He attended Iowa State University from 1924-25, partially funded by Shandong province again, to further pursue his interest in agriculture. However, finding agriculture not to his liking after all, in Fall 1925 he again transferred to study political science at Grinnell.   

Hu filled a gap in the Chinese student population at Grinnell, and for almost two years (1925-1927) remained the sole Chinese student on campus. All the earlier Chinese alumni had graduated by 1924, and the next group, much smaller compared to earlier cohorts, did not arrive until Fall 1927. By the end of Fall 1926 Hu had already completed all his coursework at Grinnell and, although he did not receive his BA diploma from Grinnell until June 1927 (SB 02/02/1927), he left for graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by February 1927.  

Hu spent only one and half years at Grinnell, apparently without any fellow countrymen attending at the same time, but he still distinguished himself. He not only earned a bachelor’s degree ahead of schedule, but also published an English essay titled “Their Excellencies the Gods” in the first issue of the student literary magazine Tanager (November 1926, 3-5). Hu described various forms of worship–such as those of Taoist deities, Buddha, ancestors, and Confucius—that he witnessed and participated in at home and school in China, earning praise from the student newspaper Scarlet and Black for the essay’s “charm and humor” (SB 10/16/1926). 

Hu’s education after Grinnell proved to be full of twists and turns as well. According to a Chinese report, after studying psychology at Wisconsin from 1926 to 1928, he transferred to the University of Minnesota to study municipal management. At this point his father, who once served as leader of the Shandong Agricultural Association and owned a flour factory in Jinan, ran into financial trouble and went bankrupt. Hu had to take up odd teaching jobs in an orphanage to earn tuition money. He then studied law at Columbia University and business management at New York University until 1930, before leaving for Europe. He spent spring 1930 in Paris and returned to China in summer 1930 (YSB 02/09/1936). He reportedly received a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota. 

Despite his checkered educational experience, Hu went on to enjoy a successful career after his decade-long education in both China and the US. After his return to China, Hu taught at prestigious institutions, such as the Shantung Christian University [Cheeloo University] 齊魯大學 and the Central Political Institute 中央政治學校, a Nationalist-run college that aimed at training civil servants and military and police officers. He also organized factory workers’ education in Tanggu, Tianjin and engaged in Nationalist-run relief and propaganda work after the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. In 1948 Hu was elected to the First National Legislature 立法院 and participated in the peace talks between the Chinese Communist and Nationalist parties in 1948-1949. Hu remained in Shandong and was credited with helping the urban planning of Jinan. He also served on the Political Consultation Committee of Jinan until 1978. Hu passed away that year, having survived China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) to see the start of its Economic Reform and Opening era. 

Even without explicitly direct connections, Hu’s enrollment at Grinnell illustrated the influence of Grinnell-in-China, whose presence in Shandong could not have gone unnoticed by Hu’s family, part of the local gentry class in Jinan, Shandong. In fact, Grinnell-in-China funded not only the schools and hospital in Dezhou, but also several buildings, if not faculty positions as well, at Shantung Christian University in Jinan, where Hu grew up, attended schools, and later returned to teach for a time.