High Point University - advertising like crazy

Just wondering - and I’m seeing it on CNBC - High Point U is advertising hugely - showing the co founders of certain companies as visiting execs:

Co Founder of Netflix - Marc Randolph - who my company hired to speak, very interesting but gone from Netflix early.

Co Founder of Apple - Steve Wozniak

Dallas Mavericks CEO - Cynt Marshall

Their saying - parents love our values of God, Love, and Country

What does everyone think of this school? We did a drive thru visit - since we were near. It’s immaculate, etc.

There have been a few comments in the past - for my kid who needs hand holding, who wants to live in a nice hotel with great food.

Just a bit unusual to me that they are advertising - like they are Hilton or Procter & Gamble, etc.

Thoughts?

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Interesting.

Never heard of it though.
Maybe a regional thing?

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They’re well funded - and I think relatively well known - the old Kentucky Basketball coach Tubby Smith is an alum.

Their President is very aggressive - they’ve spent billions - so they’re definitely a real presence vs. a fly by night.

Just their very “chasing consumer ads” - they’re not the ones you see at halftime of a football game talking about a school…so yeah a whole different thing.

They call themselves the premier life skills university.

I gather that they cater to rich kids - but could be wrong. They don’t have a common data set that I could find.

Dr. Qubein Biography | Office Of The President | High Point University

We have schools advertising all the time around here. Many are the online schools (Governor’s, SNHU,) but there are others too like Montana State with a special program for Native
Americans in medical fields, Western Univ.

I do think it is very regional, just like we get ads to ‘Explore Nebraska’, ‘Visit NM’, ‘Tour Arkansas’ but rarely any ads for Ohio, Georgia, or even Florida.

A friend’s son went to High Point. Loved every minute of it. He is an athlete, so was a BMOC. He did have a lot of transfer offers but he stuck with HPU. Because of covid, he got an extra year for free.

I asked his little brother (only a sophomore) if he was going to go to HPU but he said no. He’s even a better player than his older brother, but has a lot of learning issues so his educational needs are different (and I think he’s hoping for a championship team).

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My kids have gotten a ton of promotional materials from HPU. I wouldn’t think it is regional, too much, because we live in Massachusetts. I assumed perhaps they were getting them because they marked if they were interested in Christian organizations for their activities.

Their marketing material was misdirected at my kids though. They think the university looks creepy. They find the tagline “premiere life skills University“ silly, they want to know why they would pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to learn life skills (which they assume means things like doing your own laundry, taking care of your car, managing your finances). And, although our family takes our faith very seriously, they found the “God, country, family” or whatever it is too echoing of Christian Nationalism for their tastes.

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Just flew United and High Point U had a large multi-page ad in the in-flight magazine. I thought it was strange.

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I guess they are putting you on notice if your god is not THEIR god!

I am pretty sure that isn’t what HPU, or any college, is referring to as “life skills”

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I know that, but it is what my kids think when they see that phrase splashed on all the promotional materials.

Well, it is a Methodist school.

We are in South Florida and get lots of marketing material from HPU for my D23 we got none for my S21.
Everything is pushing early Decision which we are not interested in.

We visited High Point last year. I think for a particular kind of student, it could be a great place. There’s a lot of hand-holding and emphasis on life skills. Academically, it comes across as a little mediocre. The campus is ridiculous and has something like 6 pools, a movie theater, and an ice skating rink. There’s a fine dining restaurant where students have to call (on the phone!) to make reservations and dress up. Internships, interview skills, and study abroad were all really emphasized. I would think that some kids would really benefit from this kind of environment.
Ultimately, what turned me off the most was the big push for Early Decision. There are all kind of benefits that ED students get, choosing classes and housing first etc. It feels to me like they create a have/have not situation where the rich kids get the best of everything and anyone needing scholarships or aid are second class citizens.

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Maybe they are spending all their money on big ads and not all the individual post cards?

I thought the OP was talking about TV ads or things like the United Airlines ad. Schools that have D1 football or basketball get advertising when their teams play (there is often a 2-3 minute video about how academic the school is).

If they have the advertising budget, why not?

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Swarthmore is Quaker but they manage to uphold their values without communicating a specific religious orientation!

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Ok, but Baylor is Baptist, BYU is LDS, Yeshiva is Jewish, and Liberty is evangelical of some sort. My point is only that private colleges are allowed to be religious.

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Different schools message and or advertise their priorities differently….

In this case I think the use of humor is extremely effective. Worth watching for a laugh.

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They are advertising on CNBC - like every 20 minutes - which is where I was “surprised” as I know they are not an SNHU type school (online school).

But I know the president is high profile, they get high profile execs in residence (one my company hired as a speaker) and they just got a law school dean who is high profile (and controversial).

Their student profile isn’t bad. It’s normal. I’ve linked below.

US News ranks them #1 in Regional Colleges South - as a point of reference, Flagler is #2, and Florida Polytechnic (this is not Florida Tech) is #3.

US News says their “also applied” to is Elon (makes sense), JMU, UNC and U of SC.

They compete in the Big South - so Radford, Longwood, NC A&T, Hampton, Winthrop, UNC Asheville, etc.

I guess I’m perplexed by them…we did a drive through as we were nearby although my daughter had no interest other than knowing it was ‘nice’.

Freshmen Class Profile | Undergraduate Admissions | High Point University

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Of course they are allowed to be religious.

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Interestingly, though, they actually have a Hillel on campus:

https://www.highpoint.edu/religiouslife/jewish-life/

My DS is getting a lot more mail from schools than my DD did last year - and she is the better student. My DH works for a state university and he says that the upcoming Freshman cohort is smaller than previous years with a trend to decrease for several years. The school he works for is increasing mailings 5x over previous years.

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