Point Counterpoint
At dinner the other night, two of my counselor colleagues shared their impressions after recent campus visits. I was eager to hear their impressions.
“High Point is America’s Premier Life Skills University, great place,” began my friend. “There are 70 undergraduate majors, 17 Division I athletic teams, and 30 more club sports. HPU focuses on skills so alums can start not just jobs but careers. No classes on 17th century Muslim philosophers or useless abstruse math. The curriculum in about networking, finding a profession. Other schools prepare graduates to say, “would you like fries with that?” High Point grads to the contrary are employable. The Princeton Review says High Point is the best run college in the nation. Even the plants on campus are cared for and sculpted. Classical music plays from hidden speakers because research shows that students learn more effectively when listening. High Point’s president, Nido Qubein is a visionary educator, respected by faculty, revered by students. High Point alumni give back by mentoring current students and setting up internships. HPU belongs on the college list of any student who wants to make something of themselves.”
My other friend listened civilly then responded. “Completely wrong,” he said. “High Point University is more sizzle than steak, a total scam. Learning which fork to use and how to dress for dinner is not a college education. On my visit I didn’t see any students reading or studying. Indeed, I didn’t see any actual books. Their president, Nido Qubein is a snake oil salesman, which is why HPU is considered a bad joke among real professors at real colleges. The school emphasizes luxury aesthetics over learning. Financial aid is poor to non-existent, students are routinely graduated with untenable debt while the president laughs all the way to the bank. Underrepresented minorities are severely underrepresented. Indeed, the college has gobbled up so many neighborhood properties that community residents who had lived for generations are forced to move because they can’t afford the inflated taxes. The college is ‘pay to play,’ a haven for spoiled children of privilege who wouldn’t last a day in a real classroom at a real college.”
My associates then turned their attention to the University of California Berkeley.
“The academic pressure is so intense, so cutthroat, that students are dropping out, burning out, in droves. After they scam the accommodations system, asking for extra time on exams, taking advantage of a system designed to listen to every whining, invented excuse. They still can’t hack it. A third of law students are flailing. Students major in political activism rather than academics. All they do is complain. Opposing viewpoints are stifled. There are no conservative students, there are no religious students, there are no students who believe in America. Worse, undergraduate classes are massive. First year psychology squeezes 1200 kids into one enormous lecture hall. And good luck finding housing anywhere in the Bay Area. An apartment the size of a phone booth is unaffordable because of all the Silicon Valley employees driving up prices. Berkeley is the posterchild for a big school with big school problems with the added negative of indoctrinating students.
And then the opposing viewpoint: “Berkeley is the best academic institution in the country, an Ivy League education at a fraction of the cost. Tuition is a mere $18K in state as opposed to $70,000 at Vanderbilt and other private colleges. Berkeley currently has ten Nobel Prize laureates—ten!—including the 2025 winners in chemistry and physics. An unparalleled opportunity to study with the people doing cutting edge research, pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. The Bay Area is a prime location. The San Francisco and Oakland airports connect students with direct flights everywhere in the country and everywhere in the world. Berkely is diverse, representative of the entire planet. There are 150 undergraduate majors, students can learn anything. Berkeley students connect with the best and the brightest of peers and professors, can link up with unmatched prospects in Silicon Valley and beyond.”
What is to be made of these disparate views? Here are my takeaways:
Two things can be true at once.
My colleagues are the best, willing to listen and learn from one another even when their perceptions differ widely.
Ethical college counselors should be as blank as possible, not to thrust their views on their students. Whatever our personal views—High Point is anti-intellectual! Berkeley is an indoctrination factory!--as counselors we should acknowledge our private biases and admit that there are students who would profit from a High Point education as well as students who would fit in at Berkeley. Although probably not the same student!
Bright, motivated students tend to do well even if their undergraduate school is not a perfect fit.
And most importantly: there is no such thing as a good school, although there is such a thing as a good match between student and institution. Loving parents and competent counselors must be knowledgeable about a range of colleges, help prepare their children to thrive wherever they go.
