<p>This is the acceptance rate given in the latest US News rankings, if true that is one of the least selective colleges in NC. We looked at this school a couple of years ago and it was nowhere near that, does anyone know what happened or has US News made a mistake?</p>
<p>they need the tuition money as Nido has spent a lot of money building up the physical plant all with BB&T’s help. Did you also notice the freshman retention rate? Might be a clue there.</p>
<p>@upperalington, what is the freshman retention rate? I have a friend’s D who is there now and not very happy… I was kind of assuming she was a minority, maybe I’m wrong? I do agree with the 84% acceptance rate, it was up there pretty high a few years ago when my D applied and I have yet to see anyone not accepted from my D’s high school when our end of year college report is given. </p>
<p>it is posted on a few search engines. US News, search for Freshman retention at a couple of sites. I believe it is 68% Also I think the acceptance rate is around 65% not 84%. HPU was in my sons final 3 but after going back for a second time, we really started to talk to some of the students there candidly. </p>
<p>The US News Rankings show an acceptance rate of 84.4% and a freshman retention rate of 77%. Here: <a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/search?name=high+point+university&state=”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/search?name=high+point+university&state=</a></p>
<p>I finally went back and looked at the Department of Education College Navigator. Here: <a href=“College Navigator - High Point University”>College Navigator - High Point University;
It says High Point had 64% acceptance rate for the class entering in the fall of 2012. To go from 64% to 84.4% is huge, something has clearly happened. It doesn’t seem to be a problem of freshman retention, because that hasn’t changed much, it was 75% in 2012 vs. 77% now. I heard the number of applicants was way down last year, so that might explain it. Or maybe as upperarlington says they are just desperate for money.</p>
<p>well,acceptance rates can be a result of the number of acceptances given out vs the number that actually commit to the university. Has the freshmen class numbers increased dramatically with the increase in admission. I think many apply here as a safety school so perhaps that’s a reason for the increased acceptances. For example this year my son’s high school accepted 12 out of 12 that applied but only 1 attended. Freshmen class numbers are up just about everywhere this year so unless it’s a dramatic jump I wouldn’t say its for money as much as ensuring a full class. Of course the money is always a bonus and I’m sure they University needs the revenue from the freshmen class. </p>
<p>The acceptance rate on US News is 72%. Not 84% as mistakenly reported by many on this thread. My D is a junior and there are so many ways HPU keeps students engaged. I understand retention rates continue to improve because of freshman success coach initiatives and learning communities among other programs. With all the rankings, I think it is worth noting that US News lists like best undergrad teaching and up-and-coming categories are based on other colleges recognizing HPU. So I think that is a testament to the ongoing academic refinement taking place. My D has always been challenged in her courses and enjoyed her profs.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate has been changed on the US News site “due to a reporting error.” It was originally 84.4%. </p>
<p>72% was the acceptance rate for the class entering in fall 2013. A newspaper here in NC is reporting the acceptance rate for fall 2014 was 80.2%. Wondering why it increased so much in just one year.</p>
<p>I’m guessing they had to increase their acceptances to ensure a full freshman class… As I said before a lot of people use this as a safety school. I think the other reason is the lack of strong academic merit. Once the reality of what is offered other schools step into the limelight for many. </p>
<p>Something that was passed along to me that relates to this…</p>
<p>“The school has not yet filed next year’s data, but Qubein says that as of the end of April, the number of applications started and completed for 2014 admission was up 35 percent to 36 percent from 2013.”</p>
<p>From this article: <a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2014/05/23/enrollment-dip-is-strategic-nidoqubein-says.html?page=all”>http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/print-edition/2014/05/23/enrollment-dip-is-strategic-nidoqubein-says.html?page=all</a></p>
<p>The school’s reporting documents, however, contradict what Qubein claims about the applications. </p>
<p>Those are here: <a href=“Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board::EMMA”>http://emma.msrb.org/IssueView/IssueDetails.aspx?id=MS235756</a></p>
<p>They show the school’s applications going up from 6,598 in 2013 to 7,410 in 2014, which is a 12.3% increase, not a 35-36% increase. </p>
<p>A believable explanation seems very unlikely to me here and I find this sort of thing coming from a university president to be very disturbing. </p>
<p>CSB123, that article you linked is unbelievable. What university would actually try to discourage people from applying so they have to accept a higher percentage, in other words make the school LESS selective? I guess you can fool some people all the time as the saying goes, but agree it is disturbing to have this sort of nonsense coming from a university president. Also to answer a question from a previous post, it appears from that second document that the freshman retention rate is 76%. That is down from around 85% back in 2006, which could explain why they are admitting a higher percentage, to fill those empty slots.</p>
<p>Mandymd…The person who forwarded those links to me also pointed out that the Businessweek article on the school appeared in April of 2012. </p>
<p>Here: <a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;
<p>That is a more likely explanation for the sharp drop in applications from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014.</p>
<p>And, yes, the assertion that the school encouraged the drop in applications and the increase in the percentage accepted is just cringe inducing nonsense. No school wants to become less selective.</p>
<p>Qubein talks about modeling values to the students. Honesty would be a good place to start. </p>
<p>I understand how some like to dig into data, but I suggest that you simply visit the school. My son will graduate this May and has had a wonderful, life-changing experience. HPU continues to grow and evolve in good ways. The School of Health Science and Pharmacy are the newest in a series of academic enhancements. And as for the President, I can only say good things about the man. Any leader who is able to whip around a college in such a short time is bound to have critics. But my son sees him on campus all the time, always friendly and sincere. I don’t know about the application drop, anytime I have visited my son over the past 4 years, the place is packed full of students. They need more parking! We’ve all read the businessweek article and it’s obvious the writer had the story written before it was written. While not a perfect indicator, I think the US News rankings and their consistency over the past several years speaks volumes for HPU. Beyond the #1 ranking in their category, they get recognized by other colleges for their strong undergraduate teaching. That is what my son has experienced.</p>
<p>Dad4411:</p>
<p>I am glad your son’s experience has been a good one. I have not worried about the faculty and the students. My problem with the school starts at the very top. I have very deep reservations about the for money and about money approach the president has taken in transforming the school. It has favored appearance over substance at every turn and my gut tells me that the school will at some point have to try to rid itself of the overwrought “brand” that he has created for it. </p>
<p>I think what is in question is sustainability. As a friend says, Qubein made one giant play to our country’s outsized materialism. It is not surprising that it has succeeded thus far, but as my friend points out, how many of us ever really believed that pampering 18-year-olds was going to be an enduring idea for higher education?</p>
<p>Sustainability is largely what the Businessweek article took up and what the author brought to a school doped up on Qubein’s power of positive thinking was critical thinking. Among the HPU faithful, that was her offense, I think.</p>
<p>Sustainability is an entirely appropriate question when the school is accepting 80.2% of its applicants, when it offers far less in financial aid than most colleges and universities, when it is admitting students who on average are of very modest academic accomplishment and when the school is likely in the very near future to rival schools of serious academic reputation for cost. None of that points to an easy sale in years of increased competition due to stagnant or declining student populations. </p>
<p>Another reason to question sustainability is the Business Journal article (see link in previous comment). Qubein appears to have lied to the reporter about the growth in applications for 2014-2015 and he was spinning things shamelessly and poorly otherwise. If everything is so blessed and extraordinary at the school, why would he feel the need? </p>
<p>That’s what worried me when we were looking at HPU with our son 2 years ago. The president has use BB&T as his financing bank and is into them for a lot of money. Hope that the bubble doesn’t burst anytime soon or BB&T decides to call the notes.</p>
<p>For all of those concerned about the university’s “financial problem”, I would advise you to look at the following source. Once you open it an excel file should appear, in which contains the financial responsibility scores for every college in the nation. HPU received a perfect score of a 3 while other colleges, such as Duke (2.2), scored lower.</p>
<p>“The U.S. Department of Education’s ‘financial responsibility’ score for the 2012 and 2013 fiscal year has High Point University scoring the highest possible score of 3, putting the university ahead of Elon University, Duke University and Davidson”.</p>
<p><a href=“https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/data-center/school/composite-scores”>https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/data-center/school/composite-scores</a></p>
<p>So for all of those worried about the university’s finances, I think your concerns should be leveraged at Duke, Elon, and Davidson because those colleges all scored below HPU in terms of financial responsibility. </p>
<p>Vindowps, these Dept of Education scores are worthless. Being from NC, I remember a few years ago they gave Greensboro College a perfect score, then a few months later it came out the school was bankrupt and almost lost their accreditation. if you want to believe HPU is in better shape than Duke and Davidson, well go ahead, but I will not be asking you for financial advice! </p>
<p>The first thing to say, Vlindowps, is that no one mentioned any present “financial problem.” The question is whether the whole enterprise is sustainable and as I wrote in my previous post, I think there are good reasons to call that to question. </p>
<p>Let’s deal, however, with what you have written. You would have me take the US Department of Education figures at face value. Well, it is worth noting that another local school, Leon’s Beauty School, also rates higher than Duke, Davidson and Elon in the department’s financial stability ratings. Beyond that, High Point University and Leon’s Beauty School also rate higher than all of the Ivy League institutions, including Harvard with its $30 billion endowment. </p>
<p>If you believe that a meagerly endowed and highly leveraged school like High Point University is more financially stable than Harvard University, you are entirely on your own. The Department of Education’s Financial Stability Ratings have…well…some problems. Here: <a href=“Can U.S. government tell colleges in poor financial shape from those that are not?”>Can U.S. government tell colleges in poor financial shape from those that are not?; </p>
<p>This is an example of the HPU faithful simply parroting the blah, blah, blah from the university. This time, from the university’s Wikipedia page. </p>
<p>It should be a keen embarrassment for the university to have put out a press release crowing about its USDE Financial Stability Rating. Doing so reveals either the depth of ignorance within the university’s administration or the contempt that the administration feels for the intelligence of current and prospective students and parents.</p>
<p>Again…appearance over substance at every turn. </p>