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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
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.

Do you think the hovering parents will accept their kid not going to college, or going to an online college? I don't think so.

Good point. But the waste of money is interesting.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why I have found this discussion so interesting. I suppose it is because I have a kid graduating in 2025.

I did a search and found several articles about the "cliff". I guess we won't be looking for LACs for our kid, instead looking at state flagships that match our kids desired degree (we know, we should be doing this anyway for all schools).

I also thought this article was a good.

https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/

But not all colleges will feel the pain equally. Demand for elite institutions — the top 50 colleges and 50 universities, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report — is projected to drop by much less during the 2025 to 2029 period (18 years following the birth dearth). And student demand for elite institutions may be 14 percent higher in 2029 than it was in 2012. Meanwhile, regional four-year institutions which serve local students are expected to lose more than 11 percent of their students, from 1.43 million in 2012 to 1.27 million in 2029.

The Northeast, where a disproportionate share of the nation’s colleges and universities are located, is expected to be the hardest hit.

[Anonymous]

I'm not really worried. Life goes on.

With a few notable exceptions, enrollment losses have been restricted to community colleges, for-profit colleges, small private universities and regional public universities. At the moment, it appears that more elite schools will not be affected, and may actually profit from the decline of other schools. And as competition for good jobs increases, graduating from elite universities may carry more prestige value--at almost any price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why I have found this discussion so interesting. I suppose it is because I have a kid graduating in 2025.

I did a search and found several articles about the "cliff". I guess we won't be looking for LACs for our kid, instead looking at state flagships that match our kids desired degree (we know, we should be doing this anyway for all schools).

I also thought this article was a good.

https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/

But not all colleges will feel the pain equally. Demand for elite institutions — the top 50 colleges and 50 universities, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report — is projected to drop by much less during the 2025 to 2029 period (18 years following the birth dearth). And student demand for elite institutions may be 14 percent higher in 2029 than it was in 2012. Meanwhile, regional four-year institutions which serve local students are expected to lose more than 11 percent of their students, from 1.43 million in 2012 to 1.27 million in 2029.

The Northeast, where a disproportionate share of the nation’s colleges and universities are located, is expected to be the hardest hit.

In this ever changing college admissions process, am I to understand that it will be even more difficult for our kids to be accepted to top 50 colleges in the coming years? WOW!

[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.

What is your definition of a mediocre school? Not using lists from magazines or online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What is your definition of a mediocre school? Not using lists from magazines or online.

There is some demand from international students for mediocre schools. Here is what I consider to be a mediocre school that just announced it is closing - https://www.medaille.edu/ . That school still has international students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

There is absolutely demand for mediocre schools -- from mediocre international students. They're not all getting into the top 25, and there are plenty of middle class Chinese willing to pay for their kid to go to any school in the US as that's considered prestigious enough.

There are 3000+ 4 year schools in the US. When I said mediocre, say #200+ on USN&WR.
International student's are not interested in small schools and bad locations
Shit ton of schools are not in demand by international students and won't be saved by them.

For example, #212 Bethel University has 58 international students.
#212 is not even bad out of 3000+

Well it’s an evangelical Christian college whose motto is “guided by Christ “; I’m shocked it has 58.

Do you think there are no Christians outside the U.S.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What is your definition of a mediocre school? Not using lists from magazines or online.

+1

I went to a SUNY school and my CS program was mostly international students. What’s prestigious to you doesn’t mean much to people overseas. They come for all sorts of American schools people might think are just okay or look down on here. Certainly not DCUM quality. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why I have found this discussion so interesting. I suppose it is because I have a kid graduating in 2025.

I did a search and found several articles about the "cliff". I guess we won't be looking for LACs for our kid, instead looking at state flagships that match our kids desired degree (we know, we should be doing this anyway for all schools).

I also thought this article was a good.

https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/

But not all colleges will feel the pain equally. Demand for elite institutions — the top 50 colleges and 50 universities, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report — is projected to drop by much less during the 2025 to 2029 period (18 years following the birth dearth). And student demand for elite institutions may be 14 percent higher in 2029 than it was in 2012. Meanwhile, regional four-year institutions which serve local students are expected to lose more than 11 percent of their students, from 1.43 million in 2012 to 1.27 million in 2029.

The Northeast, where a disproportionate share of the nation’s colleges and universities are located, is expected to be the hardest hit.

In this ever changing college admissions process, am I to understand that it will be even more difficult for our kids to be accepted to top 50 colleges in the coming years? WOW!

This is funny because I read this as a good thing because Top 50 isn’t meaningful to me and that next 50-100 tier seems like it might be easy to choose from a lot of great programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What is your definition of a mediocre school? Not using lists from magazines or online.

+1

I went to a SUNY school and my CS program was mostly international students. What’s prestigious to you doesn’t mean much to people overseas. They come for all sorts of American schools people might think are just okay or look down on here. Certainly not DCUM quality. LOL

+1 I was surrounded by international students at my regional low rated state univ. It was rather surprising. My immediate neighbors were from Greece and Japan.

[Anonymous]

Certain schools with a particular profile are closing down, namely smaller private institutions that cannot sustain financially and keep up with costs. There are still plenty of larger public institutions that will survive and even expand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools with a particular profile are closing down, namely smaller private institutions that cannot sustain financially and keep up with costs. There are still plenty of larger public institutions that will survive and even expand.

+1. There is maybe one school on that list that i've heard of. There are 5,000 institutions of higher ed in the U.S. This is a non-story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools with a particular profile are closing down, namely smaller private institutions that cannot sustain financially and keep up with costs. There are still plenty of larger public institutions that will survive and even expand.

+1. There is maybe one school on that list that i've heard of. There are 5,000 institutions of higher ed in the U.S. This is a non-story

Exactly. There are a ton of small, private LACs that you've likely never heard of or you might have heard of peripherally but are nationally ranked that are continuing to do fine. They have reasonable endowments. They might be "buyers" in terms of using merit aid to attract high quality students, but they continue to be able to afford their operating expenses and produce graduates who are well-educated, do well in their careers and contribute to their alma mater. Many of these places are underrated in terms of the education and opportunities they provide to students--particularly students who know how to take advantage of the opportunities in a smaller more personalized community. As financial tides shift, they may find ways to economize or expand as needed as they have always done. The ones outside the east coast might be at an advantage because their operating costs are often lower and the lower cost of living translates into lower room and board costs for students making them more financially competitive.

[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.

On a percentage basis, Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin had the 9th most international students of any institution in the US (21%). It closed in April.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/most-international

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You claim to be in academia, and yet you say there are over "1,000 R-1 and R-2 universities" in the US? Complete BS. R 1 colleges are 146. R 2 colleges are 133. You must be a graduate of Judson College to drop a lie like this.

Ok I was winging it and more pointing out there's 1,000+ big universities out there, but even looking at the research universtities, you need to add on the other campuses of a lot on those list, and you get close to 1,000. For example, UWisconsin has Madison and Milwaukee campuses but not Stevens Point or Whitewater.. but those are decent schools and will draw applicants just as well due to the UW name. A bunch of SUNY and CUNY campuses left off. Many Texas State campuses. In MD, no Frostburg nor Townson listed.

OK. Just trying to understand your post. Winging it from someone that claims to be in {academia}?

You say you are from "academia" and you say it's "alarmist". You say you were "winging it" when you professed there are over 1,000 R-1 R-2 universities in the US? Yet there are less than 300 R-1 and R-2 universities in the US.

Good lord, can you call yourself a teacher if you lie about basic facts? What exactly do you teach your kids in school? Are you a public, private teacher?

Just stop with the insults. She did admit that she was winging it. You, however, are being alarmist and misrepresenting the story.

I'm curious, who misrepresented the facts? The poster (from Academia) who claimed there are more than 1,000 R-1 and R-2 universities in the US is obviously wrong as there are less than 300 in the US. Tell me who is misrepresenting the facts?