Sweet Briar College makes final payment

[barrons]

Over $12 M in CASH raised in a few months. Outstanding-congrats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/01/supporters-to-make-final-payment-to-sweet-briar-college-with-a-little-extra-thrown-in/

[Gator88NE]

Congrats!

Only 248 students returned to campus and about 30 freshman enrolled. Another 80 Sweet Briar students are studying abroad this term and do not contribute as much tuition as on-campus students…

Stone, the new president, has vowed to increase enrollment to capacity — 800 students — and then “wean” the school off its use of tuition discounts to attract students. But he said the school will have to lean heavily on donations from alumnae in the near future. He hopes they can raise $12 million this year, the same amount of money donors ponied up when the school was under threat of closure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/08/27/an-especially-welcome-first-day-of-classes-at-a-college-slated-to-close/

Now the Alumnae need to raise another $12 million, but I wouldn’t bet against them…

[Hoosier96]

@Gator88NE I agree with you, they have raised over 28 million in pledges in less than 6 months. For a group that was told they “did not have the capacity” to raise funds per the old administration I would say they proved that theory wrong. I wish them luck going forward and only the future will tell the rest of the story.

[Dustyfeathers]

@Hoosier96 and @Gator88NE it looks like applications are up!

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/sweet-briar-college-sees-highest-number-of-new-applicants-in-50-years/37535980

[Gator88NE]

Sweat Briar is back from the dead (much like this thread).

“Right now our applications are over 1,000 for the first time in 50 years,” Stone said, adding that he hopes the school will admit a freshman class of at least 200 in the fall.

Using the CDS info, they enrolled 197 students in the fall of 2013 (out of 905 applications).

http://sbc.edu/sites/default/files/u1/CDS_2013-2014%20C%20CDS-C.pdf

Stone says Sweet Briar is in the process of launching new International recruiting efforts. He’s hoping to make a personal visit to China in the next month to attract students from that country.

We discussed earlier how one tactic to increase enrollment could be international recruiting. Another tactic has been getting Alumnae more involved in recruitment.