High Point University

Date: Oct 31 2010
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
When I visited HPU for the first time, I fell in love. I visited over four times and every time I left feeling like High Point University was the place for me. Boy was I wrong. The school looks great. Like really great. And I love that, and I have a hard time looking at other schools and seeing their old buildings and gross dorms. But I would trade anything for that now. The school lacks a lot of programs for students who do not want to go to the greek parties or just parities in general. I came to the school thinking, yes there would be some partying, but since its college, some people would also care about academics. And well, I was wrong again. You can pretty much walk around every day and find a party. Campus security does not do much about student parties or drinking (if they are underage). Even in the freshman seminars on alcohol, the campus security told us that they knew we were going to drink, and that we needed to "drink smart not stupid". But never once in the presentation was it mentioned that drinking alcohol as a freshman is illegal, NEVER. The security guard even went on to say that if you got busted by another security guard and they gave you a harsh punishment, that you could just ask for him and he could make it all go away. He said this to a crowd of about 1200 freshman, with faculty present, and no one seemed to care. That really bothered me. The school does not want to punish the kids, because then a lot of their parents would get upset and stop donating to the school. All they care about are the donating parents. For example, on campus tours you are told that the kiosks are pretty much open all day. Lies. They are open to about 10 am. Then miraculously they are open all day on parents weekend! They also claim that High Point is a safe city. It is most definitely not. A couple of weeks ago there was an armed man running away from the police in the back woods of our campus. Was anyone notified via text? No. I only know about it because I was in the security office getting a parking pass at the time. Also, if you decide to come to High Point, be wary of the "random roommate assignment". The process does not work. I had to move dorms because my roommate would come back drunk multiple times throughout the night while making ramen and strumming a ukulele. Drinking and partying is pretty much the norm in the coed housing, so if you are not into that stuff then I recommend living in single sex housing. However, for guys, Finch is where a ton of parties are. Just overall, if you don't drink or party, then I would not recommend coming to High Point, that's pretty much all anyone does. Overall, I have not been happy with my experiences socially at High Point, I have made friends, and the professors are great, but the school is not good. I am going to transfer once freshman year is over to a state school, where I can have the same education, just with mediocre dorms, for a fraction of the cost that it takes to go to High Point.