Why more and more colleges are closing down across the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m confused. 2006 was a birth boomlet year. Birth rates took a dive in 2008–Great Recession. So how is class of ‘25 (kids born in 2006 and 2007) going to be lowest in years?

Can I draw you a picture of a cliff?

2025 is the top of the cliff, down from there.

“We’ll be graduating our lowest high school classes by population in 2025.” Says the article.

NP: I thought the cliff was around class of '27. The recession hit 2008 which would have affected birthrate for 2009. At my kid's school, classes of 25 and 26 are significantly bigger than 24. Anecdotal, but I've heard the same about other schools in the area.

I actually think class of 2026 is the first year of recession babies (2007-2008 births)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m confused. 2006 was a birth boomlet year. Birth rates took a dive in 2008–Great Recession. So how is class of ‘25 (kids born in 2006 and 2007) going to be lowest in years?

Can I draw you a picture of a cliff?

2025 is the top of the cliff, down from there.

"Cliff" is a total misnomer. 2025 is when the numbers start going down gradually, just as they've been going up gradually since around 1990. Here's the National Center for Education Statistics' data:

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_219.10.asp

The bigger factor will be if people continue to believe it's worth the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of them appear to be slacs, and STEM degrees are a lot more popular then ever before.

SLACs also offer STEM degrees.

"Liberal arts education (from Latin liberalis "free" and ars "art or principled practice"), also known as the liberal arts and pure sciences, is the traditional academic course of study in Western higher education." --Wikipedia

The top places to study STEM do not include SLACs

Cal Tech is a SLAC.

CalTech is not a liberal arts college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90% of universities should close

They are pointless when you can learn most stuff via online or the public library if you are motivated enough

Or can use AI if you have better uses for your time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Supply and demand. More and more will be closing over the next decade as less kids go to college for a variety of reasons. Less students graduating, more people intentionally foregoing college and more kids taking a forced gap year because they can’t believe that applying to 10 or 12 top 25 schools won’t guarantee admission.

Arghhh.. fewer, not less. Did you not pay attention in 6th grade English?

Point in case why STEM is hardly the end-all, be-all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:90% of universities should close

They are pointless when you can learn most stuff via online or the public library if you are motivated enough

This. Used to be difficult to find information. Colleges have become venues for swilling beer and incurring debt. Time for big changes.

If you think education is just about “finding information” then this tells me you didn’t receive a very good education yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:90% of universities should close

They are pointless when you can learn most stuff via online or the public library if you are motivated enough

This. Used to be difficult to find information. Colleges have become venues for swilling beer and incurring debt. Time for big changes.

If you think education is just about “finding information” then this tells me you didn’t receive a very good education yourself.

Problem is the so called education is very much overvalued and overrated.
$200k for that?

[Anonymous]

Ultimately, I think, UVA will be the only remaining university in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately, I think, UVA will be the only remaining university in the US.

Sounds like a zombie apocalypse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in academia. It's alarmist. 91 have closed or merged since 2016. That's 13/year. Let's say about half merged, so it's 5-6 that close per year. They are schools you've never heard of, like Presentation College in South Dakota, Cazenovia College in New York, and Holy Names University in California (449 students).

Then there's Judson College that closed in 2021.. because the had only 12 students enroll that year (it's a Baptist women's college).

We're seeing 5-10 colleges close per year, and we have over 1,000 R-1 and R-2 universities, and if you add in community colleges you're at about 5,000.

Compared to 20 years ago, we see a lot more international students, especially from China. The demand remains.

I don't think international students are interested in mediocre schools.

They come here for semi-prestigious to prestigious schools.

There's no demand for mediocre schools.

Not necessarily for the DCUM crowd, but in some cases, schools that made a significant investment athletics are doing quite well. Kids are dying for the opportunity to participate in collegiate athletics, even if the quality of education is inferior to alternatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately, I think, UVA will be the only remaining university in the US.

HaHaHaHa not even the best college in VA

[Anonymous]

I was just talking about this with a professor at WVU. She said enrollment is significantly down and the administration is running scared. All sorts of cost-saving initiatives have been implemented. She is a bit bemused by admin’s reaction, as she said the demographic cliff has long been anticipated and they’ve had ample time to plan for it.

[Anonymous]

Have had house rentals at a large university for years. The student tenants have been getting less resilient and less independent every year since 2005. Before that they found their own rentals and signed leases by themselves. They would repair many of their own property damage. They went on road trips, built stages for their parties.. that type of stuff. Real coming of age fun and independence. Parents are all over every decision and they are glued to their phones now. They are 5-10 years behind in maturity than before and although there are exceptions they have lower level senses of humor, imagination and very low resilience. I don’t see much advantage in not just staying home and learning on line. Parents are hovering so much that in general the kids aren’t picking up life skills and the parents are just wasting their money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately, I think, UVA will be the only remaining university in the US.

Sounds like a zombie apocalypse

Perhaps, but “TJ” admission will be even more important in that circumstance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just talking about this with a professor at WVU. She said enrollment is significantly down and the administration is running scared. All sorts of cost-saving initiatives have been implemented. She is a bit bemused by admin’s reaction, as she said the demographic cliff has long been anticipated and they’ve had ample time to plan for it.

Not sure how an institution can plan for becoming something than a not-well-ranked school.