I’ll never forget my big brother, 1982, all set to attend Eisenhower College on Cayuga Lake, NY to play baseball. Opening the mail on a beautiful late July day (a month before move in!!) to find the college was acquired by RIT and would be closing immediately!!! He ended up going to RIT for a year, loved it, and had to transfer out at the end of freshman year because they would only honor the Eisenhower financials for a year.
Memphis College of Art recently announced that it will close after the class of 2020 graduation.
Claremont School of Theology (Calif.) mentioned above is in talks to move to Salem and be taken on by Willamette. WU has a school of law and an MBA program and seems like a good fit.
At a dinner this week, I met a proud graduate of St. Joseph’s (IN), which closed just months ago. What a shame for the alumni.
St. Gregory’s University, a 700-student institution in Oklahoma, today announced it will close at the end of the 2017 fall semester. See the following links:
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Another-Small-College-St/241722?cid=wcontentlist_hp_latest
I just found out a college my D really likes got a D grade from Forbes, the same ranking that St. Gregory’s had before the sudden decision to close.
My oldest graduated from a C rated school and got a fantastic education so I might consider the right C school again, but a D scares me.
@MACmiracle: Note that St. Joseph’s College in Indiana had a financial-strength rating of ‘C’ by Forbes at the time it announced it was closing.
A lot of the good catholic schools get C and lower grades. I think it has to do with their endowments that don’t have big bucks sitting in a bank but the schools have resources they can pull from. The college might not own the building on their campuses, especially the cathedrals or chapels, that might be owned by their orders. They also may have salary obligations to administrators and staff that gets donated back but Forbes doesn’t account for that until the actual donation is made.
@twoinanddone Interesting. I wonder what signs one can look for from the outside to find the real financial health of a school?
@MinnesotaDadof3 I noticed Aquinas College in Nashville has a C. They haven’t closed the college but they closed down all programs except for education, I think, in the last year.
I hear that Wheelock in Boston may be merging into BU as the school of early childhood education. Wheelock has a proud history as a leader in that field. Seems like a good move for both schools.
Maybe you can also look at credit ratings to guess about a college’s financial viability. If a college has been downgraded a couple of times in a row AND has a bad rating from Forbes, maybe that combination of signals might be enough for some concern. Just tossing out ideas here.
That is a good idea!
It appears that the wealth, or financial grade, of the school in the Forbe’s report suffices for tiered rankings some have put forth on CC. The A+ financial schools are also the A+ prestige schools and so on.
I just google to find the Moody’s ranking. I can’t remember the exact code but the article indicates it means a “poor outcome” is expected.
Enrollment declines, cash must go for debt servicing, leaving less cash for investment for long term investment in facilities, etc., etc.
It sounds like it could lead to a downward spiral.
Depressing.
What school?
@apraxiamom Mount St. Mary’s
@Consolation Wheelock IS merging with BU, but it will not be early childhood ed, they are just renaming SED to Wheelock College of Education and Human Devlopment at BU. Many students are not happy about this.
@AwesomeAxolotl Do you mean many Wheelock students are unhappy? It sounds like it is more than just renaming.
I have a friend who is a Wheelock trustee. It sound like a good solution to me, that honors what Wheelock has always been about.
@MACmiracle – Which Mount St. Mary’s-- Maryland or NY? (Maryland is a University, NY is a college.)