<p>The top schools will be just fine. It’s the ones near the bottom of the pack that have much to worry about. The demographics in this country are changing, and the population shift toward the south and west may impact some of the lesser-known regional schools. There are plenty of articles about this topic (see [Jobs:</a> The Economy, Killing Liberal Arts Education? - Newsweek and The Daily Beast](<a href=“http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/jobbed/2010/04/05/the-death-of-liberal-arts.html]Jobs:”>http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/jobbed/2010/04/05/the-death-of-liberal-arts.html)). </p>
<p>Bowdoin, Middlebury, and many other top colleges continue to receive a record number of applications. They must make some changes to keep up with the times (such as Middlebury’s investment in for-profit language instruction programs, their acquisition of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and their linking future comprehensive fee increases to no more than one percent above inflation). </p>
<p>But some LACs, like St. Mary’s College of Maryland, can’t matriculate enough students to fill their freshman class. Moody’s just downgraded St. Mary’s bond rating for this reason ([Moody’s</a> places St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s A1 long-term rating under review for downgrade](<a href=“Moody's - credit ratings, research, and data for global capital markets”>Moody's - credit ratings, research, and data for global capital markets)).</p>