<p>Here is an item I found recently. It’s from the Daily Beast from a piece about student debt, but High Point financials confirm same and the endowment is $36 million and change:</p>
<p>"Some colleges are just as indebted as recent graduates. North Carolinas High Point University has more than $165 million in debt and only $105 million in annual revenue. This extravagant borrowing funds a steakhouse, outdoor hot tubs, a first-run movie theater, and a roaming ice-cream truck.</p>
<p>I was talking to someone who has worked in higher ed finance and somewhat familiar with the situation at HPU. He showed me a website at the Municipal Securities Regulation Board that has information on schools that borrow in the bond markets. HPU’s annual financial reports are there, also their reports on applications and enrollments. It seems that for 2013-14 there were 6598 applicants, which is down 7663 the year before, and the fall 2013 freshman class was 1164 students which is the lowest since 2009-10. This seems alarming because according to the Business Week article (thanks to Lefty1 for finding that!) the HPU “business model” depends on keeping up the cash flow from tuition and fees. I am not a financial wizard and not sure how to interpret the annual reports, maybe some others can do that. Here is the link:
[Municipal</a> Securities Rulemaking Board::EMMA](<a href=“http://emma.msrb.org/IssueView/IssueDetails.aspx?id=ER343152]Municipal”>Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board::EMMA)
then click on the tab for “Continuing Disclosure” and look at the reports filed in 2013.
(if the link doesn’t work the website is emma.msrb.org, then search for HPU and click on the Series 2011 revenue bonds, then look at Continuing Disclosure)</p>
<p>I am not the best at analyzing charts, but it appears to me although the freshman class is smaller this year, the total number of students is at an all time high. Perhaps the attrition rates are down for returning students. I know that High Point is strict about students living in university housing only, so they might need to keep the numbers at a place where the can house everyone. In my opinion, the university is growing–maybe not with the freshman class of 2012/2014.</p>
<p>ChaddsFord, that’s an interesting theory about intentionally keeping the class size down, but it doesn’t explain why the number of applicants decreased so much (1,000 less than the previous year) and the acceptance rate jumped up to 72%. I don’t know the reasons behind this, but hard to believe HPU wanted to become less selective. Most colleges strive to achieve the opposite!</p>
<p>I had a conversation with my d’s admissions rep this morning. I called to RSVP “no” to the Presidential Scholars Weekend and had some additional questions for her. Maybe some of what she told me will be helpful to others…</p>
<p>She verified what I thought… that the bulk of the merit aid has already been allocated via the initial offers students have already received. She said there’s a chance my d’s award will increase, but not significantly. I told her I wanted to be honest and would appreciate her honesty in return and that the initial award would have to almost double to make HPU competitive with the other private college she’s been accepted to so far. She said that would not happen. She verified that the offer my d has already received would stand; there is no penalty for not attending the weekend. She tried to remind me to look at the TCA at HPU vs. the other school. I explained that while HPU’s published TCA is slightly less, the other school is about an hour from home, and that we had to consider travel costs when calculating the true TCA, and doing so could actually make HPU more expensive, depending on how many times d travels back and forth.</p>
<p>I brought up the lack of AACSB accreditation. She spun it to sound like HPU doesn’t WANT the accreditation because, among other things, they would have to increase their class sizes (huh?) and move away from their experiential learning model. </p>
<p>She was lovely on the phone, and did make me feel like they truly WANT my d to attend; IOW, she is good at her job, but so are the counselors at the schools that ARE AACSB accredited where my d has also been accepted. Which, by the way, is all of them! </p>
<p>I did find that “Bubble U” article–thanks.</p>
<p>ctreelmom, how far away are you from HPU are you? Travel costs aside, HPU is a bargain compared to most other private schools. The meal plans are great and the kiosks in the morning for food on the go has saved my D a lot. Free entertainment on weekends, including free excursions to various events in Charlotte and Greensboro can’t be beat. Many, many private schools are $56,000+. And by the way, Presidential Scholarship weekend is wonderful.</p>
<p>@luckydog would you mind telling me about your Pres weekend? i’m going to the one i was invited to in feb!!</p>
<p>hopmayer, it’s a very nice event. lots of hoopla and fan fare to you make you and your student feel very special and welcome. Very well organized and timed. We enjoyed our dinner and the entertainment the weekend we attended. lot’s of good speeches, etc. The transportation from the hotel to the event was well timed. I felt it was a bit “canned” after the event was through… after reading all the books HP sent home I felt as if I could have done some of Dr Queben’s speeches myself. They were heartfelt when listening but are often repeated. He did a great explanation during our event as to how our children are not plain old hershey chocolate but “godiva” It was fun and amusing at the time and made a nice point. When the box of Godiva arrived with basically a line from the speech along with her scholarship explanation both myself and my daughter were immediately turned off. We realized we were not listening to a talk in earnest about our kids but merely a tool in a marketing ploy. It was disappointing to spend about $1500 to fly down and stay in a hotel to be given exactly the scholarship my D would have been awarded had we not gone.</p>
<p>Wonder how much merit aid they could award a student by not sending Godiva chocolates to all the weekend attendees?</p>
<p>just found this Huff post link on the border of my internet… Had to share… You certainly can’t deny how beautiful the campus is but unfortunately with that beauty comes the stereo type that there is little other substance there… true or not that is the underlying message that gets sent to the masses. They included the box of chocolates so I had to share. lol! </p>
<p>[The</a> College Of Your Wildest Dreams Actually Exists, But You’ve Probably Never Heard Of It](<a href=“The College Of Your Wildest Dreams Actually Exists, But You've Probably Never Heard Of It | HuffPost College”>The College Of Your Wildest Dreams Actually Exists, But You've Probably Never Heard Of It | HuffPost College)</p>
<p>The school is beautiful no doubt, but since I posted this I’ve sort of decided that I thought it was more like Elon just less selective, but in reality it’s a hotel. If financial aid came through strong I’d give it a shot, but I’m highly doubting it…</p>
<p>As a parent of a current freshman at HPU, it really bothers me to see things published like the Huffington Post article/photos. There is no denying that HPU is a beautiful school, but there is so much more to it than it being a “hotel.” My daughter is working very hard, and the classes are challenging. There are not puppies, massages, etc. on a daily basis. They did have these for one day each during finals in December. I have a friend who has a daughter at U of Richmond. They do the same things during finals. Students are not lounging around pools all day either. HPU has been great with tutoring, study groups, etc. They really care about the students and do the most they can to help them succeed. I have been very grateful. Every child is different and HPU might not be for everyone, but it is FAR from being a hotel.</p>
<p>Thank you ChaddsFord! My sentiments EXACTLY! My D is a junior and has very hard, challenging classes, great professors and has only been at the pool twice! It is NOT a hotel! (She had the best financial aid pkg at HPU than she did at Elon and Wake, too, by the way.) Why do people with negative attitudes post about this? If you don’t like HPU, fine, but, enough already.</p>
<p>Ole Miss brings in puppies for finals as well. Anything different and people get nervous!</p>
<p>To both ChaddsFord and luckydog, I think it’s important to understand that nobody here is intentionally trying to insult High Point or the students who go there. The whole point of the original post here was to help a prospective student decide if attending the school was worth his/her money. Unfortunately, from what I can gather from your posts, neither of your children have graduated yet. This gives you a somewhat skewed perspective, as to be honest the real value of the college will only be revealed when your children attempt to get employment using their respected degrees. </p>
<p>While I agree there are some on this post who scoff at High Point without evidence, there are also plenty of users who are providing concrete reasons why High Point may not be the best decision for the original poster. First of all, their business school is not accredited by AACSB and therefore a degree from HPU may not be as respected as an equal tier school that is accredited. Multiple users have posted links to articles that reveal troubling facts about HPU’s current financial status, such as the fact that they have spent over 700 million dollars improving the grounds far beyond requirement, yet only have a 36 million dollar endowment. Forbes, which rates schools almost entirely on ROI, gave High Point a C+ and ranked them 559/650. No matter how much your children are enjoying HPU and taking challenging courses, it would be incredibly foolish for a perspective student not to consider both the good AND the bad about High Point.</p>
<p>Best of luck to the original poster on his/her college search,</p>
<p>T122</p>
<p>Skewed perspective? I don’t think so. HPU is not a new school. It has been around since 1924, plenty of graduates since then that have great careers. My D is not in the business school, she is bio, pre-med.</p>
<p>luckydog, the whole point of this thread is to help the original poster and those in a similar situation. Just saying ‘plenty of graduates have had great careers’ helps no one. Like I said in my post before, the best way for OP to make his/her decision is to look at actual facts regarding the school. Saying that your daughter is ‘bio, pre-med’ is entirely useless for everyone on this forum (though I encourage you to research HPU’s medical school placement statistics)</p>
<p>In terms of those wondering about the business school, only 8% of HPU students are accepted to business schools, another very important thing to consider.</p>
<p>Tango122, </p>
<p>I posted this in another thread, but just to back up Luckydog and Chaddsford, I am a May 2013 graduate of HPU and the Phillips School of Business. I was hired two months before graduation in the field of marketing, which is one of my double majors. I am proud to say that all the students within my other major (also within the biz school) were all employed (or self-employed) before, or within 3 months of graduation. I personally beat out candidates with years of experience because of my resume, linkedIn profile, and interview skills. ALL things I give tremendous credit to HPU for helping me with.</p>
<p>I wont claim HPU is for everyone, but like Chaddsford said, these recent articles (and user comments) about HPU make it seem like a place with no substance. I can promise you the HPU “way” works for many people, and I am so proud of how driven my classmates are when they leave the gates of HPU. </p>
<p>Last, what is your 8% stat in reference to? Grad school? I can’t tell based on your wording… if it is based on grad school placement, I would check your source again. :)</p>
<p>It is hard for me to imagine that any employer would know, let alone care, about which organization accredits a business college. This would never come up in a job interview. It is even sillier when you think about how many jobs are offered to students with liberal arts degrees by businesses of all kinds. Talk about a red herring issue…</p>
<p>Exactly inquisitive. Some of the posters are so caught up in the rankings and paper statistics. When I go to my alma mater Indiana U’s forums, some of the kids are practically jumping off ledges because they didn’t get a direct admit into the highly ranked Kelly Business school. SMH. Again hiring managers are looking at what can you do for me now, and your experience, interview skills and internship experience. Not so much if you are a grad of Northwestern, Duke or Turnpike Tech.</p>