All female LAC faces tough times

Parents Forum
101

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<p>I’d say for a private college or university, you’d want endowment-per-student somewhere around $150,000 or higher for the endowment to begin to be much of a factor in what the school can provide. At $150K per student, the school’s annual payout should be about $7500 per student. Double that (e.f., Bryn Mawr) and you’re at $15K per student per annum; triple it (Smith) and you’re at $22.5K per student per annum; quadruple it (Wellesley) and you’re at $30K per student per annum. That’s a huge difference. Anything much under $150K per student and the endowment will only be enough to pay for small things here and there.</p>

<p>But endowment-per-student can be misleading, too. There are economies of scale. At $92K per student but with 2,360 students, Barnard may be better off financially than 735-student Sweet Briar is with $128K per student. Administrators, athletic facilities, libraries, performance spaces will be needed whether a school has 800 students or 3 times that many or 10 times that many, and while more and bigger will be needed at bigger schools, the cost-per-student probably comes down with increasing size. </p>

<p>Also, some colleges have strong annual giving programs. Macalester College, for example, reports it receives almost $4 million/year, or roughly 4% of its annual operating budget, in annual giving. That’s the equivalent of having an additional $80 million in its endowment. Connecticut College reports annual giving of $5 million/year, which is the equivalent of the payout from an additional $100 million in endowment; this at a school with an endowment of only $213 million. Some colleges may be stronger in this area, and some weaker. So endowment alone doesn’t tell the whole story. This is also another area where a tiny school like Sweet Briar may be at a disadvantage, because it’s going to have far fewer alums to tap for annual giving.</p>

<p>Of course, the vast majority of colleges and universities don’t have anywhere near $150K -per-student in endowment.</p>

102

<p>Interesting distiction you make. How often is an institution get a sizable annual giving when their endowment is small? I would think colleges with a big endowment are also likely to be successful with annual giving. </p>

<p>For comparison, I looked up endowments at co-ed LACs. The figures are from March 2011 “10 richest colleges”. There are 5 LACs. The other 5 are HYPSM. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/41834274/Colleges_with_the_Biggest_Endowment_Per_Student[/url]”>http://www.cnbc.com/id/41834274/Colleges_with_the_Biggest_Endowment_Per_Student&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>college – Endowment - # of students - per student</p>

<p>Olin – $335M - 306 - $1,096,595
Pomona – $1.46B - 1548 - $942,490
Swarthmore – $1.25B - 1525 - $819,975
Amherst – $1.39B - 1744 - $794,579
Grinnell – $1.26B - 1688 - $749,309</p>

103

<p>The question of annual giving vs. endowment is an interesting one. I can imagine that Sweet Briar might be a college that would have pretty good annual giving, but fewer big gifts, based on my understanding of the kinds of students who attended there in the past.</p>

104

<p>In the end, how well a college will fare depends on its ability to attract applicants who are really interested in attending the school. And applicants who are able and willing to do so without having to be bought by merit aid or supported massively through financial aid. In this regard, a strong indicator is the number of applicants for restricted early programs, as well as the acceptance rate for such students. With few exceptions, this is an area of difficulty for less prestigious LACs and especially the non-coed ones.</p>

<p>Of course, it is not the only indicator. As others have written, a low endowment might indicate an inability of increasing the spending to stay afloat. With the cost of providing an education greatly superior to the tuition income (even at the full rate) schools with dwindling applications and enrollments are indeed in quite a bind. </p>

<p>And last but not least, add the media barrage attacking the value of a non-professional degree in 2012, and you can start spelling c-r-i-s-i-s in many academic ivory towers. </p>

<p>Ultimately, we will reach the conclusion that our higher education financing model has been a rudderless ship. But one traveling at the speed of a runaway train. A model based on low working hours dedicated to teaching students who expect four years of living in a glorified country club has become untenable. As unpleasant as it sounds, we might very well need a smaller tertiary system with fewer students and faculty, and a much better secondary system that could employ the redundant teachers and ask them to put in working hours comparable to the parents of the children they teach. </p>

<p>Even for the richest country on earth.</p>

105

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<p>There aren’t any women’s colleges quite at this level of endowment, although Wellesley is close at $622K/student.</p>

<p>A perhaps more interesting comparison than looking at the very tippy-top is to look at some schools with comparable endowments (women’s colleges in bold):</p>

<p>School—Endowment—Students—Endowment per Student</p>

<p>Rice—$4,451M—5,879—$757,178<br>
Wellesley—$1,499M—2,411—$622,095
Dartmouth—$3,413M—6,141—$555,839
Bowdoin—$904M—1,762—$513,175
Smith—$1,429M—3,113—$459,212<br>
Duke—$5,747M—14,983—$383,593<br>
Bryn Mawr—$671M—1,755—$382,395
Columbia—$7,789M—22,283—$349,575<br>
Haverford—$402M—1,177—$342,167
Carleton—$653M—2,020—$323,498
Agnes Scott—$258M—883—$292,185
Davidson—$509M—1,744—$291,858
Brown—$2,496M—8,695—$287,168
Scripps—$267M—950—$281,052
Lafayette—$658M—2,414—$272,637
Mount Holyoke—$602M—2,200—$273,636
Vanderbilt—$3,414M—12,714—$268,563
Cornell—$5,059M—20,939—$241,626
Furman—$572M—2,880—$198,667
Centre—$212M—1,310—$161,832
Rhodes—$283M—1,830—$154,848
Hollins—$153M—1,018—$150,294
Spelman—$285M—2,355—$138,559
Bates—$231M—1,725—$134,174<br>
College of Wooster—$247M—1,854—$133,225
Sweet Briar—$75M—735—$127,891
Skidmore—$299M—2,500—$119,600
Mills—$183M—1,555—$117,942
Connecticut College—$212M—1,911—$110,937
Barnard—$218M—2,360—$92,327
Gettysburg—$237M—2,600—$91,153
Simmons—$165M—1,912—$86,297
St. Mary’s—$128M—1,628—$78,624
Wesleyan College—$42M—645—$65,337
Lewis & Clark—$202M—3,502—$57,681</p>

106

<p>One big issue for the WC’s is the higher rate of tuition discounting compared with similar quality coed schools. That endowment does not go as far when net tuition is much lower.</p>

107

<p>Of the all-male colleges (just to highlight and compare single-sex) it appears to be a mixed bag as well. If anything, their endowments appear to be healthier than their USNWR rankings with the exception of Morehouse (though they are in the middle of a capital campaign). </p>

<p>Wabash College–$303.6M-875-$346,971 (53 LAC)
Hampden Sydney–$115.4M-1,106-$104,339 (94 LAC)
Morehouse–$128.9M–3,000-$42,967 (127 LAC)</p>

108

<p>From the table in post #105, I think LACs are doing well. Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Agnes Scott, Scripps and Mount Holyoke are in the mix with Dartmouth, Duke, Columbia, Brown. We know research universities spend far more on graduate students. If we could compare undergrads sepaprately, I am sure they will come out ahead.</p>

109

<p>Thanks bclintonk and BobWallace - I am happy since D will be attending Wellesley in the fall. When I looked at their endowment, I thought, “pretty beefy”, but all the talk in here had me wondering and frankly, I hadn’t checked up like you guys did.</p>

110

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<p>Wow, congratulations - great school.</p>

111

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<p>Copy editors and fact checkers have gone the way of the manual typewriter I’m afraid.</p>

112

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<p>I’m not exactly sure what its current “image” is so, therefore, I have no thoughts about what needs to be changed.</p>

<p>The name of the school comes from the name of the former plantation where it is situated. They could change the name, of course, if they wish to.</p>

113

<p>I’m just happy Lynchburg still has a daily paper that focuses on the community. A typo is not the end of the world. Don’t need priggish comments on it.</p>

<p>The former Randolph Macon Woman’s College not far from Sweet Briar is in the second phase of changing from female to coed. Not an easy road either. Not sure what SBC could change itself into to grow again.</p>

114

<p>Just an idea for Sweet Briar would be to come up with a program that appeals to people outside the region and pour resources into it. For instance, make the school known for creative writing, with artist in residence, writing symposiums, target the same people that dream of Iowa’s program in an undergrad, or for those that dream of Kenyon. Add immersion trips to the curiculum (an inexpensive way to do foreign study).</p>

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<p>SBC does have a plan</p>

<p>[A</a> Plan for Sustainable Excellence | Sweet Briar College](<a href=“http://sbc.edu/strategic-plan/plan-sustainable-excellence]A”>http://sbc.edu/strategic-plan/plan-sustainable-excellence)</p>

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<p>Also has a response to the NA article</p>

<p>[Statement</a> Regarding Program Reductions | Sweet Briar College](<a href=“News and Events • Sweet Briar College”>News and Events • Sweet Briar College)</p>

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<p>MizzBee, in the midst of all the pink and green, SB does have a solid creative writing program with writers in residence and various writing conferences, is home to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (a work/retreat center for artists) and the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, has solid study abroad, environmental programs (well they’ve got all that land,) and the engineering, plus more. Two friends sent their daughters there, both quite happy. D1 thought it was gorgeous (it is) but wouldn’t consider any women’s college and, as a northerner, had misgivings about heading south- esp a southern location still in transition. I think, because it’s small and somewhat isolated (ie, the closest U is UVA, 50 miles up the road,) it’s come to be a safety- lower average hs gpa, etc. But, it’s still considered a great deal for COA (under 45k for tuition fees, RB?.) Their career services dept is rated high. </p>

<p>You hate to think a school has to bring in men or offer cross-registration to attract more women. I don’t know if that’s the answer.</p>

118

<p>I really hope they don’t have to go coed as well. Mills almost did in the 90s but the students and the alums went a little crazy. It actually saw an increase in enrollment after they staged sit-in and shut down the campus. It became the place for teh budding young feminist to be at the time (back when we weren’t just feminists, but eco-feminist, social-feminist, etc :0)
I am glad to see a plan. Now I think there needs to be a better marketing. I firmly believe that there is a place for s/s colleges and I had been impressed with an article a few years ago about Sweet Briar doing recruiting efforts in inner-city schools. Maybe they should really get the machine working to promote. </p>

<p>Maybe we need a revision of the Preppy Handbook to come out again. Taht is how I learned about it in the Midwest years ago.</p>

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<p>I think it would go a long way just to make radical changes to the website. That is the first impression of many, if not most. The design is simply not a good choice, by any measure.</p>

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<p>Actually the closest U to SBC is Liberty U just 15 miles away. Randolph College and Lynchburg College are also within that range.</p>