Colorado College missing enrollment targets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is $100,000 more than what you stated. Can you explain that? They’re ranked in the bottom for % of students from the bottom 20% of incomes, so how are they enticing low income students? They don’t have them.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/colorado-college

I'm getting newer data straight from the source (Raj Chetty's website), not the outdated NYT tool from 2017 that you and everyone else on this site always refer to. Link is here:

https://opportunityinsights.org/data/

You can download the spreadsheet "Baseline Cross-Sectional Estimates of Child and Parent Income Distributions by College" and see for yourself....


Aha, I see the difference here, I am looking at table 2 (the baseline) while the NYT uses the longitudinal table for the 1991 cohort only. There is considerable variability across cohorts from year to year, but either way the story is the same....most top 50 SLACs cater to a very affluent demographic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is $100,000 more than what you stated. Can you explain that? They’re ranked in the bottom for % of students from the bottom 20% of incomes, so how are they enticing low income students? They don’t have them.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/colorado-college

I'm getting newer data straight from the source (Raj Chetty's website), not the outdated NYT tool from 2017 that you and everyone else on this site always refer to. Link is here:

https://opportunityinsights.org/data/

You can download the spreadsheet "Baseline Cross-Sectional Estimates of Child and Parent Income Distributions by College" and see for yourself....

New York Times updated its data yearly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The west coast lacs are all struggling other the Claremont Colleges, for various reasons. Reed and Colorado are similar, in that, they have pretty quirky academic cultures, but Colorado has always been very dependent on wealthy students. In the west coast, there’s much more emphasis on going to public universities, so schools like Whitman, Colorado, and Reed really struggle.

Some of the claremont colleges are struggling too: namely scripps and pitzer. if they were smart, they'd let Pomona claim their dorm and classroom space and rebrand the whole thing as Pomona. They already get students by association but currently it still says Pitzer, Scripps, etc on the diploma.

re west coast SLACs, Occidental College,too, had a surprise 15% drop in enrollment last year and has been scrambling to- throwing out “Occidental Commitment “ scholarships ($15k off of $97k) to anyone who will commit ED or EA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The west coast lacs are all struggling other the Claremont Colleges, for various reasons. Reed and Colorado are similar, in that, they have pretty quirky academic cultures, but Colorado has always been very dependent on wealthy students. In the west coast, there’s much more emphasis on going to public universities, so schools like Whitman, Colorado, and Reed really struggle.

Some of the claremont colleges are struggling too: namely scripps and pitzer. if they were smart, they'd let Pomona claim their dorm and classroom space and rebrand the whole thing as Pomona. They already get students by association but currently it still says Pitzer, Scripps, etc on the diploma.

re west coast SLACs, Occidental College,too, had a surprise 15% drop in enrollment last year and has been scrambling to- throwing out “Occidental Commitment “ scholarships ($15k off of $97k) to anyone who will commit ED or EA.

According to College Scorecard, average post-grad salary four years after graduation is 57k at Colorado College and 68k at Occidental. Would rather my kid attend the latter as every kid we know who has attended recently has gotten scholarships/merit aid.

[Anonymous]

CC is a great, but is not a name brand on the East Coast. If you love Colorado, it might be worth it, but there are many similar colleges closer to the east coast population centers. Anecdotally, I see mostly private school kids going there whereas many other LACs including Claremonts, NESCACs, Liberty Leagues and Midwestern ones have students from both public and private schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CC is a great, but is not a name brand on the East Coast. If you love Colorado, it might be worth it, but there are many similar colleges closer to the east coast population centers. Anecdotally, I see mostly private school kids going there whereas many other LACs including Claremonts, NESCACs, Liberty Leagues and Midwestern ones have students from both public and private schools

This is a weird comment. Why would someone obsessed with East Coast snobbery go to a liberal arts college at all? At best, Williams is known by some, but you are better off going to the various medium sized privates across the east coast. Second, undergraduate prestige is mostly bs and doesn't carry nearly as much as the regional strength of brands like HBS, YLS, Stanford Med etc.

[Anonymous]

We looked at CC, but we’re a full pay family and the lack of merit aid was surprising. I think of CC’s competitors as being schools like Whitman, Oxy, Macalester - all of which give higher merit awards. DS may still apply to CC because merit aid can change year to year and there’s no way to know before he applies, but I’m not optimistic. Skidmore is another example of a relatively average LAC that is need aware but doesn’t offer merit aid and so is losing out on full pay families. You would think schools that are tuition dependent would want a student whose family might pay $75K (but won’t pay $95K).

I think a lot of families are in a similar position - yes, we could pay full tuition, but we’re not going to without a good reason. There are a lot of families that will full pay for an Ivy or Top 10 LAC, but if it looks like their kid is headed to a midrange LAC, they are going to steer them to one with more substantial merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CC is a great, but is not a name brand on the East Coast. If you love Colorado, it might be worth it, but there are many similar colleges closer to the east coast population centers. Anecdotally, I see mostly private school kids going there whereas many other LACs including Claremonts, NESCACs, Liberty Leagues and Midwestern ones have students from both public and private schools

This is a weird comment. Why would someone obsessed with East Coast snobbery go to a liberal arts college at all? At best, Williams is known by some, but you are better off going to the various medium sized privates across the east coast. Second, undergraduate prestige is mostly bs and doesn't carry nearly as much as the regional strength of brands like HBS, YLS, Stanford Med etc.

Because in their little social bubbles going to a lac is more prestigious than, say, Penn state or Villanova. They’re all going to be future attorneys or finance bros, so they see going to a lac as better prep for law school or Wharton. In Moco, I know cc is seen as an acceptable backup for wasp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at CC, but we’re a full pay family and the lack of merit aid was surprising. I think of CC’s competitors as being schools like Whitman, Oxy, Macalester - all of which give higher merit awards. DS may still apply to CC because merit aid can change year to year and there’s no way to know before he applies, but I’m not optimistic. Skidmore is another example of a relatively average LAC that is need aware but doesn’t offer merit aid and so is losing out on full pay families. You would think schools that are tuition dependent would want a student whose family might pay $75K (but won’t pay $95K).

I think a lot of families are in a similar position - yes, we could pay full tuition, but we’re not going to without a good reason. There are a lot of families that will full pay for an Ivy or Top 10 LAC, but if it looks like their kid is headed to a midrange LAC, they are going to steer them to one with more substantial merit.

I totally agree with this! We are also full pay and have a rising senior. Will absolutely chase merit - going to try hard to avoid full pay unless a tippy top school (HYPS or maybe one of top LACs) (kid is usual dime a dozen 4.0 UW/zillions of APs/1550 SAT/varsity athlete/solid but not tippy top ECs except an outstanding artist). Costs are just out of control and you feel like you are getting ripped off paying 100K/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
"Colorado College's self-chosen comparison schools extend nationally, however:

Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby
Colgate
Holy Cross
Davidson
Hamilton
Kenyon
Lafayette
Macalester
Middlebury
Pitzer
Wesleyan
Whitman"

That's right of course but that's not the same thing. In other words, CC says that it compares against that list -- CC offers a small school experience, outdoor fun, a safe campus, etc., just like many of the schools on the list -- but in real life, it isn't yielding students against most of those schools. Whitman, Pitzer, sure. They are closer geographically and in-line with selectivity. Hamilton? Wesleyan? Colby? Bates? Middlebury? Those schools aren't crossing with CC. Not because CC isn't great -- I'm sure it is -- but on a relative basis, students aren't struggling to choose between CC and let's say Bowdoin. They may apply to CC, and there's a lot to like about CC, but CC isn't going to be dealing with a lot of kids who were accepted to Bowdoin but who then yield to CC. You can't compare that way when it comes to yielding students and things like tuition discounting.

I know someone that picked Lafayette over CC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The west coast lacs are all struggling other the Claremont Colleges, for various reasons. Reed and Colorado are similar, in that, they have pretty quirky academic cultures, but Colorado has always been very dependent on wealthy students. In the west coast, there’s much more emphasis on going to public universities, so schools like Whitman, Colorado, and Reed really struggle.

It’s a combination of cost and west coast students overwhelmingly gravitating toward STEM. Kids who 20 years ago might have chosen a LAC are now going to the UCs or Cal Poly/SDSU/Long Beach/Fullerton. If they don’t get in as freshmen, they go to CC for two years and TAG/ transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CC is a great, but is not a name brand on the East Coast. If you love Colorado, it might be worth it, but there are many similar colleges closer to the east coast population centers. Anecdotally, I see mostly private school kids going there whereas many other LACs including Claremonts, NESCACs, Liberty Leagues and Midwestern ones have students from both public and private schools

This is a weird comment. Why would someone obsessed with East Coast snobbery go to a liberal arts college at all? At best, Williams is known by some, but you are better off going to the various medium sized privates across the east coast. Second, undergraduate prestige is mostly bs and doesn't carry nearly as much as the regional strength of brands like HBS, YLS, Stanford Med etc.

I don’t know …. I’m squarely within New England snobbery and everyone is always asking where you did your undergrad. Ivys always good, but tons of NESCACs too. Many NESCAC athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CC is a great, but is not a name brand on the East Coast. If you love Colorado, it might be worth it, but there are many similar colleges closer to the east coast population centers. Anecdotally, I see mostly private school kids going there whereas many other LACs including Claremonts, NESCACs, Liberty Leagues and Midwestern ones have students from both public and private schools

This is a weird comment. Why would someone obsessed with East Coast snobbery go to a liberal arts college at all? At best, Williams is known by some, but you are better off going to the various medium sized privates across the east coast. Second, undergraduate prestige is mostly bs and doesn't carry nearly as much as the regional strength of brands like HBS, YLS, Stanford Med etc.

I don’t know …. I’m squarely within New England snobbery and everyone is always asking where you did your undergrad. Ivys always good, but tons of NESCACs too. Many NESCAC athletes.

I live in Brookline, and even we aren't this obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The west coast lacs are all struggling other the Claremont Colleges, for various reasons. Reed and Colorado are similar, in that, they have pretty quirky academic cultures, but Colorado has always been very dependent on wealthy students. In the west coast, there’s much more emphasis on going to public universities, so schools like Whitman, Colorado, and Reed really struggle.

Some of the claremont colleges are struggling too: namely scripps and pitzer. if they were smart, they'd let Pomona claim their dorm and classroom space and rebrand the whole thing as Pomona. They already get students by association but currently it still says Pitzer, Scripps, etc on the diploma.

re west coast SLACs, Occidental College,too, had a surprise 15% drop in enrollment last year and has been scrambling to- throwing out “Occidental Commitment “ scholarships ($15k off of $97k) to anyone who will commit ED or EA.

I went to high school in Los Angeles and Occidental used to be a pretty popular destination among kids at my high school, but nobody the last couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CC is a great, but is not a name brand on the East Coast. If you love Colorado, it might be worth it, but there are many similar colleges closer to the east coast population centers. Anecdotally, I see mostly private school kids going there whereas many other LACs including Claremonts, NESCACs, Liberty Leagues and Midwestern ones have students from both public and private schools

This is a weird comment. Why would someone obsessed with East Coast snobbery go to a liberal arts college at all? At best, Williams is known by some, but you are better off going to the various medium sized privates across the east coast. Second, undergraduate prestige is mostly bs and doesn't carry nearly as much as the regional strength of brands like HBS, YLS, Stanford Med etc.

I don’t know …. I’m squarely within New England snobbery and everyone is always asking where you did your undergrad. Ivys always good, but tons of NESCACs too. Many NESCAC athletes.

I live in Brookline, and even we aren't this obnoxious.

Maybe not, but you know she’s right. - another New Englander