Reply to WaPo feature on bad economic outlook for colleges

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Told through the lens of one liberal arts college that's the canary in a coal mine. https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2019/10/21/downfall-hampshire-college-broken-business-model-american-higher-education/?arc404=true

..."[b]Because of low birthrates following the Great Recession, Carleton College economist Nathan Grawe predicts that the four-year-college applicant pool is likely to shrink by almost 280,000 per class, over four years, starting in 2026,[/b] a year known in higher ed as “the Apocalypse.” As youth populations decline everywhere but the southern and western United States, colleges in New England and the Midwest will find it increasingly hard to lure students, particularly those able to pay.

The problem is the business model. Colleges have long counted on wealthy students to subsidize the cost of education for those who can’t afford it. But for many institutions, that is becoming untenable. With only a $52 million endowment, Hampshire is especially vulnerable to this reality, but enrollment experts say it will affect many schools outside the most elite. Schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and MIT will be fine, says Jon Boeckenstedt, Oregon State University’s vice provost of enrollment management. “It’s those colleges in the middle of the curve, with good, solid, well-known reputations but not spectacular financial resources or academic reputation, that are feeling the pinch,” he explains." ...[/quote]

Simple solution: Lower f#cking tuition fees.[/quote]

How does that work?  They meet need and are accepting too many students with need so their tuition receipts are too low.  Average [b]tuition is already too low,[/b] giving  those who can pay a break won’t improve things.  There’s no reason to believe this will bring in more full pay students, those are in scarce supply.[/quote]

“Too low” for what?  When the federal government turned on the spigot for student loans, colleges went into an arms race to see who could attract students by spending the most money on flashy things that had nothing to do with education and expanding their Administrative costs. Now that generation of students are paying the piper and have successfully made the case to the next generation that borrowing six figures to pay for college is a bad idea. The gravy train is ending, and colleges without multi-billion dollar endowments will rein in their costs back to where they should have been in the first place or go out of business.  [/quote]

Too low to keep the lights on.  Did you read the article?  It's about Hampshire college and they haven't been pumping money into facilities, the school is falling apart.  The plan was to support the school from tuition.  When the school ended up accepting more than 30% low income students, the money collected doesn't cover operating costs.  They need to find more wealthy students or they won't survive.[/quote]

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