I can’t help but think about (as I think of my DC’s rural alma mater) the impact on a town when a school closes.
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Not a closing or likely not even an immediate risk - but Guilford College just had their bond rating cut to junk - and the reasons why are pretty scary - which don’t portend a long or bright future. Elon bout Queens. Are they looking to expand 
The downgrade reflects our view of Guilford’s enrollment pressure, including a large 16% decrease in fall 2025, and weakened demand metrics, further pressuring operating performance in fiscal 2026 and beyond.
college’s continued use of extraordinary endowment draws, at over 18% in fiscal 2025,
Losing 1/6 of your enrollment (vs prior year) and pulling out more than 1/6 of your endowment - can’t be good for long term success.
Guilford College, NC Debt Rating Lowered To ‘BB+’ | S&P Global Ratings
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It was only lowered by the smallest step that S&P bond ratings have (BBB- to BB+), but it crossed the threshold from “investment grade” to “junk” (BBB- was the lowest “investment grade” rating).
Yes, an unintended 16% drop in enrollment does not seem to be a good sign.
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Guilford is such a nice college, in a sought-after state (North Carolina), very diverse, with Quaker and Underground Railroad roots. I hope they find a way to enroll more students. 
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This part of the loan change is huge not only for what it may mean in terms of enrollment in programs, but also what it will likely mean for all of us in terms of the career choices that future grads make. I have spent 15 years post law school in the public and non-profit sectors. The number of excellent, incredible lawyers and other public service and public interest professionals who are able to do the societally beneficial work because of PSLF and forgiveness is huge. That many similarly inclined folks in the “nonprofessional” deemed fields will be forced into private sector work will be an additional loss to us all on top of the impact of the haphazard shrinking of the federal sector over the past year.
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Hampshire College in the news after falling short of enrollment goal.
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Hampshire should have space to reinvent itself - perhaps as something like UCSB’s CCS???.. but doing so under pressure must be near impossible.
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Speaking as someone who worked at a very small college, this is devastating. Missing the enrollment target by 50% is jaw droppingly difficult to overcome. On top of that, there is zero economy of scale for a school that small … there are numerous services that they must provide that cost far more per student at such a small school than they do at a larger school. I don’t see this being sustainable, unfortunately.
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I agree and hope they are looking for exit strategies and/or a sale of the campus. I don’t know what schools might be interested but maybe the U mass system for an extension for UMass Amherst or even a CC? Or northeastern? Just brainstorming.
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Although located in the same town, I can’t see either UMass or Amherst being interested in the Hampshire campus. Neither are land locked if they want more land onto which they might expand. Hampshire is several miles away from either of the other campuses. It might have appeal if the 5-college consortium had a new program under development and were looking for a place to house it. I’m guessing that it might have more appeal as an office park, housing development, or distribution center. No idea if there is a current demand for any of these. One of the things that reduces its value is that it’s not really at a walkable distance fro the center of town. It’s really kind of an isolated location.
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An existing standalone professional school program that needs more space could also move there. But there may not be any such thing at the moment.
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The grad forums online are very quiet this year. I suspect that programs located away from metropolitan areas or areas without job opportunities will suffer most … and low residency programs/programs that lend themselves to being completed while a student works will be the programs of choice for students who do choose to go to grad school. As a result, it probably wouldn’t make sense to use the campus for grad programs.
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I couldn’t access the article without disabling ad blockers. Are there reasons offered for why such a drop-off in enrollment?
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It isn’t clear how far they were from their target initially, but it sounds like a lot of schools pulled from waitlists this year (in part because of declining international numbers), and Hampshire got a lot of “melt” as students got offers from waitlist schools.
I have wanted to see Hampshire pull through, and they’re still putting on a brave face, but this seems like a death spiral to me. Who’s going to look at this year’s outcome and want their kid to commit there next year?
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This breaks my heart. We visited Hampshire last year with D27 and S29 and it’s clearly a really special school. Both of my kids loved it, but I would worry too much about it existing for their entire college careers.
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The financial breakdown:
Just spitballing here, but I feel like Hampshire could be interesting as a two-year alternative to the traditional lower-division program at UMass, if they could secure a guaranteed transfer agreement.
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Interesting idea for college fans, but to play devil’s advocate, in an era of declining enrollments and escalating costs, why would the state of Massachusetts want to take that on?
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I was wondering whether Hampshire could survive as its own entity, under that model. If I had a kid who wanted that experience, I would seriously consider a two-year track that would put them on a path to a UMass degree, whereas I would be highly reluctant to put all four years worth of eggs into Hampshire’s basket. (And if Hampshire’s goal is to survive as a four-year institution, they could still work to preserve their own degree-completion option… but students and parents would know that they had the UMass path to rely on.)
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Ahh . . .
Got it.