What's the Real Story of High Point University

Parents Forum
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<p>Admissions to ASU and UNC-G are not close. ASU has gotten much tougher to get into even for instate kids. I have a friend in VA whose D was rejected from ASU but admitted to VT and is in the top 15% of her class at VT this year. I know two current seniors who got in ASU but they know a several who were shocked to be rejected. Dozens from our school apply to ASU. It has become a reaaally popular destination for kids who may not make it into UNC-CH or NCSU or even some who could. It’s also a big safety school for those hoping/planning to go to UNC or NCSU. App gets a lot of Apps:) The kid I know at HPU could not get in ASU or NC State.</p>

<p>UNC-G is not a real popular choice among high schoolers here. It’s more of a back-up school. Our high school is large (close to 3000) but you don’t hear of many headed to UNC-G. It has some strong programs (nursing, music, interior architecture,maybe business) but you just don’t hear kids putting it at the top of their list. I know some must, obviously but there are several other non-flagship NC state schools kids here would put ahead of it. Many years ago UNC-G was a women’s college. It is still 70% women. </p>

<p>My next door neighbor’s D was accepted to Elon but went to Winthrop. She was an IB diploma grad. and Winthrop was offering full tuition scholarships for IB grads. I’m not sure it they still do that. Elon didn’t offer enough money. The D had a good four years Winthrop, spent a sem. abroad and was admitted to Miami(Ohio), Emerson and Tufts for grad. school. </p>

<p>Wingate University is a small private school of about 1800 students. It is associated with the Baptist church. Wingate is DII for sports. They have a football team in addition to all the other sports. It’s in a very small town (Wingate,NC) about thirty minutes from Charlotte. It’s a pretty little campus but once off of it, the town is not much to speak of. I have two friends whose D’s were admitted to Appalachian State but chose Wingate. Wingate’s anuual cost is about $28,000. Wingate gives good merit money to good students (don’t have to be top of the class). One of my friend’s D’s got enough merit money to make Wingate the same cost as ASU. Wingate has added a Pharmacy sch. in the last few years. A girl who was in the top ten at our h.s. is at WU in the PharmD. program (her Mom is my dental hygenist so I hear all about her).</p>

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<p>Thanks for all of the info. Does Wingate have a religious emphasis?</p>

<p>PackMom, sounds like your neighbor’s D made a very good choice, by picking Winthrop!</p>

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<p>Hi let me give you my perspective on High Point. I’m a senior and I have decided officially to go to High Point in the fall. Yes I love the dorms and the pools and movie theater. I have never seen any college like it. When I first visited there I was a bit skeptical. The bongo drums, cheesy music- it seemed like a resort, not a college. I though to myself how is this even a school. As the president spoke I seemed to like it more and more. The school really cares about you and everyone there is happy. There is so much to do you’ll never want to leave. I’m not a bad kid at all. I have a 3.3uw 4.1w gpa and i got a 1090/1720 on the sats. This school isn’t creepy. I was accepted to Penn State- UP and I was comparing the two. At HPU everyone knows your name even the professors. At PSU you’ll be lost in the crowd. Yes Penn State is nationally recognized but I think I would be so much happier at High Point. Its a change for me I live in New Jersey-bergen county. I’m excited for the warmer weather and nicer people. I can’t wait to stay in the incredible dorm rooms and eat in the steakhouse. The college is a perfect fit for me. I can’t wait to go. Just letting everyone know a kid’s point of view.</p>

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<p>yankeesgirl, between Penn State and HP, I would have made the same choice that you did. Perhaps people would find that to be crazy, but don’t. I think that your reasoning is very sound. Best of luck to you at HP!</p>

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<p>Yankeesgirl-- have fun–hope you don’t need ajob after you graduate tho :-)</p>

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<p>thanks northeastmom! and cbd i’ll find a job. hpu is gonna be well known soon. im not worried.</p>

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<p>I’ve been reading up on HPU and hope to visit – I’m interested in seeing schools that are trying to move ahead by whatever strategy.</p>

<p>I have my own private metric for student commitment: I look in the catalog to see what difficult languages are offered, and for how many years. HPU offers two years each of Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. If it’s filling those classes, it’s attracting some students who want to work hard.</p>

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<p>cbd - Yankeesgirl said she wanted to get out of Dodge and head South… HPU was where she was accepted and for those two reasons HPU is an OK match for her. But I agree HPU is in my humble opinion the most over-rated school I hear discussed on CC, but as mentioned earlier they are into Marketing, Marketing, Marketing…</p>

<p>Wingate University - Is considered a very conservative school and is located in the home town of Jesse Helms.</p>

<p>Lenoir Rhyne - is more religious than appears from far away. When I asked how a non-Christian (for example) would fit in at Lenoir Rhyne, I was told that faculty and staff would welcome you but that you could expect the highly religious students body to naturally want to help a non Christian student find their way. </p>

<p>For what it’s Worth…</p>

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<p>@yankeesgirl:
Sorry to say this, but I’m pretty sure from an education standpoint turning down Penn State to go to High Point University is a mistake.</p>

<p>If getting a quality education is secondary to warm weather, incredible dorms and eating in the steakhouse then you have made the right decision.</p>

<p>Take a look at this list:
[Association</a> of American Universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_american_universities]Association”>Association of American Universities - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Notice that Penn State is on it? (and has been so for over fifty years).</p>

<p>These are a group of universities that do real research and engage in serious scholarship.
There are many other schools that also offer a world-class education that are not on this list, but High Point is not one of them.</p>

<p>I only hope that your parents (or whomever will be funding your four-year vacation) are aware of your priorities.</p>

<p>One other point about High Point that I don’t thing has been made (and should be troubling for anybody considering attending).
It’s a private school with 3,000 undergraduates and it effectively has no endowment.</p>

<p>According to USNWR here’s how High Point’s endowment compares with some other private universities of approx. the same size:</p>

<p>High Point 43,000,000
Wesleyan 652,000,000
Colgate 729,000,000
Brandeis 712,000,000</p>

<p>All these schools have about the same number of undergrads as High Point and are sitting on endowments more than TEN TIMES that of High Point’s. Frankly, I’m not seeing how High Point would be able to maintain financial viability and their country club environment much longer.</p>

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<p>Just because a school is research focused does not mean that it is focused on the education of its undergraduates. Sitting in freshmen and sophomore lecture halls and then attending smaller groups to review that information is not the way that “everyone” wants to experience college. Some students want professsors to know them by name and they want a working relationship with them. There are many students who attend colleges that the masses have never heard of (not on the list above) and they graduate and go on to have successful careers, or are accepted to graduate school. Penn State does offer smaller satellite campuses in addition to the main campus, which is a very nice feature of the Penn State system. Yankeegirl is also out of state for PA schools, so COA may run higher for her at a PA public school. Having a steakhouse and a nice pool does not mean that the entering student does not have an emphasis on learning. One can go to school in a beautiful environment and can get a good education at the same time. I have no idea about HP’s educational programs, but attending a small private school over a large Public U is not a mistake for everyone.</p>

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<p>@northeastmom:
We are not talking about the generic “small LAC vs. large public U.” debate. If she said she picked Bard or Oberlin or Colgate or Sarah Lawrence or Connecticut College or Vassar or Davidson or <insert “real”=“” college=“” name=“” here=“”> then I would have not even replied.</insert></p>

<p>But she seems to have picked a school based on dorms, food and weather and their marketing. Not to mention one on dubious financial ground.</p>

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<p>AAU membership seems like a silly metric to me; Amherst and Swarthmore aren’t on the list, but I’m pretty sure they engage in serious scholarship.</p>

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<p>@Hanna:
Read my post.
I said that many other schools not on that list engage in serious scholarship (note that LAC’s are not on that list and obviously many provide world-class educations, as you point out).</p>

<p>But High Point is not one of them.</p>

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<p>As the mom of a current HPU student, I thought I should add my 2 cents. I really think it all comes down to fit. Other schools may have been a better fit “on paper” but this school felt like the best fit for my daughter when she visited. I think PackMom’s post may have explained it best. I would consider my daughter a high average student who worked hard in high school but was not in the top 10% of her class, so she was not looking at schools that many of the people on this site are interested in. She originally had it on her list as a “safety” because she was at the 75%ile and Elon was her top choice. After visiting, she didn’t want to apply to Elon and wanted to apply to High Point early decision! I have always worried that she could “get lost in the shuffle” and I don’t feel like that is likely to happen at High Point. I was also concerned that there wouldn’t be a lot to do (we visited before the University Center was built :slight_smile: ) and she has said there is always something to do or something going on. People are on campus, it doesn’t empty out on weekends. And most students, because of the dorms, choose to live on campus. The academics have been challenging and there is support for those that need it. One poster commented that the campus is “compact” and I think that is accurate; however, that is one of the things my daughter loves about it. She is able to schedule 2 classes back to back without worrying that she can’t make it to another building in time. </p>

<p>I think everyone will look at a school and form their own impression. What one person sees as a negative (ex. “compact”), another will see as a positive. While some may feel that High Point is trying too hard, others may feel that some schools are not trying hard enough. I’m glad there are so many choices available to students to find the school that is best for them.</p>

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<p>soze, suppose that money were an issue. Oh, and a student with an SAT score just above midrange nationally, is unlikely to get into Davidson, Colgate, Vassar, or similar schools unless they are standardized test optional for admission.</p>

<p>Using a different group of schools, that might not have ice cream trucks and golf carts on campus, and comparing them to Penn State, for someone who wants the small school education, is it a BIG mistake? The schools that I am thinking of off hand where an A/B student might get in and get some merit money with an 1100 SAT (give or take): Susquehanna, Hartwick, Roanoke College, Drew University, Roger Williams, Lycoming College, Lynchburg University, Wells College, etc… Are they all a mistake to attend over Penn State, or does it depend upon the individual student?</p>

<p>Cross posted with spmom.</p>

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<p>spmom - very interested that your D chose HPU over Elon. I’m very interested in Elon for S2 - with HPU as a possible safety school. Could you please elaborate on your comparison of Elon to HPU. What did she not like about Elon? What, besides the compact campus, attracted her to HPU? Thanks.</p>

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<p>One other point about where they are spending their money:
It doesn’t seem to be on faculty!</p>

<p>I picked a department at random (chemistry).</p>

<p>I went to High Point’s faculty directory, they have three professors.</p>

<p>I picked another small LAC at random (Oberlin, which has 30% less students than High Point).</p>

<p>Do you know how many chemistry professors they have?</p>

<p>twelve !</p>

<p>(I guess they need to pay for that steakhouse somehow. (; )</p>

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<p>soze, there might be 2 ways to look at that professor count. Perhaps HPU’s 3 profs are all full-time and they don’t list the part-timers. Perhaps Oberlin lists all profs (FT & PT) on its website. Or, perhaps you’re right, and HPU’s Chem dept might be understaffed. It’s hard to tell.</p>

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<p>Well, just to see if maybe this is specific to chemistry, I picked another totally unrealated department, history.</p>

<p>High Point: 6 professors
Oberlin: 21 professors</p>

<p>It really begs the question, who’s teaching these kids at High Point and how big are the classes?</p>

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<p>I agree with many of the points Spmom has made as my son is currently attending HPU also. No - it is not for everyone. However, it is an excellent fit for my son. I have had many friends and family members call with horror stories from their children of their first year at college. My son has had a wonderful transition and first year in college. The campus being “compact” is one of the benefits for my son - it might not be for everyone.</p>

<p>Regarding the chemistry professors, it seems like business and communications are the top majors at the school. Therefore, there would not be the need for a huge science department. If your child is interested in the sciences, another school might be a better choice. </p>

<p>Does HPU have the academic reputation of Elon at this time - probably not. However, my son toured Elon and HPU on the same day, and he much preferred the atmosphere of HPU. A good friend of his attends Elon and is also very happy. I don’t understand why one has to be good and one bad. There is a good choice for everyone.</p>