So, this morning, my friend Dustin Stiver directed me to check out a somewhat absurd school in N.C. that has been particularly successful in fund-raising recently: High Point University.

Here’s a failed paragraph from the front of their admissions page:

“There’s nothing quite like being in the right place at the right time. We know you are approaching one of the most exciting times in your life. Thanks to strong leadership and a $2.1 billion investment in growth and campus improvements over the last 4 years with a commitment to increase that investment to $2.1 billion over the next 10 years, it is also a particularly dynamic and extraordinary time to be a part of High Point University.”

They meant to say that the investment has expanded from $300mil to $2.1bil. This is for a school whose student body a couple years ago was just 1500 students (they’re looking to expand to 3800).

The visual marketing on their home pages tells us: “HPU Rings the NASDAQ closing bell”, “HPU rings the NYSE closing Bell”, “Lance Armstrong to speak at commencement”, “Coming soon….DIVISION 1 Lacrosse!”, “The Emmy comes to HPU”, “HPU Goes all Steinway”

A year at high point will cost you about $36,000 (and growing)

The incredible amount of money to expect to raise over the next 10 years is confusing for me; what is so special about HPU that they should be the recipients of such tremendous charity?

As Dustin put it, “they are intent on riding an enormous wave of capital to quick success and a faux-sense of academic standing. Their focus is on growing an institution, first and foremost, and on meaningful education secondarily, at best.”

My math shows that in a relatively short period of time HPU wants to raise over $550,000 per student. Maybe their hope is that they will aim high and if they only get half of the $2.1billion they will be happy.

Also, HPU is going to keep soliciting donations indefinitely. For comparison, The Saxifrage School will look to raise roughly $4000 per student and will not require any charitable support after the initial investment. We need 1/137th as much investment so that we can charge students about 1/6th the cost of HPU.

I wonder how much Lance Armstrong cost?

Did they throw away the pianos that weren’t Steinways?

It suffices to say, High Point is everything The Saxifrage School does not want to be…