There is clearly an oversupply of non-selective, high sticker price private LAC. Actually, there is an oversupply of higher education in general, especially at the low end.
Small class sizes. 
“Actually, there is an oversupply of higher education in general, especially at the low end.”
by low end you mean non designer brand?
I wish my kids guidance counselors would do more to educate kids about LACs. Even at my kids good Maryland public school they almost never talk about St. Mary’s. Maybe 1 kid goes every other year. As far as the private LACs, I think DS2 was the 1st kid to apply to 6 out of 9 schools. He applied to everything from CTCL schools to SLACs.
I agree, St. Mary’s is a gem.
Here is a comparison of spending by Franklin Pierce (the college in the linked article) with two other LACs.
http://www.collegemeasures.org/4-year_colleges/institution/Franklin-Pierce-University-NH/scorecard/cost-per-student/
http://www.collegemeasures.org/4-year_colleges/institution/williams-college-ma/scorecard/strategic-measures/
http://www.collegemeasures.org/4-year_colleges/institution/University-of-Minnesota-Morris-MN/scorecard/cost-per-student/
School Instruction Student Academic Operations Instit'l Total
Services Support Maint. Support
Franklin Pierce 9023 4099 1932 993 3188 19234
Williams 34588 8671 6051 5372 13864 68546
UMN Morris 6814 2284 2378 2171 1910 15557
@intparent St. Mary’s Maryland is having accreditation issues.
Source? They had issues with enrollment a couple years sgo after a disasterous hire for head of admissions. But I think they have recovered from that.
The Baltimore Sun reported the accreditation warning in March:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-accreditation-warning-20160314-story.html
This has been a rough year for SMCM, especially the last month
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/31/multiple-dorm-arsons-confederate-flags-put-a-college-on-edge/?hpid=hp_local-news_gp-stmarys-520pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
I don’t agree with those comparisons, @ucbalumnus . Williams is Williams, an entirely different LAC. UM MORRIS is part of a university system, so some costs can be absorbed by the system. It a state school so gets state fundin g
Hmm, I hope SMCM bounces back from these.
Not many costs can be absorbed by a university system. I don’t know what type of operations you’re thinking of. If it costs X to run a dining hall, that’s what it costs. The fact that a school gets state funding doesn’t affect expenditure numbers. Expenditure numbers tell you a good deal about where the college’s resources are going and the kind of staff and faculty it can attract. That’s comparable across LACs.
You also have to factor in endowment, return on investments, etc.