I don’t think the focus of life skills at the school is aimed at doing laundry - more like having a prepared elevator pitch, interview skills, networking, entertaining clients, being able to conduct oneself in various business scenarios, etc.
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The president definitely rubs me the wrong way and the advertising/promotion is just too much. The president refers to himself at Dr. Qubein, but he only has an honorary doctorate degree. Seems sleezy and intentionally misleading. I work in education and our school has a “Life Skills Program” for children with intellectual disabilities; it is the alternative to the diploma track. Strong Christian Nationalism vibes.
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I am not involved in HPU in any way, but equating your special needs program with HPU’s offerings is silly. Colleges which focus on life skills use it to mean employability-interviewing skills, linked in presentation-follow-up to networking. HPU grads do seem to be getting jobs at major companies and several were admitted to med school and top law schools, so for at least some students, it is working.
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Agree. And calling a school you don’t care for Christian Nationalist is inflammatory and wrong. HPU appears to have an active Hillel and many faiths represented. I have not read anything about their embrace of White Nationalism tenets. I’m not big fan of the school either but let’s please be mindful of equating Family, God, Country, with Nazism.
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Given that 22% of its students are POC, my guess is that it isn’t white nationalist at all.
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The issue I see is that the branding around “life skills” takes advantage of vulnerable parents who don’t understand that virtually EVERY college in America teaches life skills. If you want the employability/networking aspect, I will agree that the military academies don’t do this (you’ve already made a commitment to serve, so there isn’t a team focused on “what comes next”.)
So claiming that this is unique about High Point? Bah Humbug.
The fine dining and how to dress for dinner/use a steak knife? yes, that’s unique. But for people who are worried their kid won’t be able to find a job, easing their entre into country club life may not be their top priority!
No @Blossom, that is not “life skills” and not every college teaches them. I have 2 kids, one attended Elon, which does focus on life skills, the other an Ivy which does not. The Ivy kid is far smarter, and candidly far less prepared for the initial job than the Elon kid, as are her classmates. They will all be fine, both are employed, but do not discount the value of those life skills in landing an initial job especially.
The Elon kid had to prepare a resume and formally interview for every single on-campus job, and was given detailed feedback. Resume and linked in repeatedly revised. Outside Internship graded and Elon prof reached out to supervisors to see how it was going, repeatedly. Study abroad focused on Asian businesses and was also graded. In short, Elon was very responsive to employers and made sure its students were highly polished.
Ivy ( not Wharton) had more accomplished students but offers fewer life skills training-many will go to academia and are less interested anyway.
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How many times did the Ivy kid show up at presentations sponsored by Career Services? How many different counselors did the Ivy kid meet (the Fellowship counselor knows different things than the I-Banking counselor who knows different things than the Peace Corps/Americorps/TFA folks)?
And did the Ivy kid do the video interview prep (which is incredibly helpful, especially for Zoom interviews, but a “service offering” at most campuses which has very low participation rates)? Did the Ivy kid do mock interviews with alums?
I am part of a volunteer network of career counselor alums at my alma mater; I am shocked by how few students take advantage of the incredibly robust services that we provide.
These are life skills. Editing resumes, mock interviews, how to network. If your student didn’t participate, that’s a missed opportunity.
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Does Elon call it “life skills” too? Because there was a “Life Skills” class in my kids middle/junior high that was mainly kind of Home Ec and stuff. They learned cooking and sewing and some other “life skills” like that.
I think “The Premier Life Skills University” is a really dumb tag line. “Life Skills” can mean things like occupational therapy for folks who need extra help. When you have vague or double meanings like that best to come up with a different slogan.
Life skills can vary from financial literacy,[7] through substance-abuse prevention, to therapeutic techniques to deal with disabilities such as autism.
The World Health Organization in 1999 identified the following core cross-cultural areas of life skills:[8] [9]
- decision-making and problem-solving;
- creative thinking (see also: lateral thinking) and critical thinking;
- communication and interpersonal skills;
- self-awareness and empathy;
- assertiveness and equanimity; and
- resilience and coping with emotions and coping with stress.
UNICEF listed similar skills and related categories in its 2012 report.[3]
Life skills curricular designed for K-12 often emphasize communications and practical skills needed for successful independent living as well as for developmental-disabilities/special-education students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP).[10]
Most of the colleges I have researched do have a career services center to help students learn interviewing skills and how to build a resume, how to present yourself, etc, but they don’t call it “life skills”. My nephew went to Penn and he definitely learned some soft skills about what kind of suit he could wear to job interviews and his internships and it was not from Men’s Wearhouse.
Ivy likely offers some of those things; as you note, few kids take advantage of them and I honestly do not know whether my kid did or not, as she had her full time offer in Sophomore year, so relatively early.
The difference, IMHO , is that those are requirements at Elon for many majors, and grades/graduation depend upon them, so compliance is very high. The graded internship at Elon was the best idea I have seen-throughout she had to do weekly reports for school on the company, the industry, interviews with supervisors and co-workers throughout the company’s different areas. Ivy did not know or care where or whether its student interned.
Both schools were right for those kids, but the fact is one focuses much more on highly polishing its grads for jobs than the other. The Ivy doesnt need to as much-the name alone draws job offers. But for the rest of the college world, a school focused some on life skills can matter. Elon’s job placement record greatly exceeds its business school rank because of that focus.
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And every college changes lives, but there is the group that markets themselves as “Colleges that change lives.”
It’s marketing. It’s what that college wants to put forward.
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But we aren’t talking about Elon- we are talking about HPU which is building its brand on the “polishing” you are talking about. And my point is this is NOT unique to HPU, and frankly, a kid doesn’t need to be required to get an internship- in some fields it’s known to be absolutely essential to getting a fulltime job after graduation, so what is gained by requiring it???
I’ve “graded” some of the interns who have worked for me- it’s a one pager and at most of the colleges you get 50% of your grade by just showing up (I’ve never had an intern from Elon, so cannot address what the grading factors are). I had an intern several years ago who could NOT master the art of showing up, but he sent me a nice thank you note and mentioned that he got an A-- so the fact that I was candid that showing up when scheduled was not a core competence of his didn’t seem to hurt him! Nice kid though.
I expected my docket of college kids taking advantage of the career services volunteer mentor program to skyrocket with Covid. There are some tricks to a Zoom interview (wear a solid color top. Don’t wear jewelry- depending on where the microphone is, the jangle could be louder than your voice! etc.) There are ways to get your resume noticed; there are soft techniques for negotiating a job offer.
Nope. The same 1-2 kids per year. My fellow mentors report the same thing. Either my college has so many volunteers who are in corporate recruiting, executive coaching, etc. that we can cover the entire junior/senior classes with a light load, or there are hundreds of kids who have no interest in a free service to help them launch.
We pretty much know the answer! no interest…
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Not everyone wants polishing, or job skills, just as not everyone wants a rural college or a research university. It is an option for those interested. There are plenty of options for those who are not. I have seen schools market everything from their football teams to their fancy dorms. This is just another focus.
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How were the Williams and Wes cousins’ first jobs compared with the HPU friend? Have the Williams and Wes cousins figured out life skills?
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Most people eventually figure it out. One would expect that the first jobs of a grad from the number 1 LAC in the country is better than that of an HPU grad, right? Different types of students and opportunities. No one is applying to both HPU and Williams. The question is, did HPU grads fare better than similarly ranked students/schools in outcome-compared to their peers, how did they do? So maybe HPU compared to Granite State or wherever.
As an example, I will bring up Elon again. Business school ranked overall 35th- but that is a result of 70th in selectivity and 25th in job placement and 17th in alumni satisfaction. No, they are not competitive against Wharton. Not Wharton kids. For who they are, they do better than expected.
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And then there’s the CC debate about whether the cousins could have gone to Elon for free and been better off than going to Williams and Wes.
HPU has carved out a niche for themselves. Very good for them. This reminds me of Hillsdale College in Michigan which has also carved out a conservative niche, but less on the country club, God/country and life skills set. It’s impressive that HPU has convinced over 40% of its entering students to go ED.
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If you are in a sorority, there is a polish week before rush week. In the polish week, we were ‘reminded’ of some of the rules to welcome guests to our house. You wouldn’t think 18 year olds needed to be reminded not to chew gum while talking, not to sit in a ‘man-splaining’ way, topics to discuss and not to discuss, etc., but they do. You’d be surprised how often skills learned in that week come up in real life. We had a lot of members who had NO IDEA how to be a host (many of the brilliant engineering students, but painfully shy).
I can talk to anyone for 5 minutes. And I know how to ask for help if the conversation is difficult, by saying “Let me introduce you to Pam. Pam also has an interest in music. Pam this is Sally, she is a music major.” I’ve worked with a lot of people who don’t have the basic skills of how to introduce someone into the group, or have any idea how to share a workspace.
Some who need help join a sorority, some go to HPU. It’s all okay.
It was also fun to read the rules for Rush in the early 1960s. Ones fingers couldn’t leave one’s cigarette (no letting it bob up and down in your lips while you talk a la Bogart). Offer the ashtray to your guest first. No applying lipstick in a public place.
Some students may not need the life skills (or the internship, or the core curriculum, or required swim class) but others do need the help. Pick a school that provides what you need. The kid I know who went to HPU really needed the life skills and could probably use a refresher course. He’s in sports marketing. He needs to know how to read his audience, what to put on a resume. And he liked eating at the steakhouse.
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My son visited this past summer with friends. They loved it and applied. My wife and I took him down in Oct. She was skeptical as are many commenting here. We were blown away by everything. Quebin is impressive and yes he’s a motivational speaker and it’s a great sales pitch. But what’s wrong with that? I’ve had 2 graduate other schools and the emphasis on life skills is 100% a much need per thing for many students. It’s not learning how to do laundry. It’s prep for things that will enable them to adapt to life on their own and work. Interviewing. Business attire, interview skills, teamwork. They provide what many parents say they wish their kids school provided. Definitely a conservative bent. We love that as most every school is hard left. Oh and if you are offended by seeing the American flag, this school isn’t for you 
Still deciding as we await a few other schools but it’s def in play
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Correct. They are talking about how to interact with others, listen, speak, communicate, interview, answer questions, work in groups, etc… Some also includes how to do these things depending upon who you are speaking and interacting with.
I have the same concerns. Scrolling down, I’m so grateful to this thread for being thoughtful, honest, clear, and intelligent. My concern is that HPU is the only place my daughter may be able to get into and it goes against a lot of our values: equity, atheism, moderation, transparency, and possibly quality academics. But we’ll visit and see. I think the mention of of those big CEO names is misleading – at first glance I thought they were alums. The cultish personality of the president is weird, too. I’m holding out hope that they are overdoing it in the marketing department and in the end it will be an okay place for a kid who just needs to check off the box for having gone to college, have the 4-year experience, and get into the real world, where she has already shown she can excel. (The trademarked slogan is so cringey; maybe if they had it in Latin, it would be more palatable.
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