The college search process for prospective students and parents has always been a mentally taxing endeavor. For many families, this includes numerous campus visits, and paying attention to all the details to determine important aspects of community, support services and amenities that students will be eager to enjoy over the next four years.
Finding the right “fit” remains a critical component of student success and graduation. But in the modern search process, there’s a glaring omission that must look beyond campus extracurricular and co-curricular organizations, lavish dorm rooms and dining hall offerings: Students and parents today must ask the tough question: “Will this college stay open over the next four years?”
We were reminded of this reality again recently with the announcements from Hampshire and Anna Maria colleges of their pending closures. Since that time, schools across the region, including my own, have offered support and a potential alternative path to the students who will no longer be able to finish their degrees at the institution of their original choosing.
It has become a role that we’ve played with increased regularity over the years. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts also welcomed students last year affected by the closing of Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Before that, a teach-out agreement was reached to keep students impacted by the closing of The College of Saint Rose on track to a degree.
Looking further back, Southern Vermont College students also migrated to North Adams when their campus closed in 2019.
Hidden price tag?
As I reflect on a career in higher education, including the last 17 years as a college president, it’s more urgent than ever that students and parents look critically at the financial situation of any schools they’re considering.
With national demographic trends, as well as recent and potential future federal policy shifts, the task facing colleges and universities to remain affordable and accessible for families, as well as financially sturdy, is a tall order. But we should welcome hard questions when families pose them.
Conventional wisdom for a prospective student is to apply to multiple institutions. Perhaps you have your first choice, but the odds of acceptance may be slim. Students can then fall back upon their “safety school.” Increasingly, that school may not be so safe.
Schools eager to draw students with a too-good-to-be-true financial aid package can seem alluring. But how are they offering that deal? Is it through sustainable means, such as endowed scholarships and federal or state funding? Or have they mortgaged their future, with untenable drawdown rates of those coveted institutional endowments?
The latter method may come with a hidden price tag down the road, when students are left scrambling to find a new path to a degree and the personal and professional success it affords.
College search confidence
Resources are out there for discerning students and parents who want to make this decision with as much confidence as possible. For instance, the New England Commission of Higher Education has a separate financial “stress test” it conducts outside of the regular multi-year cycle for accreditation review processes.
And Robert Kelchen, a higher education scholar at the University of Tennessee, compiled several red flags that could reveal an institution is in jeopardy.
A college degree for many represents the largest financial commitment they will make short of buying a home. It’s one that still provides tremendous return on investment over the course of their lifetime, but news of campus closures can be unnerving.
Colleges and universities today must demonstrate not only that students will be supported and welcomed when they walk onto campus, but also that the financial foundation those supports are built upon will endure long after they graduate.
