If the College of Last Resort is a resource (2023)

My grandmother Estelle Craig was an extraordinary woman. He was a journalist in the 1940s; a letter to her from J. Edgar Hoover hangs on my office wall. In the 1950s, he founded a travel company, World Adventure Tours, which marketed celebrity speaking tours to exotic locations; an autographed photograph of Sir Edmund Hillary hangs just above J. Edgar. When the Duke of Bedford came to town, presumably to sell tours of and around Bedford, he attracted media attention by spreading the rumor that he planned to buy it.Toronto's only castle. He loved to travel, limp and get into trouble, in that order.

She was also generous. Before he died at the age of 103, my children sent him thank you cards as a birthday present. Even at this remarkable age, she was very fast, but had poor eyesight and hearing. My son Léo liked to type his on an electric typewriter, which gave rise to this exchange:

Lion:Dad, do you want me to write your thank you note in CAPITAL LETTERS?

Ryan:Why would you do that

Lion:Then when your helper reads it to you, you'll know how to scream.

Leo's subtlety and/or innocence stands in stark contrast to Nido Qubein, dean of High Point University in North Carolina, the subject of recent full-length pieces incity ​​Countryand North CarolinaThe Assembly. When Nido, a motivational speaker, took on the now nearly 103-year-old, struggling, and tuition-dependent Methodist College of Liberal Arts, his strategy was neither subtle nor innocent. To increase enrollment, High Point would compete on services.

The campus that Nido has built over the past 18 years is a Hollywood set for a movie about college. High Point has more Doric columns than the Parthenon. Every part of the campus is perfectly maintained. Each open space has a pool or a monumental statue, each pool an imposing fountain, each view is instagrammable. With all the pillars, fountains and domes, the cup of the High Point dome overflows, ifStudents share campus tours on social mediaThey don't see the inside of a classroom.

In addition to the physical facilities, High Point offers an upscale steakhouse, state-of-the-art movie theater, valet parking, arcade, car wash, ice cream truck, indoor running track with integrated pace system, and an on-site concierge. student. High Point even has a "wow director" tasked with impressing students. It is a higher education operated by Disney.

High Point is far from the first example of a successful university that has little to do with education. There are sports (Alabama), geography (NYU, USC), and brands (countless institutions going round and round). Neither is useless, as student outcomes can depend heavily on connections, and all of the above functions serve this skill. But a clothing strategy built exclusively for the show, for thecampus tour– marks a “high point” of academic shamelessness. The shamelessness extends to the leader of High Point, who was motivated to erect a monument to himself; The school's basketball team plays inQubein Center- adorned with North Carolina's second largest landmark - is located inQubein Avenue.

Everything works. High Point has quadrupled in size to 6,000 students paying $42,000 in tuition and at least $16,500 in room and board. ($16,500 is Level 1; High Point has five levels of student housing; Level 5 is $30,000.) High Point doesn't have to offer a huge tuition discount: It just29% vs. 55% in comparable institutions. the result is $$254 million in annual sales and $68 million in operating income- Excess cash to finance more loans for more pillars, fountains and summits.

It's easy to take random photos at the amenities of High Point. I know because I passed mine.last book. And criticism is important, as High Point pushes the boundaries of what a non-profit university can be; asRoberto Kelchenof the University of Tennessee notes, "Some small private universities would like to follow High Point's lead [because] it's incredibly profitable right now." Martin, who according toHouse Committee on the January 6 Attack, "President Trump noted that Vice President Pence has the constitutional authority to prevent the recount of the election." But I have another bone to pick. Like themThe College Blues Scandalwas a symptom of a broken admissions system, High Point is a symbol of a broken system: the college version of a newNew York Times Criticism of Prince Harry and Megan Markle: "Two trivial people who hold up a mirror to the triviality of the societies in which they live."

It's unfair to blame parents for confusing convenience with quality when no college or university tracks and reports meaningful student outcomes. High Point nods just as often as any other school and reports a six-year graduation rate (70%) and so on."98% of 2021 graduates were employed or pursuing graduate school within six months."But these are not really results. An above-average completion rate could easily be the result of High Point's customer service ethic and yours.Permissionthat "the professors at the HPU listen to the demands of the market", that is, parents and students demand social support. And 98% is not a plausible response rate, so the denominator could be respondents rather than alumni. If true, the definition of "employee" may be too vague and certainly does not imply being employed in the field, much less a good job.

Here's what we know: High Pointtuition feesit's much less than its net income and it was double digits last year. The only publicly available High Point Accreditor (SACS) document is a"Quality Improvement Plan"to provide the school with "a vibrant center for innovative teaching and learning" on a paltry $280,000 annual budget.Washington menstrual,which attempts to rank schools by value, ranked the high spot 211 out of 259 in the undergraduate category. But then again, in an industry where nobody really tracks results, gear as a sign of quality isn't an order of magnitude crazier than other easy-to-spot but irrelevant metrics. Even a successful job inThe Assemblyhe did not question High Point's learning or employment outcomes.

Beyond motivational speaking and knowing what parents think college should be like, Nido Qubein's genius recognizes this gap and creates something that smells and tastes like education.

High Point tries to check the education box"Life skill,"what he defines as the ability to "communicate, build relationships... grow and thrive... adapt... work smarter... accept failure as the price of learning... master complex situations", is to say, what you get out of an effective motivational speech can. So you won't be surprised to learn that all freshmen must complete President Qubein's Life Skills course to "find your path to success". In addition to giving the president a captivating audience and marketing him as a brand„die Premier Life Skills University“,High Point seems sincerelife skill. At the Steakhouse, students learn to make reservations, dress, and navigate meetings while they eat. High Point even recreated the interior of an airplane so students can practice business conversations with a seatmate.

While making a restaurant reservation isn't high on the list, it's a good idea to equip students with life skills. Last monthspopulation surveyfound that the most important goal of K-12 education should be for students to develop practical skills such as managing personal finances, preparing a meal, and scheduling appointments. Still, High Point's "don't look there, look here" approach to education is fatally flawed.

Common80% admission fee and 87% early admission feeHigh Point is effectively an open enrollment facility, an open enrollment facility that has carved out a lucrative niche - no other open enrollment school looks as good as High Point. In stark contrast to the less than glamorous public schools, High Point enrolls almost exclusively wealthy foreign students. mainlines1,629 out of 1,658 institutions related to low-income students. For a select few, High Point offers loans, not grants; Students from families earning $30,000 or less pay aAnnual net price of $33,814. Like the Ritz-Carlton, the High Point does not offer a discount (bad for the brand). RespectivelyStudents, "the people here are very bougie" and "lack of diversity".

The idea of ​​learning life skills in a place like this is ridiculous. What kind of life skills will you acquire on a campus populated exclusively by wealthy kids from convenience-oriented families? It is not representative of the society in which graduates are expected to succeed. High Point doesn't look like any job in America, with the possible exception thatRepublican National Committee. The resulting "life skills" should be as useful and lasting as a motivational speech.

It's not just High Point. Dozens of small, expensive private schools that do the same thing, only they've been doing it longer and aren't as clumsy. But for most High Point students, life skills probably mean figuring out what amenities to spend your family's money on. It saysqubein's nest, "I am proud of how High Point University has grown into an institution of higher learning and higher living."

My point is this: High Point's life skills logic does not calculate. At theDialectthe rich is a problem for the caretaker.

High Point's rise shows just how ingrained American college culture is. At 18 or 19, privileged kids aren't ready for the real world. It's better to send them to a fancy playground to spend years "preparing" than to do it. Can you think of a better place to acquire these life skills? A job. But he doesn't realize that High Point does more than its variety garden to match students with employers or win-and-learn experiences.

If High Point really cares about life skills, why not do more? The final problem with associating top graduates with good jobs is, as Richard Vedder of Ohio University wroteForbes, "Employers who hire high-paying workers feel they need someone with more than a University of Last Resort degree." of last resort. That's because this private university of last resort is a way out.