application, though this is not required. The application may be saved and revisited prior to submission.

The application consists of the following sections:

1. Personal Information

2. Academic Information

3. Introduce Yourself

   • Introduce yourself in your own terms. This is a blank slate and your opportunity to present yourself in whatever manner you think reflects who you are individually. We provide no guidelines or limitations beyond what can be written in a text field and/or attached as a file. You may choose to upload a letter, visual design, audio media, art, or other textual document. 

4. Short Essays

   • What is thinking for? Why is it important for us to cultivate the life of the mind? 

   • Hildegard College maintains that the highest end of learning is the same as the ultimate end of all moral activity: communion with God. Speaking personally or theoretically, what role does the person of Jesus Christ have in the pursuit of truth through education? 

   • Why are you interested in attending Hildegard College?

   • What are two books that have influenced your life as a young adult? What ideas do they engage with? Why did they affect you?

5. Learning in Community

   • As an institution based on a Christian vision of virtue and wellbeing, Hildegard College students choose to sign a Code of Ethics. This common rule of life is one way Hildegard students acknowledge their moral obligations to one another in pursuit of a common goal: the knowledge and love of the truth and the endeavor to further its goods for others. Explain, in your understanding, how the pursuit of moral virtue and its accompanying habits contribute to the enterprise of learning. What do just actions have to do with true thoughts?

6. Hildegard Community

Contact admissions@hildegard.college for questions and further guidance.