Town & Country Magazine · May 2026
High Point University Ranked One of the Nation’s Top 15 Colleges for Career Preparation
This week, Town & Country Magazine recognized High Point University as one of the nation’s Top 15 colleges for career preparation. HPU is the only North Carolina college on the list, which also includes Stanford University.
The list was curated by IvyWise, one of the country’s leading college counseling organizations, using five criteria: a nationally recognized career services program, deeply supported real-world experiences, strong graduate outcomes rates, career preparation that runs all four years, and career readiness treated as an institution-wide priority. HPU meets every standard.
The recognition comes at a moment when graduate employment is drawing serious national attention. Unemployment among recent graduates ages 22 to 27 currently runs at 5.6 percent, above the national average of 4.3 percent. Town & Country worked with IvyWise to identify universities where career preparation is built into the student experience and where the outcomes reflect it.
In the article, HPU’s multiple national recognitions were noted, including The Princeton Review’s ranking of HPU as the #1 Best-Run College in the Nation for two consecutive years, and 13 consecutive years as the top Regional College in the South by U.S. News & World Report.
HPU by the Numbers
of the Class of 2024 placed within 180 days of graduation — NACE Verified
Best-Run College in the Nation, two consecutive years — The Princeton Review
consecutive years ranked #1 Regional College in the South — U.S. News
Town & Country Magazine · May 25, 2026
The 15 Colleges with the Best Career Prep Programs
Remember when choosing a computer science major was considered a guaranteed path to future career success? Feels like just yesterday (because it practically was) when excelling at coding promised job stability and six-figure entry-level salaries. Now, in only a few years, graduates have seen their degrees plummet in worth. A 2025 New York Times story highlighted the plight of scores of young adults with computer engineering and computer science degrees who are contending with soaring unemployment, which has exceeded 7.5 percent for this cohort. Not that anyone who studied something else has been faring much better: the collective unemployment rate for recent grads, ages 22 to 27, currently hovers around 5.6 percent, outpacing the national percentage (4.3).
Cue the adage (take your pick) about early preparation. While the breakneck speed with which AI continues to upend our lives makes it hard to predict what kind of world awaits the Class of 2030, several universities are actively incorporating career-centric programs into the undergraduate experience. We asked IvyWise to nominate the best.
“We compiled this list based on five criteria,” says IvyWise counselor Amy Kirkcaldy. “First, does the school have a career services program with a genuine national reputation? Second, are real-world experiences like internships, co-ops, study abroad, and undergraduate research deeply supported (some have even made them a formal part of the curriculum) and widely accessed? Third, do graduates get jobs or go on to graduate school at strong rates? Fourth, does the school start preparing students early and stay with them all the way through graduation? Fifth, is career readiness a real institutional priority? In other words, is it supported across the school and not just in one siloed career services office?”
The 15 colleges that check all those boxes include both liberal arts institutions and large research universities, famous brand names and lesser-known gems. What the list doesn’t include, however, are any Ivies.
What Town & Country Said About HPU
“High Point has made career preparation a defining feature of the undergraduate experience, earning national recognition for its integrated and outcomes-driven approach. In 2025, HPU was named the #1 Best-Run College in the nation for the second year in a row by The Princeton Review, and it is the only North Carolina institution to rank in the Top 10 nationally in four categories, the other three being: Career Services, Best College Dorms, and Most Active Student Government. Central to this success is HPU’s “Premier Life Skills University” model, which integrates professional development into the curriculum by making experiential learning components 25% of the coursework. The results are striking: 99% of the Class of 2024 secured employment or admission to graduate school within 180 days of graduation — 14 points above the national average. This sustained focus on student outcomes has helped HPU maintain its ranking as the top Regional College in the South for 13 consecutive years and its #1 Most Innovative designation for the past decade by U.S. News & World Report, underscoring the university’s long-term commitment to preparing graduates for life after college.”