In 1977 tuition at a representative Ivy that I could find data for (University of Pennsylvania) was $4,080, Room and Board was $2,350 and there was a “General Fee” of $370, for a grand total of $6,800, at a time when a newly minted Ivy grad could get a starting job with a salary of $25-35K; earning back the full cost of the 4 year degree in the first year working. Fast forward 40 years, and a $75,000 per year Ivy degree doesn’t get you anything close to a $300k starting salary. When the economics at the elite colleges don’t make any sense, is it any wonder that small colleges with virtually no name recognition are having problems getting students to pony up elite pricing for a less-than-elite education?
The kind of weird thing I always wonder when a rural college ends up failing: What’s going to happen to the physical plant?
I mean, go look up some photos of Southern Vermont—that place has some beautiful buildings. What’s going to happen to them?
@dfbdfb – Assisted Living, the next great need?
@dfbdfb Dana College, based out of the Omaha exurb of Blair, NE is now a nonprofit training center and will also provide low income and senior housing according to [this 2018 article](Former Dana College campus donated to nonprofit Angels Share).
As @CT1417 guessed, it doesn’t seem to be unheard of for parts of the college to be converted into senior housing. Nasson College, located in rural Maine and which closed in 1983, [is now senior housing](http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/20180709/CURRENTEDITION/307039994/nasson-college’s-turnaround-nearly-complete-with-conversion-of-marland-hall-into-senior-housing) and non age restricted apartments with a bit of office space thrown in. However, there were extensive legal battles regarding the ownership of the land and buildings prior to the conversion.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/local-news/2018/07/17/a-puzzling-purchase-sold-college-campus-remains-virtually-untouched/ describes the apparent lack of activity on the campus of the closed Daniel Webster College campus.
@dfbdfb :“I mean, go look up some photos of Southern Vermont—that place has some beautiful buildings. What’s going to happen to them?”
I wonder about that too. Workforce training and development for adults? Many of these failing institutions for too long simply kept pushing the traditional 4-year college education model, even as enrollments were falling and the students were less and less prepared. Early in my career, I taught at an institution that was struggling financially (it still is). There was no real attempt to address the root cause of the issues. It was always the motto: “If it’s broken, don’t fix it.” And if administrators mention things like certificate programs (not the post bac kind), there was always resistance from the faculty : "we are not a vocational school " “we are not a community college” etc.
No easy answers, and the demographics are only going to get worse. But the warning signs were there for many of these institutions for many, many years. They chose not to pay any attention to it until it was too late, to the detriment of the faculty,staff,students, and the surrounding community.
Rich hippies.
UMass set to expand by cannibalizing existing online programs at other colleges.
“Around 15,000 of SNHU’s more than 100,000 enrollees are estimated to be Massachusetts residents. Meehan suggested that UMass’s online college should be able to attract students from that pool”
https://www.boston.com/news/education/2019/03/06/umass-marty-meehan-online-college-existential-threat
Thanks for the Interesting article @TomSrOfBoston
Add UMass to the schools with hybrid models (campus based or partial to fully online degrees)…ASU, Purdue, U Maryland, U Maine, UF, Liberty all in that business as well. Online student numbers are increasing quickly and dramatically, but competition is fierce, and also comes from the mega online only schools like SNHU 100K+ and WGCU 90K+.
It will be interesting to see what the important points of differentiation become for the schools offering online options (assuming all accredited with good and/or relevant outcomes)…will it be on price? Majors? Certifications? Better outcomes (how measured)?
Here is a good article regarding the trend: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-MegaU-Main
@Mwfan1921 SNHU still has a brick and mortar campus.
“I mean, go look up some photos of Southern Vermont—that place has some beautiful buildings. What’s going to happen to them?”
Definitely assisted living. Of course, in order to live there, the senior citizen would have to submit an application listing her most important extracurriculars, her leadership positions, awards won, and an essay describing a time when she experienced failure and the lesson she learned from it.
They are? How so?
It is the most popular destination for students using the consortium to study at a college other than their own.
Vermont has too many college even the state schools are having enrollment problems… they have too many small private colleges.
Check this out (this us a huge for profit conglomerate that had mostly graduate, professional and art programs: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/03/04/argosy-students-lose-out-millions-dollars-federal-aid-goes-missing
Looks like they will be closing.
I’d take classes at UMass because they have the good food. Miles better than the rest.
That’s a real thing kids do, take classes at UMass around lunchtime so they get the meal pass there.
My D really enjoyed her Smith classes. Both were advanced courses in her major (though she’d completed major reqs already) that were not available at Amherst. She spoke very highly of the women she worked with there too, lots of group projects that were tricky logistically because of the campuses, but went really well.
Back to topic, I agree Amherst and Hampshire are already as close as they want to be. IMO Umass making a college within a college is a much better idea.
The article I read last week was pretty tough on the new college president - has that been posted here yet?
http://fortune.com/2019/02/27/hampshire-college-nelson-good-governance/
Ouch.
So back to the colleges closing this year:
Newbury College, MA
Hampshire College, MA (still not official)
Green Mountain College, VE
Southern Vermont College, VE
College of New Rochelle, NY
Oregon College of Arts & Crafts
On watch:
College of St Joseph, VE
Goddard College, VE
Bennett College, NC
Bethune-Cookman University, FL
Cheyney University, PA (state school)
Major for profit:
Argosy University
Is it a bad thing? There seem to be lots of studies indicating the demographic trends will get worse, not better, and more closures likely. Sad for those involved, but oversupply seems to be the problem.
You know, this year’s list feels long, but it honestly doesn’t seem to me all that out of line with any other given year.
College of New Rochelle’s students will be able to transfer to Mercy College, and some may be able to transfer to Marist in Poughkeepsie. https://www.wamc.org/post/two-colleges-announce-agreement-one-closing