Here's a recent Federal Reserve study on this topic. Net-net: it's essential for parents to review the financial strength of the university your kid is applying to because the enrollment decline is real. It's somewhat counter to the point that Selingo makes in his book, where you should find these small hidden jewels where your kid will be valued, because it's exactly those institutions that are at major risk of closing. Kind of like the example of Birmingham Southern University that Selingo gives in his book ... but if you read the book, BSU is exactly the sort of school that he encourages you to look at because it was small and valued the students it enrolled. So, go figure!

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2025003pap.pdf

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thanks for these suggestions!
Just searched and found the study Selingo referenced: The Financially Resilient University (Bain & Company, 2023). https://www.bain.com/insights/financially-resilient-university/

Right, and they ran about 1000 colleges against their methodology and I just posted the tool in another response. It's pretty good!

Anonymous wrote:There are a couple of resources for this that was mentioned in Selingo's book Dream School. I can't recall them at the moment but he mentioned a couple of places to check because he mentioned that this is a real concern and parents should weigh this as heavily as they weigh the USNWR rankings. He mentioned a Bain study also that looked at over 1000 colleges in the US. I tried searching for it several months ago but couldn't locate it so gave up.

Found it! https://www.bain.com/insights/how-financially-stable-is-your-college-interactive/

OP here: Thanks for these suggestions!
Just searched and found the study Selingo referenced: The Financially Resilient University (Bain & Company, 2023). https://www.bain.com/insights/financially-resilient-university/

There are a couple of resources for this that was mentioned in Selingo's book Dream School. I can't recall them at the moment but he mentioned a couple of places to check because he mentioned that this is a real concern and parents should weigh this as heavily as they weigh the USNWR rankings. He mentioned a Bain study also that looked at over 1000 colleges in the US. I tried searching for it several months ago but couldn't locate it so gave up.

You could take a look at endowment per student:

Rankings | Largest college endowment per student - Highest endowment per student https://www.collegeraptor.com/college-rankings/details/EndowmentPerStudent/

However, EPS represents a narrower measure than those of Forbes.

I don't know that these are being updated given the dismantling of the Dept of Ed, but this site reports "financial responsibility" scores, "a composite of three ratios derived from an institution's audited financial statements. The three ratios are a primary reserve ratio, an equity ratio, and a net income ratio. These ratios gauge the fundamental elements of the financial health of an institution". Latest data is 2022-2023

https://studentaid.gov/data-center/school/composite-scores

What are some good resources for learning about the financial health of colleges DC is considering? We found the latest Forbes ratings on college financial health. We can google for general news stories. Other suggestions? TIA