When you think about the college or university experience, what do you think of outside of the classes themselves? Dormitories, gyms and dining halls all come to mind. What would happen if you took one of those and heightened the sense of luxury? For starters, you might get a sense of what’s happening on some elite college and university campuses across the nation.
A new article at Town & Country by Rob Lieber chronicles the way that certain institutions have made the campus experience of higher education more like a private club than anything else. As an author, Lieber has extensively written about the costs of college, and he brings that expertise to this particular article.
Much of the focus here is on North Carolina’s High Point University, which has made a significant effort to enter the pantheon of elite institutions via the amenities it offers students. Lieber writes that “among a certain subset of moneyed families, it’s now a regular stop on college tours.”
High Point charges more for more desirable living quarters, for instance. Students at the most basic level can opt for a double occupancy room in a certain group of residence halls. If you want a more desirable room or residence hall, that’ll cost more. Housing and a dining plan start at $15,438 annually; if you want the highest tier, that requires an “[a]dditional investment of $12,256 per year.”
How well amenities translate into post-collegiate life, and how the pandemic further complicated matters, are all addressed by Lieber in the article. The glimpses provided of this aspect of college life — from schools adding climbing walls to the presence of concierge services — can be jarring, especially given the ongoing discussion about privilege and admissions scandals. It’s another twist in an already complex situation.
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