I think more will hear of Stony Brook as the $500 million donation works its way through the university. I realize that is not the point of your post.
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They were given a large gift recently. If they use it to increase enrollment (through merit), increased enrollment becomes the story and some might give it a second look to see why, as opposed to the “they might have to make cuts (have actually already made cuts) because of decreased enrollment” stories, which scares off applicants. If it becomes “hot” again, they’ve used the gift well and future merit can reflect that.
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I’m pretty sure her decision came before Thanksgiving! It didn’t end up being her final choice because while they are focusing on the reorganization/ consolidation, we never really got an answer as to what the plans were for the additional 20-30% faculty cuts that are planned over the next few years.
Revenue from students is going down at most schools, via tuition discounts and even at well endowed meets needs schools via increased demand for financial aid and fewer families willing to pay full price. The costs however keep rising. We are in a new era of higher education. I’ve been really surprised by waitlist movements and increased merit offers at schools at schools at the last minute (way over the top merit amounts listed on their website).
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As I noted - it’s not about Clark but schools like a Clark a in general. There are many.
It’s like my business - the car business. If we incent too much, eventually the wheels come off the product (like certain majors) or entire operation (Suzuki, almost Nissan in recent years, etc).
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Back in 2009 or so, a closed Saturn store got taken over by a Suzuki + Mitsubishi store. Not surprisingly, it did not last long. But I have to wonder why some car dealer thought that Suzuki + Mitsubishi would be a good combination of brands.
Not saying this is coming but remember this Presidential, now Ohio Governor, candidate ?
Yep, he’s threatening to close public colleges if elected.
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He has degrees from Harvard and Yale. Seems he is a bit of an elitist. If you’re not rich enough or otherwise deserving of an Ivy League education, I guess you don’t deserve to be educated.
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Funny how those who tell others to work harder if they want things always expect government to enrich themselves without working for it.
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Unless they have strong Div 1 sports programs no one has heard of most colleges where students they know do not go. I’d bet most of the U.S. population could not name half of the Ivies. Or even all 50 states. As a NYer I don’t think I know anyone who can name more than 50% of the Claremont schools. Or maybe even one. If I mention Colby people will think I am talking about cheese.
If you know Colby, then you know Grinnell, and you know Case Western, and if you are not local you either know all three or none.
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ok that is early!
100%
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Schools that have some amount of endowment are definitely discounting a lot more than they were three years ago when my older child applied. Of the top my head, this year Dickinson, Skidmore, Brandeis come to mind. It is telling about a system in stress. Not sure if this is the new normal or a blip. Not that this means any of these schools will close but they are poaching from the schools that were using merit in the past and those schools will have a harder time filling their class.
This thread has gone far off topic. Please keep this discussion focused on colleges which are at risk of closing, are in financial trouble, are being acquired by other institutions, and so forth.
Posts about high-profile financially stable large colleges, individual motives of college choices, colleges discounting tution, lesser known college names, etc… don’t belong in this thread. Start new threads please.
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It’s the new normal, at least until the system collapses & resets. I left financial aid almost 7 years ago, and the push for tuition discounts from students had already been putting pressure on schools for several years at that time. I tried to warn our administration that we couldn’t ignore the growing trend, but administration was convinced that our “brand” was strong enough to withstand the pressure to discount for everyone. I was successful in getting a big increase in the financial aid budget, but it wasn’t enough. The school has been fortunate to have a donor who donated money for scholarships - but that money was intended for “now,” and long term solutions still need to be developed. It’s a tough reality in higher education these days.
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I have a couple of friends – very sophisticated business people – who were working to keep the Hampshire afloat for a number of years. One was a parent and the other an alum, I think. I think they are resigned to the place closing. It is sad as it filled a niche for a certain set of driven people who didn’t fit well within the confines of a structured curriclum but were very self-directed could do amazing things but it also served as a place where people could do relatively little for four years and manage to get a degree.
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I think there is almost zero hope it stays open, but figured I would throw out the article
Almost always, like 99.9% time, by the time it gets to the announcement like that all that could be done has been done.
I have zero affiliation with the school, but I am glad your friends dedicated their time to the school - I always thought it seemed like a niche place that should exist and met a need for a certain sort of student! I am sad this is happening.
University of Vermont expecting a 15% drop in freshman enrolment this fall. UVM has long had a majority of out of state students.
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Interesting. I wish the President had cited the sources for her [seemingly speculative] reasons why enrollment is down.
I looked at the last eight years of available CDSs.
First year enrollment is trending down a bit, but still higher than the pre-covid years (2018-19 CDS showed first year enrollment of 2,531, while 2025/26 was 2,810).
Last 8 years of first year class sizes starting with 2018/19: 2,531/2,639/2,487/2,932/3,000/2,896/2,808/2,810
International first year enrollment was down .2% from Class of 2028 to Class of 2029. (1.6% of class to 1.4%)…that’s higher than pre-covid 2018/19 international proportion of 1.0%. They didn’t say what the international proportion is for Class of 2030. I might buy it’s down, but why, when last year wasn’t down dramatically?
Seems like we don’t really know what’s going on, because the admin doesn’t either (or they aren’t saying.)
I expect they will hire consultants to help them understand why enrollment is down 15% for Class of 2030. I would first look at admissions staff turnover, and whether the people in those jobs are skilled sales people.
I’m not buying ‘we are competing with a higher level of schools’ unless there is research that shows that. I don’t understand why that would be different this year?
Regardless, UVM has so much to offer, I hope they figure things out for next year.
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We found that there was a huge difference in engagement with admitted families between UVM and Clark from admission staff. I can elaborate but n=1 is not useful but I think you might be onto something here. They cost the same for our family, OOS/ honors UVM and Clark honors. We didn’t go to admitted students day at either place but visited after acceptance. This is a reflection on opportunities to engage virtually, ease of getting questions answered via email and the actual experience when we visited in person.
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