WashPost: one US college closing per week

[Anonymous]

https://wapo.st/4b31Cky

Now, more than ever, families and students pursuing higher education opportunities must do their research into the financial viability of colleges as well as the long-term cost of tuition, student loans, and other expenses. In many cases, this is almost as big a financial investment as buying a home.

[Anonymous]

This is why most people only want to go to a T20 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wapo.st/4b31Cky

Now, more than ever, families and students pursuing higher education opportunities must do their research into the financial viability of colleges as well as the long-term cost of tuition, student loans, and other expenses. In many cases, this is almost as big a financial investment as buying a home.

Important paragraph:

“It’s simply supply and demand,” said Gary Stocker, a former chief of staff at Westminster College in Missouri and the founder of College Viability, which evaluates institutions’ financial stability. The closings follow an enrollment decline of 14 percent in the decade through 2022, the most recent period for which the figures are available from the Education Department. A decline of as much as 15 percent is projected to begin next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why most people only want to go to a T20 school.

Most of the big state schools are below T20, and they are fine.

I would be worried about the SLACs.

[Anonymous]

It's because liberal arts degrees are not as popular anymore. The market has shifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why most people only want to go to a T20 school.

Nice try. Just stay within the top 200.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why most people only want to go to a T20 school.

This is the thinking of an ignorant person who doesn't want to make even minimal effort.

There are many, many (hundreds, perhaps thousands) of colleges in the US that are financially sound and in no danger of closing but are not "T20." I mean just to start, virtually every state flagship, plus in some states you have anywhere from 3 to 20 state universities with zero funding issues that are in no danger of closing.

But you have to do more than just run a single Google search for "top US News ranked colleges" in order to figure out which of the many smaller colleges and universities might have funding problems. Like when you put together a college list, you might want to actually spend a bit of time looking into the finances of each school or run a news search to look for red flags like layoffs, closure of programs, real estate issues, etc. This would really not be hard to do for a list of maybe 20-30 schools on your child's long list for college, to help rule out anything that looks questionable.

The idea that if you aren't going to a T20, your school is at risk for closure, is how you wind up with kids applying only to "top" schools and then freaking out when they don't get into any of the them, because admissions at T20 schools are a lottery for even many highly qualified applicants.

Sorry it turns out applying to college will take more than 20 minutes of thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why most people only want to go to a T20 school.

Most of the big state schools are below T20, and they are fine.

I would be worried about the SLACs.

Decent SLACs have massive endowments

[Anonymous]

Notice nearly all the colleges listed in the article no one has ever heard off. Also, the majority of schools closing are for-profit universities, which in general are unsavory.

Yes, a few small colleges are closing due to low enrollment.

Meanwhile, other schools have opened up, like UC Merced with over 8,000 students, Nevada State College with 4,000 students, Georgia Gwinnett College with over 10,000 students.

All those gains in new student spaces nearly make up (if no totally make up) for all the spaces lost when these tiny colleges shut down.

[Anonymous]

Many of the schools closing are somewhere between small and tiny — and often have a religious sponsor.

[Anonymous]

High school counselors need to start including this when talking to parents and students about college. How and why to check the financial health and accreditation status of colleges and universities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school counselors need to start including this when talking to parents and students about college. How and why to check the financial health and accreditation status of colleges and universities

For these obscure colleges? 50 on a list of 2,000 colleges.

[Anonymous]

I read the article and Birmingham Southern is the only one that surprised me. Many of these were tiny women’s colleges - so they never had any endowment to speak of - that went coed in the 70s to survive.

[Anonymous]

Relax, you and your kid have never heard of the schools that are or will close in the next 20 years.

This will not limit your family's choices at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why most people only want to go to a T20 school.

Is the air getting stale inside your bubble?