DW and I notice how an increasing number of small LACs have closed their doors of late. We consequently take size of their endowments into consideration when screening schools as potential targets for S24.
Anyone else doing the same, or are we overly fussy?
The LACs that have closed their doors are not a reflection on all LACs. It’s a good idea, but look at the endowments closer to the time.
I personally think it’s much too early for you to be thinking about colleges now for a child who isn’t in high school yet. Your child is going to change a lot over the next few years. In fact, with both my son and daughter, the vast majority of colleges that we considered just a year before applying didn’t even make the final list. And once decisions came, a few colleges that had been applied to fell out of favor. At this point, it’s probably a waste of your time. Sophomore year of high school is commonly a time to start thinking about it, with most students giving it serious consideration in junior year.
To clarify - he is a junior in HS (college class of 2024)
Ah, got it.
You may want to look at endowments, and then consider them further in any cases in which a college of interest appears to fall near a risky threshold. Regarding LACs, it will be pretty easy to find many with endowments per student greater than or equivalent to that of financially secure private universities such as Brown and Georgetown.
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/college-rankings/details/EndowmentPerStudent
@merc81
What would you consider a risky threshold, on a per enrolled student basis?
I believe some states have established guidelines that might inform your process. You might want to research Massachusetts with respect to this, in that it appears its requirements may recently have impacted Hampshire College. In a general sense though, you might simply want to look at colleges with which you are familiar as a basis for understanding those with which you are less familiar, @cjpski.
Lacs go through this and the good ones find a way out. My daughters at Beloit College (great lac BTW) and it is going through some restructuring. This has been going on since like 2008. They find a way
She got great merit as a transfer student coming from another good lac. She applied for a grant to go to South East Asia this summer through Beloit for a program. So there’s money there for the students. Don’t equate lower endowment with lower education. Sure it’s not University of Michigan with 11 billion in endowments but the education at Beloit there is extremely high. Know several that have graduated from there also.
Lacs are cool also since they are small and personal you can just call the Provost and ask the question or email and expect a response directly. At Beloit they had a assembly with the students and let them know that some extra staff members and some assosicate professors won’t be back next year. It doesn’t affect any programs and nothing is being closed. If fact they are finishing some construction going on that money is already allocated for.
These great schools need to market their schools better. Beloit just fell in our lap and never heard about it prior. It’s in College that change lives book also. Small class size with highly intellectual students and professors. Lots of dialouge directed classes with professors that challenge you and you can go catch a coffee with to discuss your latest project. I mean, why wouldn’t anyone not want to go there?
I looked at a list (by Forbes, I think) of colleges “financial grades” before D19 made her list.
I did not want her to apply to any with a “D” grade.
@scholarme Yes, Forbes has a list of financial fitness grades for colleges that takes several factors into consideration. I guess the idea is that it’s not just the size of the endowment, but how prudently a school uses its resources.
The above mentioned Beloit College seems to be in pretty good shape with a B grade in 2017. Hampshire College, which we all have heard about recently on the other hand was given a C+ by Forbes rating system in 2017. So there is probably a threshold in there where I would be leery. I don’t know if they’ve updated this since 2017, but that’s pretty recent data.
Very reasonable to consider the financial strength of any college or university during your search. A healthy endowment is a sign of financial stability as well as of day-to-day comfort regarding maintenance of facilities, updated technology, & employment of faculty & staff.
Wouldn’t you think it wise to consider the financial health of any prospective employer ?
As for Forbes grades, look for a “B” or better financial grade for schools.
We definately looked, not sure it was a make it or break it factor, but we looked. It definately was a factor in for not choosing one specific school (among many red flags).
Mmm- yes and no. I have definitely looked, and would be concerned if the endowment were quite low. But we’re doing a little bit of bargain shopping, so endowments aren’t going to be out of sight. My alma mater has an astronomical endowment, which it has grown over the past 25 years. We also don’t feel that it’s worth the astronomical cost of attendance. My kid doesn’t need state of the art everything in order to learn well. I studied abroad in Argentina for a bit. There were times we had to sit on the floor at the public university, but the education was top notch.
“My kid doesn’t need state of the art everything…”. But employers might want students who have been trained on state of the art equipment.
“There were times we had to sit on the floor at the public university…”.
@Trixy34: Not sure if still true, is the University of Buenos Aires still basically free–even for foreigners ?
Although not your intent, you made some great points as to why a healthy endowment is an important consideration.
@Publisher - I haven’t been back since the early 90s, so I really can’t comment on how the system is now. When I was there, I just had 2 classes at the public U (the rest were at a private college that sponsored the study abroad program). I took history and politics classes, so we didn’t really need any equipment, and sitting on the floor when we had to squeeze into a different room for make-up classes post strike didn’t affect the quality of the discourse. Of course, if I were paying tuition, I would expect more!
Sure, state of the art equipment for some fields is of course important. But I don’t think my son needs a climbing wall, lazy river, or gourmet dining in order to get a good education. During some of our tours I was questioning whether we were touring a university or a luxury spa.
“Gourmet dining” is not important, but I would argue that “healthy dining” is…
Checked out on a dozen STEM Universities I often encounter and found two not listed all. I assume this is because they were not in the top 300.
My own University was listed with a semester system which it has not had since about 1970.
Great idea, but I question its accuracy or completeness. When using data from here of importance to you, one might want to confirm with a second source.
Some Universities have recently picked up some generous donations. Data supplied here may be dated but not critical for most cases. A footnote identifies “data from 2015-2016 - 2016-2017 (top 300 results shown)”
Good points, @retiredfarmer. This source shows 199 colleges and appears to be well-researched: https://www.chronicle.com/article/If-Republicans-Get-Their-Way/241659.
I do remember an interview with a very well qualified young lady who was a freshman at a well regarded state university. She had to show up for lecture 10 minutes ahead of time to be assured a seat. It just happened to be a year when some return rates on admitted students were off. Controlling size is important and not an exact science. Lecture hall presentations are harder to manage than follow up classroom sections.
Thank you for the Forbes article! It appears to be a well thought out tool