<p>Now that Cooper Union only awards half-tuition scholarships unless need is demonstrated, did Cooper Union just lose part of its charm?</p>
<p>I personally expect the acceptance rate to rise to at least 10%.</p>
<p>Not at all. Cooper Union is a very condense school of intellectuals through both faculty and students. The financial issues would not effect the program but hopefully add to it as another source to maintain the amazing facilities. There is just a donation fall in the bad economy.</p>
<p>More like poor management of the endowment.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/business/how-cooper-unions-endowment-failed-in-its-mission.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/business/how-cooper-unions-endowment-failed-in-its-mission.html</a></p>
<p>This isn’t just a donation fall in a bad economy - the article MrMom linked shows pretty clearly that Cooper Union hasn’t really had larger donors. They don’t encourage their alumni to give back and they haven’t been able to court large donors. They’ve been relying on the Chrysler Building for revenues until now, and their hedge fund.</p>