I don’t know who first shared the Forbes list on CC, but thank you. I’m relieved our son chose the highest-ranking A+ school on his list.
For those who would like to rely on the Forbes list, remember that Sweet Briar got an A grade on that list right before they said they were closing (and stayed open only through the heroic effort of some very wealthy backers, and are still in a precarious situation).
Also: Endowment per student is important, but a bit overhyped. Colleges have a lot of base fixed costs where smaller schools are paying at least as much as larger ones (especially if there’s any sort of research component at all to faculty workloads). And lots of students may be expensive, but few students means less money coming in.
(One positive thing endowment per student gives is a better probability of endowment income being able to be spun into financial aid. Doesn’t help in years like this one, though.)
My guess would be that a lot of that endowment is tied up in very expensive New York City real estate and thus extremely hard to use as actual funds.
Wasn’t a big issue for Sweet Briar that most of their endowment was extremely heavily restricted, IIRC?
Let’s not use this forum to speculate on who’s next. There will be a LOT of colleges this time around with schools that are state, large endowment and a healthy enrollment. It will all depend on the size of the hit they get (remember Yeshiva has had a huge hit every year and lost half of its endowment to giving up their medical school but survives).
This pandemic will force colleges on ventilators to shutdown, the sick will have to be placed on ventilators and the longer they stay on one sadly just like the coronavirus patients will not come off. The healthy will have a smaller population to deal with.
The table on that site is very glitchy! I found the following solution from an old thread:
The best I could do with this is to click inside the confines of the table and hit Control-A (select all on Windows, not sure on Mac), then Control-C (copy on Windows, not sure on Mac). Then I pasted it (Control-V or whatever on Mac) into a text editor (Notepad, in my case) or Excel.
I can confirm this works with a Mac, using the Command key instead of Control.
Urbana University closing after spring. I think Urbana had merged with Franklin a few years ago. Seems one adapter the other colleges are collapsing
https://www.wlwt.com/article/urbana-university-closing-campus-at-end-of-spring-semester/32223601
@airway1, I looked it up, and yes, you’re right, Urbana had merged with Franklin, and had continued running as a branch campus with its own identity. Reading between the lines, it seems that Franklin is essentially cutting their losses at this point.
Since Urbana students were technically actually Franklin students, they don’t have to transfer (and Franklin has to come up with teach-out plans for the programs offered only at the branch campus that they’re shuttering). Urbana’s closure information page, kind of surprisingly, gives no information on faculty- and staff-related plans, which I would find more than worrying if I worked there.
ETA: Urbana’s admissions page is still up and running with zero mention of the closure at all. Both bad form, and evidence that this was a pretty sudden decision.
Most (all?) catholic colleges are supported by a particular order (Jesuits, LaSallians). The buildings and property is usually owned by the order too. There isn’t really a ‘catholic church’ to bail anyone out. Rome isn’t sending checks.
I think I was the one who posted that. Back then it was really difficult to sort that chart in place, but it seems to be easier now.
That chart is really useful, but as I think I said on that other thread I wish they had broken out the scores for the individual criteria.
Thank you for identifying yourself as having first shared the chart. (I didn’t scroll all the way through the pages late last night to find the person to give credit to so a huge thank you for first introducing the information here on CC.)
There’s not really any pile of gold hidden away for schools at a time when dioceses across the country are filing for bankruptcy left and right. The only thing that being Catholic brings is a bit of a hook for those prospective students looking for that atmosphere. But it drives away a smaller number, so even that effect is not huge.
I should just take the credit but what I was referring to was the post about how to manipulate the chart. I was quite proud of myself at the time for having figured that out.
@taverngirl @ThisNameNotTaken I think another way to look at the Frobes charts without the glitch is simply to turn off your internet when looking at it. You can still sort it and stuff without internet.
Apparently Urbana had a C on Forbes and Franklin a C+. If schools in the C range are shutting down I don’t understand how so many of the D range schools are still alive. Anyone know if a lot of these schools are getting a Federal Bailout or anything like that?
No federal bailouts for these schools. It is possible to limp along for quite some time even with a very poor financial situation. Some schools that are on the brink might turn themselves around, while others might get another 5-10 years before the inevitable happens.
@twoinanddone , scrolling around idly on the Forbes list, I find Florida Institute of technology on the D list, which was a surprise to me - not your typical candidate (small, religious institution, far from population centers, serving underprepared students, offering low income majors and so on…). What’s their problem, do you know?
It is more like the other way around. When the Archdiocese of Boston needed to raise cash (for reasons we all know) Boston College bought a large piece of land from them that had housed the Cardinal’s residence and the archdiocesan offices. It is now part of the BC campus.
@amsunshine - Fordham is fine, very well off alums who love the school, give money back to the school and as pointed out about Manhattan College, very close to the arch diocese of NYc, and they have a endowment of 700 million plus as you pointed out. If they are in trouble so is 75% of the schools in the US.
I was thinking that each schools order ie Jesuits would be the first line of being hit up for a bailout, then the arch diocese … Rome has it’s own problems at the moment. But my general point was most catholic schools with decent enrollment say 3000 kids up could make a case for funds to stay open and restructure. No doubt this year we will se more schools close than a normal year.
@tomofboston - I did not know that, does the cardinal still live there? I am wondering if it was kinda of a reverse loan. I am not saying every religious school would or could be bailed out but it may be a option. I guess I was thinking their endowments were somehow cushioned by the church’s finances or perhaps their orders finances , it seem when schools close it is mostly about really low enrollment vs fix costs. I know there have been some schools that closed for bad management but that seems to be in the minority.