<p>Hello, I am a correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek. I joined this forum while researching an article about High Point University. I am posting a link to the article, drawing your attention especially to the comments, pro and con, from faculty, students, parents and alumni. Interesting reading for anyone who is looking at High Point.</p>
<p>Carolbbw-Didn’t you post on a different thread, that you were the author of the article???</p>
<p>Hi, I’m the author, and I started this thread to draw attention specifically to the readers’ comments which include the views of the people who know High Point best: students, faculty, alumni and parents.</p>
<p>You should really disclose upfront. Correspondent is different from author. My thoughts…I am a parent of an upcoming freshman.</p>
<p>I have read the pros and cons of the article and feel that the writer describing the school as rich, white kids is an insult. I have visited 11 colleges with my son in past year, and not only is the campus beautiful, but the students there are happy. We have visited campus 5 times in past year, each time I take the opportunity the speak with individual students. All have nothing but positive things to say about their school and love their learning experience. The price of this school is actually in line with most privates. I feel High Point has as much invested in Academics as other similar universities. If the article was just focusing on the finances and the debt situation, I would have been fine with it. I felt the article was snarky and one sided.</p>
<p>Hi, it’s clear from the comments that many readers of the article agreed with you! But some others didn’t, and I thought it would be helpful for people on this forum to see the full range of opinions.</p>
<p>I personally felt troubled by the comment about rich, white kids. I met a lot of students and parents on my trips, and they are hard working families. I am not rich and do not expect the government or the university to subsidize my childs education. I work hard in order to pay tuition. Why would you lump all students and families into this category.</p>
<p>I felt the following comment was just as inappropriate:</p>
<p>“To induce their kids to enroll, High Point is offering a chance to compete for scholarships ranging from $700 to $20,000 a year. To enter the competition, though, the kids and their parents had to come to High Point for a weekend.”</p>
<p>These students were not induced to enroll. For the presidential awards, my child had to write several essays, send in another application and the students had to qualify with SAT, AP courses and high GPA. It is competetive…Just like at any other university that offers merit awards based on academics. In fact, most universities base their merit awards on the same stats. At High Point, once selected, the students and their families were invited for a weekend. It was a nice event.
My child had to actually work hard in order to get a merit award…</p>
<p>here’s my post from the bloomberg site:</p>
<p>Like
karlovci , I’d like to point out that the costs of every institution has risen exponentially. As a mother of a daughter attending HPU in the Fall, I can tell you that I am very comfortable with her decision. First, from a financial perspective, with the merit aid and a small loan, the cost of attending HPU is the same as attending our fine state university, UMass Amherst. It’s much lower than other schools (even with aid awarded) that my daughter was considering (and to which she had been accepted). So, from a matter of finances, that argument is null, in my opinion. </p>
<p>Secondly, I’d like to point out that I, too, have some reservations about the intermingling of the PR firm, the publishing arm and the University. However, based on my experience with my alma mater, Boston College, I am confident this is happening in most institutions. Nido is just more open about it. Try to find out any of this information on BC— between the University and the Church, it’s a no-go. It is, like HPU, a private university after all. </p>
<p>Lastly, any university can deliver both an extraordinary or lackluster education, regardless of HPU, Harvard, BC or UMass Dartmouth. It’s the responsibility of the student to take advantage of the benefits that are made available, just like in REAL LIFE. Yes, perhaps HPU makes it easier to do so, but give some credit to the STUDENTS who agonized over the decision on which school to attend- and pick the best school for HIM/HER not the best school as proclaimed by USNews or Bloomberg or whomever…and being told by the President that it’s up to YOU to make your future (and perhaps your fortune) is a message kids can take to heart and take to their future.</p>
<p>Hi Carol,</p>
<p>My son and I recently completed our second tour of HPU, and I happened stumble across this article around the same time. My son has officially chosen to attend HPU next year and he has taken the decision very seriously. He was accepted to all three of his top choices: Wake Forest, Elon, and High Point. He plans to study business. The tone of this article is unfortunate, in my opinion. The positive environment at HPU certainly is not displayed in this peice. The debt discussion is interesting, and it does concern me that the school is taking such risks. That being said, it is rare to find a successful company that did not take some courageous risks along the way. When you look at who is running HPU, my concern goes down even further. My husband has worked for BB&T for many years and the relationship with Dr. Qubien is strong. He is phenomenal businessman who has shown he doesn’t fail often. I have serious doubts that Dr. Qubien would dig a hole he can’t get out of. But at this point all we can do is wait and see… Considering the educational well-being of thousands of students could be at risk… I hope that you share the hope that HPU succeeds in their endeavors, though your agenda in this article seems to suggest otherwise.</p>
<p>As for some of the comments below the article… I find them fascinating. A majority of negative or angry responses come from transfer students or ousted professors… Their tone seems to match that of the article, which explains why they probably didn’t have success at HPU. It’s a very unique environment that certainly isn’t for everyone, but I just don’t see the point in attacking their culture. Why does every school have to have students with piercings, colored hair, ect? Just doesn’t make sense to me… </p>
<p>Last thing I’ll say as a response to a couple of professor comments: The Library is in fact still shown on tour, both of our golf cart tours stopped at the facility to go over facts and figures about the library. </p>
<p>I would love to answer any others questions.</p>
<p>Mary</p>
<p>Also, my son spent time talking with professors at all three of his top schools… The HPU business professors (and Dean) could not be matched. Their backgrounds and focus on application/real world learning is what swayed my son. Not the facilities.</p>
<p>Wake Forest was borderline rude to us, on tour and while trying to meet with professors. (This is a concern I’ve heard multiple times about WF… who is running their admission department?) Elon was fine, but the enthusiasm from the business department just wasn’t the same as HPU. Students at HPU were also excited to talk about their experiences in and outside of the classroom. We left campus with such a great feeling.</p>
<p>My daughter is considering High Point and a friend of ours forwarded her the Business Week article this past weekend. As you might imagine, upon reading it, she was distraught. I was as well. There were serious allegations of mismanagement.</p>
<p>One of these involved allegations that the school “lost $8 million speculating on derivatives”. I found that breathtaking.</p>
<p>So on Monday morning, I contacted the school’s Finance department, and learned in 5 minutes that this had not occurred. What they had done was execute interest rate swaps to lock in fixed rates on their outstanding debt for several years to come. Rather than evidence of mismanagement, this activity is evidence of the exact opposite: it is a competent, prudent, fiscally conservative thing to do.</p>
<p>I contacted the author and challenged her on this point, and asked her to check her sources. To her credit, she got back to me and acknowledged the error, promised a retraction in the next print edition, and advised me that the online article had been modified. I appreciate the acknowledgement. </p>
<p>Still, to her significant fault, this sort of error should NEVER occur. It was in fact the most damning allegation against the school in the entire article, and 5 minutes of research blew that allegation out of the water.</p>
<p>Further, I notice that Ms. Matlack has been a frequent participant on this blog and in the comments section at the Businessweek article. She has had ample opportunity to place a retraction in both places, to apologize to the school, and to try and set the record straight, which would be the proper and prudent thing to do - IF her goal is to accurately inform her readers. Yet she has not done so.</p>
<p>Ms. Matlack, your credibility is in significant jeopardy.</p>
<p>I am the author of the article. There was indeed an error – the university’s use of derivatives was mischaracterized. It was my fault, and of course I regret it. I strive for 100% accuracy. Sometimes I fall short of that.
As soon as the error was pointed out, the incorrect information was removed from the article, and notification of this was placed prominently on our website, at the top of the article. A correction also will run in the next print edition of the magazine.
The title of your post was “significant, egregious errors” – suggesting that there were multiple errors. I do not know of any others. If you do, please let me know and I will correct them.
Thank you.</p>
<p>While the accusation in the article was precise and explicit, the retraction was nebulous and benign. </p>
<p>How about the following:</p>
<p>“An earlier version on High Point University mischaracterized its use of derivative financial instruments, and suggested that the school lost millions of dollars speculating in the derivatives market irresponsibly. The derivatives are used only for interest-rate hedging, not for investment purposes. We apologize for insinuating in this instance that the school was behaving in an irresponsible or incompetent manner.”</p>
<p>My son is graduating next Saturday from High Point University. He has been thrilled to be a student there, and it is bitter sweet for us all. Just a few comments. I am an alumni of Wake Forest, and I unfortunately agree regarding the rude tour. I was appalled at the “you would be lucky if we allow you to go here” attitude of my dear WFU, and I really should have pointed it out after our visit there. </p>
<p>My son received a Presidential Scholarship at HPU, but it would not have mattered. He loved the campus the minute we visited, and applied early acceptance, as it was too late for early decision. </p>
<p>Just one example of how great the faculty are at HPU. My son e-mailed his professor at 10:00 on Thanksgiving night 2011, frantic that his research paper was not going as he had hoped. ON BLACK FRIDAY MORNING he received an e-mail back, telling my son he was sorry he was having issues, with three different suggestions of how he could move forward and an invitation to e-mail back if needed, and to meet him in his office the Monday after the holiday. I was amazed. This is just one example of how High Point University operates.</p>
<p>Thank you, WestDelta for clarifying/catching that error. I, too, take offense to “rich white kids” since my Midwest, middle class, Korean daughter (nose pierced and red streaks in her hair by the way) attends HPU and loves it there. She also was accepted to Wake and Elon but rec’d the best financial aid packet from HPU, also less expensive than attending a local university here. She has found the academics challenging and rewarding. As an Honors Program student majoring in Bio with a pre med track and a minor in Chem. and Spanish she has been very busy and HPU is helping her every step of the way.</p>
<p>Hello, I am an international student, who is currently a senior in a private high school in California. I applied to tier 1 universities such as, University of Michigan, UNC, UVA, USC, and some more; however, I was rejected by all of them. I realized that my academic reports were not strong enough. So I applied to High Point University and some other rolling admission universities. My plan was to attend HPU(I am admitted, and my personal counselor and I are going to have a meeting May 13th, Sunday for my scholarship meeting); however, I saw this article couple days back while researching for the pros and cons. I was greatly discouraged by the reviews, and was close to changing my mind. That being said, now I just read this thread, I don’t know what to do anymore. I read a lot about HPU’s greek life and stuck-up rich white kids who go there. I also read that greek life basically runs the nightlife and rudimentary social life in HPU. I am a Korean, who is from a middle class family. My family won’t have much problem for my tuition, but I am definitely not a rich Asian guy.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if I decide to attend HPU for 2 years, then transfer to UNC, which was one of my first-choice universities, will it be possible?</p>
<p>I am top 25% of my class, 3.86 uw gpa, and sat score of 1730. I speak Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, English, and a little bit of French. I am planning on majoring in Psychology and communication. I would also like to attend a prestigious law school after my undergraduate.</p>
<p>I know this is a very long comment lol; however, some positive comments and advices would be very helpful. Thank you very much!</p>
<p>vicxtorxkim, refer to my comment on “the pros and cons of HPU” thread.</p>