Could be others are spending more to buy kids in - or as you say - offsetting more tuition.
I’m sure they’ll look at their traditional cross shops to see how they fare.
I just saw UNH is up 4%! UNH sees 4% first-year enrollment spike despite 'demographic cliff' | New Hampshire Public Radio
I doubt (though don’t know) UNH is buying kids..
I also read Clark sent admissions to HEAVILY recruit from TX and CA this year - which may have helped them some, too..though don’t know if that actually helped in short term or is a long-term strategy.
It will be a wild ride next few years!
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We’re in a top public school with a lot of full-pay families. While there’s a lot of focus on T20s, its surprising to me how many students in the middle of the class are going to expensive OOS schools instead of our flagship. I see this year a LOT of only ok kids going to T75 flagships OOS (such as Penn State, Ohio State, mid-south) that traditionally I would have expected to see somewhere like UVM. While CA/TX/MI/VA are tougher than ever, there seem to be lots of T75 opportunities this year.
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Interesting, thanks for sharing!
I imagine most / all schools know who their cross shops are - at the highest level. You need that to compete as a marketing / sales team.
For example, U Denver will tell you American.
American likely says GW.
I’m sure UVM Tracks a UNH, URI, maybe some privates but they’ll know. If they don’t, shame on them.
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Agreed. Certainly for applicants they know VERY well, where they end up they sure survey but wonder how amazing their data is…. survey response must be low… they may need to pay for real this year, given the big change - they will want more than a smattering of data (or possibly specific data if it is mainly in certain schools - e.g business or CS or whatever). but 100% agree they know how to do this and have people to do it
I suspect overlap of URI and UVM is lower than you think for OOS (far, far from zero) but vibes / reputation are quite different, as my kid would say. But agree they have solid knowledge of this..
I actually think American and UVM have a lot of overlap - at least they do near me.
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Sometimes, I think a drop in freshman numbers is economics. The family was expecting $30k in merit and only got $20k, parents didn’t get bonuses they thought they would, and it now costs $60 to fill up the gas tank. They may look at it and think “hmm, UVM just isn’t that much better than our state school.”
Years ago I graduated from a state law school. Two years later I got a letter from the school that said they’d erred on the yield numbers and while they’d accepted the same number of applicants as they historically had, instead of 235 accepting, 350 had accepted. They honored those acceptances, did offer deferments to anyone who wanted one, accepted NO ONE off a waiting list or as a transfer, etc. (and that school was PACKED for 3 years) Why? Many of the private law schools had had BIG increases in costs without any increase in aid and many students just couldn’t justify (or afford) to pay $20k to go to Catholic or GW or another DC law school when they could go to U of Maryland for $2k.
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I saw both that UVM was down and UNH up as well and wondered what has been different or if the whole admissions scene is just more volatile in general.
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Can’t look at one year! UNH had a 12% decline in 2025 for freshman enrollment. To me it seems like they adjusted their acceptance and financial aid to make sure they got an increase. Until we can compare data from UNH 2025 and 2026 we can’t really say much.
UVM always had a pull for OOS students but things are changing as more state schools push to recruit undergrads as they get hit with new loan restrictions from the federal gov and a hit with international students. Last year we saw a lot of major universities get hit with declines over 1000 students in their graduate programs from WashU to BostonU and others.
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Reminder that this thread is about colleges that are closing or at risk of imminently closing. Discussions about declining enrollment at other schools are off topic to this thread. Please feel free to start a new thread if there is interested in continuing the conversation about UNH and UVM. TIA!
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Oakland City University closed its door in May… seems I missed it or maybe it was posted here.. keep in mind their saying it’s a one year pause not sure how a college can shutdown for a year then restart
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Yet another Massachusetts college closing.. Northpoint Bible College close close both undergrad and graduate programs after the loss of accreditation
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They’re closing for a year, and they just expect students to wait around and see if they reopen next year? And because they are expected to reopen, there are no teach out agreements or assistance with transferring to another school.
I certainly hope they intend to reopen, because otherwise that seems pretty underhanded.
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Northpoint Bible College does have agreements with other colleges for streamlined transfer:
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I was referring to Oakland City. That’s good on Northpoint Bible College. They should assist students with finding a school to move on to.
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I thought this was interesting.
Last week, a college known historically for its residential liberal-arts education shed its longtime campus for good.
The institution hasn’t closed. In fact, it’s enrolling more students than ever before.
But Unity Environmental University, formerly Unity College, no longer enrolls any undergraduates at its home base in rural Maine. Unity has offloaded the real estate, at a price of $6 million. The sale, to a buyer who plans to use the 225 acres for summer-camp programming and outdoor experiences, caps off a yearslong pivot in which the institution has completely remade itself.
In 2016, the institution enrolled some 700 students in hands-on programs in wildlife conservation, zookeeping, and land management. Over the following few years, a reform-minded president with a business background pushed Unity to embrace online education, promising similar career opportunities with flexible learning at a far lower price.
After experiencing a steep decline in in-person enrollment during the pandemic, Unity now counts more than 7,000 students in its ranks, the vast majority of whom are remote. It echoes the famous transformation of Southern New Hampshire University, a private institution that became a distance-education giant within a decade. (A small amount of in-person instruction will continue at Unity’s rented Pineland Farms campus, a little over an hour from the town of Unity, where the original campus was located.)
I don’t have a Chronicle subscription, but the full article is available here: https://archive.ph/NONQo#selection-2993.0-3027.261
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I actually looked into this school when my son was applying to Wildlife Bio programs in 2022/23. Even back then, it was mostly online. As he wanted an in-person program, I didn’t see any reason for him to apply. And if I remember correctly, they do have an in-person component, but it’s not campus based, as it is all field work. So, all in all, it doesn’t seem like a big change to the majority of it’s students.
If you think about it, the fields it serves tend to be low paying, and most schools that offer the major are not likely to provide a high ROI. For students that need to worry about budget, or for working adults, this turns studying conservation into a viable option. I believe a lot of conservation law enforcement employees from Maine (only an associates is required) earn their bachelors or masters through Unity online courses.
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This is an interesting assessment, @vwlizard . It demonstrates how a school, if it knows its niche and serves it well, can survive by specializing, rather than offering more to reach a broader audience.
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Their success is more support that online education works, although more so for some areas of study and/or students to be sure. I wonder why other schools that are having financial difficulties haven’t tried it?
My guess is that the answer lies in this piece of it, which may be the hardest to tease out. In some ways, this circles back to so many of the discussions on CC, which is what a student wants from college. Some value the residential experience a lot - others, particularly older students - not at all. These students are probably getting to do hands-on work, which is something many students need/want, but that would be hard for a chem lab. For a student who simply wants the knowledge and the credential, this could be ideal and cost-effective. I hope some PhD students in education are doing work on this.
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