Is anywhere safe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beyond financial aspects, applications to Middlebury have dropped to a five-year low:

https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025/05/applications-drop-to-five-year-low-as-acceptance-rate-increases

44% accepted were test optional, wow!

Isn't that about the same as a lot of other schools that are considered selective?

Based on its current CDS, 54% of Middlebury's attending students did not submit standardized test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hillsdale, Grove City

Grove City does not belong in a discussion of schools of any esteem. Never even heard of Hillsdale, guessing it's similar

You forgot to include a (sniff) at the end of your stupid comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went on the Middlebury tour in the early 2020s. It stood out as a place with a major inferiority complex - located in the middle of nowhere and yet everything was newly renovated and shiny - sweeping fireplaces and atriums around every corner that oozed of over-extended building budgets, and all for nothing - seriously what is the point? Amherst and Williams are rough around the edges - as are Columbia and Yale. The Asst.AD that conducted our tour was a ridiculous little twit. They did this to themselves - what a joke.

I agree that Middlebury has an inferiority complex, but calling any of those schools "rough around the edges" is a stretch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is getting their research grants cut. This isn’t just Middlebury. Academia is dying.

Only because MAGA is killing it.

[Anonymous]

Forbes does grades for financial well being of colleges and universities. Stay away from the schools with low rankings.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2023/04/26/forbes-2023-college-financial-grades-the-strongest-and-weakest-colleges/

[Anonymous]

Brown had a $40 million deficit last year.

Middlebury is being dragged down by the Middlebury Institute in Monterey. They need to divest themselves of MIIS. Many Vermont faculty want this. Hopefully the new president will listen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religiously affiliated schools

Not an education indoctrination

Anyone sending a college kid to a religious university sucks as a parent

I don't think sending a kid to Georgetown or Villanova or Boston College or Notre Dame or SLU or DePaul or any other Catholic hospital is a bad choice. They provide excellent educations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine there's a university in the country that's not instituting hiring freezes and budget cuts to degrees relative to their endowment--whether they're being public about that is another question. The hits to research funding from the current administration affect small colleges and big universities alike, and graduate school acceptances (where universities have come to rely on tuition money) are down.

With a kid entering as a first-year student next year, I just have to trust that schools with existing strength and standing will come through this time. But I think we'll be seeing lots more of the "do more with less" mantra being bandied about within universities (I guess you can tell by now I work for one) that translates into fewer support staff positions to allow departments to do the work of teaching and fewer tenure track positions and more adjunct positions or courses taught by grad students (who can be wonderful! but also they are often stretched thinner than thin).

SEC schools are investing in massive capital improvements. Very healthy budgets from sports, donors, good management. Some pressure on research (I believe most are R1), but that may be different than budgets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forbes does grades for financial well being of colleges and universities. Stay away from the schools with low rankings.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2023/04/26/forbes-2023-college-financial-grades-the-strongest-and-weakest-colleges/

This assessment is extremely dated, though. Government power, if not blocked, could even bring Harvard to its knees (no federal research grants, loss of accreditation, tax on endowment, legal fees).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine there's a university in the country that's not instituting hiring freezes and budget cuts to degrees relative to their endowment--whether they're being public about that is another question. The hits to research funding from the current administration affect small colleges and big universities alike, and graduate school acceptances (where universities have come to rely on tuition money) are down.

With a kid entering as a first-year student next year, I just have to trust that schools with existing strength and standing will come through this time. But I think we'll be seeing lots more of the "do more with less" mantra being bandied about within universities (I guess you can tell by now I work for one) that translates into fewer support staff positions to allow departments to do the work of teaching and fewer tenure track positions and more adjunct positions or courses taught by grad students (who can be wonderful! but also they are often stretched thinner than thin).

SEC schools are investing in massive capital improvements. Very healthy budgets from sports, donors, good management. Some pressure on research (I believe most are R1), but that may be different than budgets.

Capital projects are being paused across the state of Virginia at schools that also have healthy budgets from sports, donors and good management. Not sure why SEC schools would be immune to current economic uncertainty.

https://www.whro.org/education-news/2025-05-15/renovation-and-expansion-projects-at-10-virginia-colleges-and-universities-put-on-pause

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beyond financial aspects, applications to Middlebury have dropped to a five-year low:

https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025/05/applications-drop-to-five-year-low-as-acceptance-rate-increases

44% accepted were test optional, wow!

Isn't that about the same as a lot of other schools that are considered selective?

Based on its current CDS, 54% of Middlebury's attending students did not submit standardized test scores.

Per the latest CDS, 39% of Amherst students submitted SAT scores. No one is making a stink about that.

[Anonymous]

I am more concerned about the safety on a campus in the USA for my Jewish child right now.

[Anonymous]

On that Forbes list Duke, Notre Dame, Holy Cross and Smith have perhaps the most loyal alums in the country. Highest alumni giving rates and most of their respective alums are very wealthy, SEC schools are booming because the South is booming economically and kids are fleeing liberal high taxed blue states. Virginia would not qualify as SEC country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine there's a university in the country that's not instituting hiring freezes and budget cuts to degrees relative to their endowment--whether they're being public about that is another question. The hits to research funding from the current administration affect small colleges and big universities alike, and graduate school acceptances (where universities have come to rely on tuition money) are down.

With a kid entering as a first-year student next year, I just have to trust that schools with existing strength and standing will come through this time. But I think we'll be seeing lots more of the "do more with less" mantra being bandied about within universities (I guess you can tell by now I work for one) that translates into fewer support staff positions to allow departments to do the work of teaching and fewer tenure track positions and more adjunct positions or courses taught by grad students (who can be wonderful! but also they are often stretched thinner than thin).

SEC schools are investing in massive capital improvements. Very healthy budgets from sports, donors, good management. Some pressure on research (I believe most are R1), but that may be different than budgets.

All of these flagships are very dependent on research and Medicaid money, just as Mich if not more than the private R1s, Alabama and Florida in particular.

[Anonymous]

Just wait until endowments start getting taxed at 14% or 22%. There will be a lot more budget cuts at these fancy schools.