(04-07-2019 01:16 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  How Many Universities Are In The USA and Why The Changes

Quote:While for-profit academic institutions have struggled in recent years with many closing, so too have small liberal arts colleges.

"Among the private colleges, those most susceptible to closing are the 800 private colleges with enrollment of (fewer) than 1,000 students. Schools that are small, schools that are almost entirely dependent on student revenues" Lapovsky says, adding that vulnerable institutions are threatened by the lack of other non-tuition funding streams flowing into those schools.

Hentschke notes that there are many factors in play when it comes to college closures.

"It's a combination of size, market location, market recognition and a brand that can either keep you afloat or conspire against you," Hentschke says. Despite market shifts, he notes the number of schools that close or merge is "relatively small in a given year."

2017 Forbes College Financial Grades

Liberal Arts Colleges In Crises

Quote:“Among the private colleges, those most susceptible to closing are the 800 private colleges with enrollment of (fewer) than 1,000 students.” Many liberal arts colleges are small and are totally dependent on tuition dollars. They do not offer the high-tech majors that are in demand in today’s career landscape. Grace University in Omaha, NE closed in late 2017 because their primary majors, education and psychology, were not attracting the number of students needed to pay their expenses.

So, the majority of small colleges that will close are in D3, NAIA, NCCAA, USCAA and unaffiliated.

1600 enrollment of Wheeling Jesuit is not enough to keep the school open after 2019/2020.
Presbyterian is at a little over 1400 which they are in the danger zone.
Davidson is a little better at 1900.
Wofford is in between 1600 and 1900.
All 4 have declinging enrollment, and all 4 could close.

Quote:In addition, some colleges took on too much debt during the recession financing new buildings and academic programs. Some colleges like Hawaii Pacific University felt that spending more money on perks like dorms, a fitness center, and other spaces would attract more students. It hasn’t. All that spending has done is rack up huge debt. “By 2015, the most recent year for which the figure is available, it owed $75.3 million in municipal bond liabilities, plus $10 million in mortgage and other debts, federal tax records show.” The total debt burden of today’s colleges tops $240 billion.

Hawaii Pacific is a large Private, but they piled up debt upgrading their facilities and added programs to attract more students that it backfired.

The spending like a drunken sailor by all colleges and universities are at all levels that put schools in debt spending on academics to sports.

Iowa Wesleyan only have 571 students which they are trying to stay open.

This is what can caused realignment.

In 2010, Davidson had 1,700 students (https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/tr...rollment). Their acceptance rate is 22% - they're not declining, they're a small college intentionally.


Wofford (https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/tr...Enrollment) has also seen a slight growth.

I'll admit Presbyterian has declined slightly (https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/tr...rollment), but their acceptance rate is 62%, so if they wanted to grow they could easily just admit more students.