Ever heard of this college? Neither had I.
It has about 850 students and is affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. I am guessing this person made the donation.
This strikes me as a particularly large donation. Apart from the famous colleges with famously large endowments, not many colleges have anywhere close to this kind of money. What do folks predict will happen? Will this college suddenly become hot? What does a tiny college do with that kind of money?
I had heard of it, but I am from Kansas originally. Another article I read pointed out that the college has the only degree in classic automotive restoration in the country, which has in the past attracted attention to the school from classic car enthusiasts like Jay Leno.
Good for them! And what an extraordinary development team to be able to come up with 500mil matching funds.
Off hand, this is reminding me a bit of Berry College, which I believe has a relatively large endowment.
And while I have never been there myself, my understanding is Berry built itself a very swank campus:
https://www.berry.edu/articles/news/2022/beauty-AD
I also wonder if enrollment might go up at least somewhat.
This is, like, 20 min from where my grandparents used to live!
Berry is a really interesting place. We visited there with D23. Martha Berry, who founded the school as a sort of co-op, was able to secure funding from big donors like the Fords. It is the largest campus in the world, something like 30,000 acres.
Martha Berry was quirky and wanted Berry to look like Oxford and that part of the campus is really beautiful. We were surprised though that the main part of the school is in an entirely different area and in need of a facelift. The gorgeous castle area is a few dorms and the chapel and not much else. They were shooting Stranger Things there when we toured.
In the end, it was the very local college feel that turned off D23. The admission rep asked everyone on the tour what high school they went to, and they were all Georgia schools where she knew the counselors.
Anyway, sorry for the ramble 
Grinnell is another small school with a large endowment (~$2.4B). Hopefully they will use the money wisely!
Wow, this will be massively transformative for this school (if the trustees don’t blow it somehow). Right now it’s only about 800 students.
I would be extremely happy if I was the owner of the adjacent self storage facility right now. Property value just went way up.
I’ve started to become very conscious on endowments given the wave of college closures. One of the factors that played into D23s decision to attend Trinity University is their large endowment ( 1.7bil) especially for a small college that isn’t as nationally known.
Nearby Bethany College is probably doing this today:
Agree! It sounds like they’re putting some real thought into how to go forward. I think the engineering program sounds very cool.
Fascinating!
I think I originally looked at Berry online because I was looking at a list of large endowments, and most of them were the usual suspects (meaning “national” universities and colleges I had some familiarity with). But I really didn’t know anything about Berry.
What you are describing is what I believe is sometimes called (or categorized as) a “regional” university/college. We had some prominent regional liberal arts colleges in my home state, and lots of competitive students from my HS opted for them (enough that usually you would know multiple people from HS going there too). But I can see why the “local” feel is not for everyone (and I personally could not wait to get out of state).
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if McPherson becomes a “national” school or not. Including whether they even try–it sounds like they already have a “brand” in some areas, and are maybe looking to fund some special programs, so maybe they will become more of a prominent specialist school.
This is probably too extreme, but I am thinking of like Loma Linda University, a Seventh-Day Adventist university that specializes in health professions. Last I knew they also had a large endowment, but were not particularly interested in using it to climb the generic US News rankings (which seems fine to me).
Grinnell has a lot more name recognition though. I think if it wasn’t in Iowa, it would be incredibly competitive to get into. It’s not easy as it stands.
Grinnell’s plenty competitive! Around 10% acceptance rate the last few years, I haven’t seen Class of 2027 acceptance rate yet. It will take McPherson a while to get there though!
Among us Midwesterners, it has long been a “top” LAC. Obviously we know about the big East Coast and California names too, but I think a lot of us would think of LACs like Carleton and Grinnell as right near the top, and Oberlin, Macalester, and Kenyon as not far behind.
But of course they tend to get a (somewhat) lower volume of applications than coastal LACs that might otherwise be considered “peers”. I think they still end up finding great students (as their enrolled student numbers suggest), but they are maybe just a little easier for, say, an “average excellent” student who is not a recruited athlete to get into.
Anyway, I am pointing this all out because I do think the Midwest (broadly conceived) has its own ecosphere of LACs, and perhaps McPherson could eventually reposition itself in that ecosphere, even if Grinnell specifically would be a tough rung to get to.
Like, another school I view as a “wealthy” school is Richmond. And although I am not an expert in their history, my impression is they have been sort of “moving up” recently (and there is nothing wrong with that).
And maybe for now that is aiming a little high too. But that’s also a LOT of money McPherson got, and success begets success, and I do wonder if there might be room in the LAC landscape for the “Richmond of the Midwest” (or however you might want to put it).
Grinnell College has had extremely good leadership in its endowment investment committee, including Warren Buffet for many years.
Also, Grinnell college was invited to invest in one of it’s graduate’s (Robert Noyce) start-up company. They went all in, and that company became Intel. Noyce has also been a large benefactor to the school, with the Science Center named after him.
It will be interesting to see how McPherson manages their gift.
I know. My kid applied to three of the colleges you’ve mentioned. Nearly attended Kenyon. 
Not necessarily, but money can certainly help quite a bit. Take Soka, for example, which graduated its first class less than twenty years ago and is now ranked as a top 30 LAC.
One reason for this is Soka’s massive endowment (roughly 2.6 times the size of Grinnell’s, adjusting for enrollment).
Pet peeve. This is not higher education. Sounds like a vocational school.
I deleted this post and all the responses to it.
