Econ is in a weird place right now. It’s a great moneymaking major, and econ graduates generally get jobs, but it selects for students who have the chops for advanced math, and so general business majors often outcompete it for enrollment on the basis of ease.
(Not to mention that econ faculty are comparatively expensive.)
Economics majors at Sonoma State are not required to take calculus (they are required to take non-calculus-based statistics), so it is not math requirements that are a barrier to economics majors there.
But it is likely that a large percentage of economics majors are in the major for pre-professional “business” reasons, and choose economics either because it is not available at their college, or they were not admitted to the more selective business major. But where the business major is available and not more selective, the pre-professional students favor business over economics as their major.
Since you have such positive feelings about Sonoma State, maybe you want to talk about why you like it here? Colleges with Admit Rates of 60-100%: Schools You’ve Liked and Why (NO REPLIES)
Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania (a PASSHE school) to close Clearfield campus. It started as a branch of Lock Haven University and became one of the four campuses of Commonwealth after the merger.
Officials: Commonwealth University’s Clearfield campus to close in 2027
Only 177 students enrolled in Fall semester, per the linked article. Probably not the last PASSHE school that’s going to close sadly.
In addition to what ucbalumnus wrote, I do think enrollment is effectively capped at many of the UC campuses because some don’t necessarily have room for more students in classes, campus dorms, or housing in the nearby communities. Of course these schools could consider offering fully online degrees, but there are a number of top dogs in that space…a couple have enrollment of over 100,000, so it’s competitive.
Yes, I’m confused too. It seems like there are a lot of students nationwide who dream of going to college in California, and yet Sonoma State doesn’t seem to attract them. This is despite Sonoma being such a lovely area, and the campus itself being so nice. Perhaps you are correct that when kids says “California” they mean So Cal. Or maybe the OOS direct COA of $38K is just too much for a school that isn’t a nationwide brand. Who knows.
In any case, I hope it doesn’t close. I know a student who did their post-bac pre-med classes there and loved the experience
I suspect that this may be it - as an east coaster I have vaguely heard of Sonoma State, but I hear of it far far less than San Diego State, or Fullerton, or Long Beach, Northridge…
Not sure it is about SoCal vs. NoCal, but could be…
Those 3 are D1. Sports drives lots of recognition.
Perhaps some name rebranding and a marketing campaign in WUE states? The campus is lovely, really residential, strong programs.
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My C25 would have loved to go to college in California, but the options elsewhere are so much more financially viable, when you consider OOS COA plus little to absolutely no financial aid/scholarships for OOS students.
(And that makes sense, public colleges should focus on serving in-state students, IMO. But hanging up a virtual “No visitors welcome” sign isn’t useful either.)
I wonder if tactics will change at state colleges with dropping enrollment. The idea that OOS students “should” pay more has intuitive appeal, but empty seats are good for nobody.
17 of the 23 CSUs now offer WUE tuition (1.5 time in-state). This is a larger number than some years ago. Some years ago, more CSUs were impacted (i.e. enrolled to capacity so that they had higher competitively determined admission thresholds than the CSU baseline) than are today. It is likely that the increase in WUE CSU campuses is related to them becoming non-impacted.
However, out of state students are less likely to be interested in commuter based campuses that most non-impacted CSUs are (Sonoma, Humboldt, and a few others are exceptions).
UC Merced also offers WUE tuition.
Sonoma, Humboldt, and the more residential options really have a card to play: lots of kids want to attend college in CA (even if they have a very hazy idea of how big CA is, that the beach can be quite far, that it’s not sunny all the time everywhere, etc) and even offering automatic OOS scholarships for 4k/6k based on stats and competitive for 10k would make Sonoma State very competitive with many instate public universities.
Seems Penn state could close some commonwealth campuses… not sure why they need so many campuses with enrollment down at most of them and University Park looking to grow.
I’ll save Penn State some money by eliminating the need for some expensive consultants.
When five of your six branch campuses in western Pennsylvania have less than 500 people enrolled (three of which are 407 or less), you close them. That will leave you with one branch campus of a little over 3300 enrolled. An enrollment of 3300 is sustainable (and would likely receive more with branch closures). Enrollment below 500 very rarely ever is. And rather than paying Penn State prices for two-year programs, which is what I understand happens at most of these branch campuses (Behrend excepted), residents can attend one of the numerous community colleges that abound in the state for less money and then transfer to UP or wherever it is they want to attend.
So Executive Chancellor Dellicarpini, figure out some credit transfer plans and such between the community colleges and Penn State, close five of the six branch campuses in western Pennsylvania, and focus your resources on the viable campuses.
Seems like PSU already has course equivalency listings with Pennsylvania community colleges at https://public.lionpath.psu.edu/psc/CSPRD/EMPLOYEE/SA/c/PE_AD077.PE_AD077_TRN_CRD_T.GBL?Page=PE_AD077_MAIN_SRCH&Action=U .
For example, it seems like transferability from Community College of Beaver County is pretty good for many common lower level courses. CCBC and PSU Beaver are less than 4 miles apart. CCBC has about 1,500 students and lower tuition. Seems like PSU Beaver is redundant, and closing it would add its students to the lower tuition CCBC, perhaps allowing for additional economies of scale.
Okay, in light of this article, I’m revisiting the 44 public 4-year colleges in Pennsylvania (per Niche).
According to College Navigator, these are the smallest 4-year public colleges in Pennsylvania:
Public 4-year colleges in Pennsylvania (per College Navigator)
Fewer than 500 undergrads (circled in red on the maps below):
Between 500-700 undergrads (circled in orange on the maps below):
Between 700-1000 undergrads (circled in yellow on the maps below):
Between 1000-2000 undergrads (circled in lavender on the maps below):
I did my best to locate and circle all the campuses listed above, but no guarantees that I got them all. On the top map when there is a yellow Y a bit south of Harrisburg, that is for Penn State York. On the bottom map on the far left where it says G.A. in red, that is for Penn State Greater Allegheny. On the bottom map on the bottom right the word written out in yellow is Cheyney, which seems to be quite close to Penn State Brandywine.
Every school that is circled in red (less than 500) or orange (less than 700) is close a university that is either not circled or at least has a population of 1000. If the school with the lower enrollment has better facilities, then consolidate the colleges there. If not, consolidate at the campus with a bigger enrollment and call it a day.
Yes the whole system of various layers between PASSHE, PSU, and Pitt in the Western part of the State (because, fun! On top of CCs and 2-year branches there are Pitt branches too) makes no sense in a decreasing demographics environment. One of the “service&common good” duties of a public (or “contract”) university system is to keep irrigating territories/regions with accessible higher education, innovation, etc., but surely some coordination between the different layers and systems can be achieved and some form of efficiency achieved.
Right now CCs mostly do vocational training/retraining/certificates as well as CC->PASSHE (PASSHE=true public system, but in other states would be directionals), with some courses transferable to PSU/Pitt branches or “main” campus. Branches took care of commuter->main campus for PSU and Pitt.
The new governor has tried to streamline things and make them more financially accessible (in the 2000-2010 PASSHE colleges made horrendous investments decisions then their funding had gone from 80% from the State to 20% from the State -not the real number but a good approximation of scale- so tuition went 
. Now, CCs and PASSHE schools should be affordable for most middle and working class families. That makes branch campuses pointless for many students who can attend PASSHE campuses for a fraction of the cost of a small branch.
OTOH, Behrend is the STEM branch campus; Altoona, Harrisburg, Abington are the full-fledged 4-year campuses, Abington mostly commuter/suitcase and the 3 others residential. Not only are those unlikely to close, but they’re well-spread out around the state and with small branches nearby closing, they’re likely to be targeted for growth. Some have already reported significant investment in academic research/projects.
Out of the 20 (formerly 24) PSU campuses, 10 could be closed or integrated into the CC system without a problem. PASSHE have already consolidated and Pitt branches are closing. So, a complete reconfiguration is likely under way in PA.
Cheyney is a small but very historical HBCU. It’s definitely struggling but I don’t think it’ll close due to its history and status. They could find ways to support it with specific programs - right now it only offers a handful of majors, literally, and probably needs specific thinking. AFAIK, Brandywine is doing okay as a commuter school.
The problem, of course, is what happens to those ~2,000 students who don’t have easy access to higher education.
For some, community campuses are fine—but that doesn’t provide upper-division coursework for those who ned it.
I firmly agree that Pennsylvania’s public higher education sector needs some rebalancing, but “Close the small ones” isn’t an automatic fix—finances and public needs are in a delicate balance here.
