s/o Private college financial health and cultivating an application list
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Anonymous
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Another poster linked to the Forbes rating of private colleges' financial health, that we found really helpful in putting together a college list.
(scroll down through the article to get the search tool): https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2021/02/22/college-financial-grades-2021-will-your-alma-mater-survive-covid/?sh=70a4b3974916 Many(but not all) of the highly selective schools have strong financial ratings--often an A+ (equal to Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc). But there was a lot more range just even slightly below. I think it's most important to look for the financial health if you're looking for a private school that gives a lot of merit aid or looking for "likelies" because some of these are in very good financial shape, others are not. This is what we figured out for the financial grades of schools DC (sophomore) who is in the very early stages of composing a list of potential LACs. (Based on pre-PSAT/grades/courseload he's (so far!) a target for W&M/UVA in-state, but he's looking for a range of SLACs too. Major is likely to be something in the social sciences like poli. sci/history/econ but could also go for Chemistry) We are likely full pay for W&M/UVA, but he would need to get merit aid for these SLACs to be viable for us): Financial grades: A+ Oberlin, Kenyon, Carleton A Macalester, Denison, Kalamazoo, St. Olaf, Boston College A- Colorado College, Skidmore B+ Wooster, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Beloit B American University, George Washington University, Gettysburg, Allegheny C+ Juniata, Bard, St. John's (MD), Ursinus Next up, going to cross-check this list with lists of how good the school is with merit offers! |
Anonymous
Anonymous
It's the most recently available data from Forbes' ranking that I can find which I will take over opinions. The data that it's based on is from pre-pandemic though--so I expect most places will tick down a bit (All the more reason to stick with those B+ or higher I guess). You can also look endowment size and per capital endowment size. Oberlin, for instance, has had a solid ranking for a long time and has an endowment a lot higher than many of its peers--so I'm not that worried about the lawsuit impact. I was pleased by Kenyon's financial grade too. Kind of disappointed by the financial grades some of the more local places (American, GW) DC is considering. Doesn't mean they are 'off the list' --just something to investigate further. Also, it will help DC sort through potential likelies--it added to the plus column for St. Olaf, Kalamazoo, and Denison. |
Anonymous
| College professor here. I DO think the financial stability of the colleges you're considering is worth taking into account. While very few institutions are likely to go under, the completely elimination of some departments and majors is common these days under financial stress. Humanities departments and especially foreign languages are particularly vulnerable—the latter because while they serve many students at the intro level, they tend to have relatively few majors, and they tend to be disproportionately staffed by adjuncts, who are "disposable." So if your kid has interests in the humanities or in smaller fields, you should take a close look at colleges' resources and how they've been handling them. |
Anonymous
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Parent of a 2020 HS grad who went to Oberlin. I’d probably didn’t pay enough attention attention to financial health, and we got lucky. Oberlin poured mo year into getting kids back in campus safely. They went to 3 semesters. Every kid was put in a single without the room rate increasing, they tested, and they put so much money into making the Conservatory safe (ie, wind instruments and vocal students able to perform safely) also, into making hybrid classes accessible and making their hotel a quarantine dorm. They were able to do this because they drew down on their endowment— which is there for emergencies.
Every single one of my kid’s classes was fully in person or hybrid (1/2 the class in person each class period). They had virtually no COVID spread. (There one outbreak was Omicron as kids were leaving for winter break in 2021j. Then I started looking at colleges with my second kid. I was surprised how many of decent SLACs didn’t even try to get kids on campus in fall 2020 and sometimes for the whole year. It really drove home to me that money can matter. |
Anonymous
| The COA for Kenyon is 80,000. The typical merit aid listed in the common data set didn’t bring the price down much. |
Anonymous
Kenyon attracts a lot of very wealthy kids--they tend to be more generous with financial aid for the lower end of UMC than some other SLACs in our experience. And they consider your COLA in their offer. But not significant merit aid. |
Anonymous
| I suppose this is one of many good factors to consider, but I wouldn’t compile a college list based around if. All listed majors are pretty popular and not likely to get dropped. |
Anonymous
I'm OP and I agree--I didn't mean I was cultivating a list around it--rather taking the list that my kid had started generating and checking out the financial grades. It allowed us to winnow out some from further research, or push up some for looking at more. Since DC is only a sophomore we're planning where to visit this summer/junior year. |
Anonymous
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I'm not sure I would agree with their criteria and their findings. They themselves admit that most SLACs don't score well in their ranking. But rather than address that fact that many of these schools have survived well over 100 years despite their poor ranking here, they just gloss over this. "For our 2021 ranking, 83 colleges scored a grade of A or better, but nearly half of the private colleges on our list recorded a grade of C or worse. These schools are typically in precarious financial positions, with tight budgets. They tend to have relatively small endowments and depend on tuition revenue to survive each year. They also offer steep discounts in the form of merit aid or scholarships in an effort to fill up their classrooms." There is nothing to indicate that these schools ever would have scored above a C using their criteria. Yet they've been graduating students for decades without shutting their doors. So, a C doesn't actually mean anything significant to a parent worried about whether the school might close?
I recently received a copy of the St. John's College Annual Report. Note that most schools won't even come close to telling you whether they're meeting their budgets and very little info is publicly available. The fact that SJC is very transparent about this is a real plus, IMO. About five years ago they did a big shake up in light of the challenging financial situation hitting many SLACs. They dropped their tuition significantly, from around $50K to $35K and began a major campaign to replace tuition dollars with philanthropic funds. They did belt tightening on the admin side, but did nothing to impact negatively on the very low faculty to student ratio that they're known for. https://thedailyrecord.com/2022/04/26/st-johns-college-says-its-audacious-tuition-cut-is-paying-off/?fbclid=IwAR0fvVTDmeS2o85RAeWmFkdDgIgqQjkU3Ml04z5uheBJgaalgjeItfXKRTE The Annual Report for 2021 states: Achieved goal of ending FY21 with a balanced budget Enrollment reached a 10-yr high Tuition remained at a 10-yr low Applications reached historic highs The SJC endowment hit a record high None of this indicates that they should get a C+. USC gets an A even though their expenses exceed revenue?! Shouldn't failure to balance your budget immediately relegate you to at best a B+? Many of the measures that Forbes considers are things that SLACs will never score high on. A place like SJC that is intentionally very small will never have a huge endowment. There just aren't a ton of alumni to hit up for major money. And they don't spend big on fancy classroom tech, nor do they have a medical school like Columbia that they can use to pad expenditures on students. I think the financial strength of a college matters. But this list seems to be missing the mark. Why would anyone include admissions yield as a factor in a school's financial health?! Schools know to admit more students if they tend to not be the first choice of applicants. So long as they fill their seats (and therefore meeting their tuition revenue and boarding revenue), why would yield be something that gets factored into financial health? If they're not filling seats, that would be worth including. As an aside, I hate it when there's a link to the data but it's not actually the pertinent data. SMH. We need to see how each school scored on each of the 9 factors they considered and how much each factor was weighted, but none of that is included in what they shared. |
Anonymous
In what ways do you expect this (financial score) to impact your child? I wonder how the financial score will impact merit aid offered? You may find out the schools with poor scores offer more aid. |
Anonymous
| Franklin & Marshall does not give merit aid anymore. |
Anonymous
I guess I expect it to impact the quality of life for faculty that impacts the student--being in a school that is under financial strain/potential to cut budgets may make faculty who can be on the lookout to leave and faculty who can't feel overburdened. I also think it may lead to less amenities/special programs or a lot of extra costs for such things. Also, there does seem to be a system-wide threat to small colleges--we're at the peak of college aged students right now and they are set to go down for decades. I worry about the long-term viability of some of the schools. I'm not sure exactly how that will impact a student, but I know I feel a sense of connection to my alma mater this many years later, still donate, care about it as an institution. I also have somewhat of a bias to respect institutions with good financial management, seems to me they are more likely to be well-run in other ways. But I'll look more closely at the data/grading system to see if I agree with it--as another PP suggests--if the one hesitation about a school my kid is interested in is its financial "grade." |
Anonymous
| Dickinson gives generous merit aid. We ended up not attending but felt the school was very organized and communicative. Nice school. |
Anonymous
Thanks, that's good to know! |