I am interested in a LAC, but many LACs seem to be going through a transition and some colleges are closing. How can I tell the college I am interested in is financially strong?
This is a hot and timely topic … so much so that there are dozens of recent articles that can answer you more effectively than I can. (And tossing a few links at you won’t take up all the time we have today.)
Here are a few places to start:
http://theconversation.com/5-ways-to-check-a-colleges-financial-health-127908
http://www2.bain.com/sustainable-university/interactive.asp?t=0
While it can certainly be stressful to enroll at a college that shutters its doors before you’ve graduated, the silver lining is that students at these about-to-close colleges are often invited to enroll elsewhere, and it’s not unusual for the new host college to be one that’s more selective than the original school … a place where these students might not have been admitted had they applied straight from high school.
Of course, choosing a college isn’t all about selectivity. Students who attend colleges that close often must say goodbye to friends and faculty, to their favorite bookstores or pizza parlors, and maybe even to the majors they’d initially pursued. It can be a very unsettling time for many and perhaps exciting only for a few.
Students also worry that, if they graduated from a college that closed, their diplomas then become worthless. But that really isn’t true at all. So those who already hold degrees from about-to-be-extinct institutions shouldn’t fear that these degrees won’t hold value, but they might want to buy a few collectors-item sweatshirts while there’s still time. 