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Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
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teamvsn Offline
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Post: #21
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 03:38 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 03:20 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 11:21 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Lyon College in Arkansas (NAIA) is reportedly in trouble.

Didn't this school appear on one of those "Schools that may go Division I" lists we see here from time to time?

Calling DavidSt on aisle 9.....NAIA to D1 moveups.

They've already announced they are going D3.
05-12-2022 05:12 PM
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Post: #22
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 02:51 PM)Todor Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 08:55 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  I also think that people are becoming more aware of student debt. Even though they usually offer scholarships/aid, a lot of these small private schools still can run you a total of ~$40k or so per year, while a state school (that's probably more well known), is gonna cost you half of that.

But a lot of small private colleges regularly undercut state colleges and universities on price. They need to be better at getting that message sometimes.

The percent of any colleges students paying actual cash in the neighborhood of 40-60K is so small it may as well not even be measured.

I mean straight cash probably not, but 40-60k per year as a loan isn't that uncommon.

The University of San Diego says that 77% of kids receive aid, at an average amount of 36k per year.

https://www.sandiego.edu/facts/quick/2020/finaid.php

The total cost of going to USD is about 73k per year. So the average student on aid is paying about 37k, the other 23% are paying the full price.

I picked USD because their numbers were easily available online, and they were on my mind from the PFL thread.

USD is in no risk of shutting down, it's tougher to pin down numbers for some of these smaller schools. But, these smaller schools also often rely on tuition money more, and can only afford to go so low.
(This post was last modified: 05-12-2022 06:10 PM by TDenverFan.)
05-12-2022 06:09 PM
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DavidSt Offline
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Post: #23
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 02:25 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 01:12 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 11:05 AM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  
(05-11-2022 04:25 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  Yeah small schools have gone out of business or merged for years. I don't think this is some apocalyptic issue.

I don't know what qualified as "apocalyptic" in this case, but it's going to accelerate tremendously. There is a coming cliff where college enrollment is going to drop significantly; enrollment is expected to drop by 15% in 2025 compared to 2019 and will continue to decline for some time.

Combine the decreased demand with sensitivity to student loans for non-prestigious private schools, and you're going to see more and more small colleges forced to close. My parents' alma mater is a small D-3 school in Georgia and the oldest private school in the state. The school normally enrolls 400 or so students per entering class; this year their entering class was about 100. They aren't alone in this.

The problem is figuring out the value proposition for small private schools that aren't prestigious. You go to private schools for two reasons: high quality education and networking. It absolutely pays to go to an Ivy League/equivalent and to schools with strong reputations like SMU. But to random small town private college that doesn't have a reputation outside of its area? I just can't find the value in it.

Also, worth noting with this enrollment cliff coming, regional public schools are going to be negatively affected as well. Students are increasingly looking at college as an experience that they're buying. The demand is for all the amenities that state flagships offer versus random smaller public universities.

A lot of the D-2 type public schools are going to take a beating in the next decade, especially in states where the population is already smaller and there's a bunch of small regional schools that barely get by as is. The students will flow uphill...the state flagship (and major urban schools like UCF, Houston, etc.) will not lower enrollment. So some students that might have gone to Georgia State today will end up at Georgia, and students that might have gone to West Georgia will end up at Georgia State (this is just illustrative). States that have a bunch of these smaller schools should start looking at consolidation like Pennsylvania and Georgia...there's no reason that Arkansas needs two university systems (UArk and A-State; plus several public schools that are not part of those systems) totaling 10 public universities and with both university systems also running a community college system plus numerous public community colleges that exist outside of both systems as well.

IMO, you have bought into Frank Broyles' intentional hogwash about the state of Arkansas. Again, all of this is in my opinion, but if the state of New Mexico can have two public university systems, so can the state of Arkansas. Now, outside of Arkansas Tech which does serve a niche within the state of Arkansas, it may be time to look at a few of these smaller university systems, key words here a few .

Pennsylvania is already looking at consolidation, but when you have a giant university with at least twenty campuses, if not forty, (see Penn State University), you have to question why they need that many campuses!! IMO, Penn State really should be looking at consolidation much more so than even PASSHE should!!! But PSU won't do it and can't be forced to do it either due to its unique status within the state of Pennsylvania.
Georgia has already been doing some consolidation as well, but politics plays a role here because some of the HBCU campuses are campuses that could be consolidated. Some HBCU campuses are just fine and serve a valuable purpose, like Alabama A&M. Land grant school located near Huntsville that is quickly becoming a college choice for young adults for the city I live in, and not just for black folks, but for white people also!!! I wish more HBCU's would be like Alabama A&M, but that's just me.

Arkansas has been dangling some really small carrots to encourage consolidation but there is no interest in fewer campuses, in fact the push is for more where feasible.

Arkansas has an extensive community college program with some in the UArk system, some in AState, one or two in Southern Arkansas System several still independent.

The community colleges offer not just the usual Associates and Certificate programs but generally also offer more trade school type certifications, like John Deere technician, certified welding, HVAC, etc. Most offer some bachelor’s programs on campus via one of the four year schools or in some cases have programs via more than one four year school.

Town my parents are from is bringing in a new factory with about 200 jobs. Local branch campus of a nearby community college has contract to do their training in addition to the existing associates programs and trade programs like culinary arts, LPN, EMT type stuff.

State offers training money to businesses relocating that generally runs through the local community college. State is pushing idea of having close access for people who want to advance their career with a certification, associates, or bachelor’s degree without moving away.

Arkansas Tech have Arkansas Tech-Ozarks.
05-13-2022 11:58 AM
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Post: #24
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 03:38 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  Calling DavidSt on aisle 9.....NAIA to D1 moveups.

Call back later pleez.

He's tied up on Line 4 helping Jeep Judy find another contingency candidate since Tarleton State said no thanks.
05-13-2022 12:05 PM
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CitrusUCF Offline
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Post: #25
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 01:12 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 11:05 AM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  
(05-11-2022 04:25 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  Yeah small schools have gone out of business or merged for years. I don't think this is some apocalyptic issue.

I don't know what qualified as "apocalyptic" in this case, but it's going to accelerate tremendously. There is a coming cliff where college enrollment is going to drop significantly; enrollment is expected to drop by 15% in 2025 compared to 2019 and will continue to decline for some time.

Combine the decreased demand with sensitivity to student loans for non-prestigious private schools, and you're going to see more and more small colleges forced to close. My parents' alma mater is a small D-3 school in Georgia and the oldest private school in the state. The school normally enrolls 400 or so students per entering class; this year their entering class was about 100. They aren't alone in this.

The problem is figuring out the value proposition for small private schools that aren't prestigious. You go to private schools for two reasons: high quality education and networking. It absolutely pays to go to an Ivy League/equivalent and to schools with strong reputations like SMU. But to random small town private college that doesn't have a reputation outside of its area? I just can't find the value in it.

Also, worth noting with this enrollment cliff coming, regional public schools are going to be negatively affected as well. Students are increasingly looking at college as an experience that they're buying. The demand is for all the amenities that state flagships offer versus random smaller public universities.

A lot of the D-2 type public schools are going to take a beating in the next decade, especially in states where the population is already smaller and there's a bunch of small regional schools that barely get by as is. The students will flow uphill...the state flagship (and major urban schools like UCF, Houston, etc.) will not lower enrollment. So some students that might have gone to Georgia State today will end up at Georgia, and students that might have gone to West Georgia will end up at Georgia State (this is just illustrative). States that have a bunch of these smaller schools should start looking at consolidation like Pennsylvania and Georgia...there's no reason that Arkansas needs two university systems (UArk and A-State; plus several public schools that are not part of those systems) totaling 10 public universities and with both university systems also running a community college system plus numerous public community colleges that exist outside of both systems as well.

IMO, you have bought into Frank Broyles' intentional hogwash about the state of Arkansas. Again, all of this is in my opinion, but if the state of New Mexico can have two public university systems, so can the state of Arkansas. Now, outside of Arkansas Tech which does serve a niche within the state of Arkansas, it may be time to look at a few of these smaller university systems, key words here a few .

New Mexico doesn't have two state university systems. They have two main universities along with 6 regional publics. Arguably, they should consolidate, but at least the geographic dispersion is significant.

On the other hand, Arkansas has universities practically on top of each other because of the lack of coordination between the two systems and the independent universities (public universities not part of the UArk or A-State system). The most obvious offenders are Central Arkansas and UALR, which are about 30 miles from each other. You could combine those and have one large university with a lot of resources. But various political fights keep that from happening. With the reduction in scope at Henderson State, it could easily be folded into that combined university as a small satellite campus. The community college system should be streamlined so that there's one CC system instead of 4 + independents.

But Arkansas is hardly the only state where this is true. There are a number of states with an excessive number of small universities that could be combined to create stronger institutions.

As to Frank Broyles, I have no idea what his view about Arkansas athletics has to do with this. That Fayetteville is the only campus in the state with enrollment growth is a fact. That this is a nationwide trend where state flagships are growing but regional publics are not is also a fact. Fayetteville isn't going to lose students as overall enrollment declines - it will take students away from A-State, Central, UALR, etc. That's simply reality. This generation of college students sees college as an experience that they are buying, which they want to combine with either a good job placement or a good graduate school when they graduate. They want what state flagships have to offer, not what small D-2 publics have to offer.
05-13-2022 01:50 PM
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Post: #26
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-13-2022 01:50 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  The most obvious offenders are Central Arkansas and UALR, which are about 30 miles from each other. You could combine those and have one large university with a lot of resources.

What would you do with the other campus?

Those two schools are both big enough to justify their existences in my opinion, and there is population enough to support both (even if enrollment is decreasing). UCA pulls a ton from the LR area (I bet of my high school class that went to college at all probably almost half went to UCA), but they also serve areas to the north and west of LR, while UALR is much more convenient to the city itself.

I do agree that this is an issue broadly, but it's going to be really tough to fix. The politics of closing a campus (that's often going to be a main employer and cultural driver for the area) are just brutal. I grew up in Arkansas (as we're discussing) but went to school in a state with way too many schools per capita, too (there are public state schools, in the same university system, 3 miles and 30 miles away from Tech's campus). But good luck getting anywhere shutting them down. It's almost a non-starter.
(This post was last modified: 05-13-2022 04:10 PM by inutech.)
05-13-2022 04:08 PM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-13-2022 04:08 PM)inutech Wrote:  
(05-13-2022 01:50 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  The most obvious offenders are Central Arkansas and UALR, which are about 30 miles from each other. You could combine those and have one large university with a lot of resources.

What would you do with the other campus?

Those two schools are both big enough to justify their existences in my opinion, and there is population enough to support both (even if enrollment is decreasing). UCA pulls a ton from the LR area (I bet of my high school class that went to college at all probably almost half went to UCA), but they also serve areas to the north and west of LR, while UALR is much more convenient to the city itself.

I do agree that this is an issue broadly, but it's going to be really tough to fix. The politics of closing a campus (that's often going to be a main employer and cultural driver for the area) are just brutal. I grew up in Arkansas (as we're discussing) but went to school in a state with way too many schools per capita, too (there are public state schools, in the same university system, 3 miles and 30 miles away from Tech's campus). But good luck getting anywhere shutting them down. It's almost a non-starter.

And to no one’s surprise many of the colleges in LA are struggling. On the athletics side, some of the lowest budgets in FBS and FCS are from LA colleges.
05-15-2022 10:06 AM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 08:52 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  There has been such a tilt toward STEM careers the last couple of decades which are not a strength of the private colleges.

I think the handwriting is in the wall for many private universities- adapt or die. My Alma Mater is Abilene Christian. While ACU is not an ‘elite private school’ it’s large enough and sufficiently well endowed not to be in immediate danger, it has adjusted its offerings to meet contemporary demand- an applied doctorate in nursing, bachelors programs in engineering and computer science as well as bolstering on line offerings for applied graduate program such as educational administration.
(This post was last modified: 05-15-2022 10:18 AM by OscarWildeCat.)
05-15-2022 10:16 AM
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Post: #29
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-15-2022 10:16 AM)OscarWildeCat Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 08:52 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  There has been such a tilt toward STEM careers the last couple of decades which are not a strength of the private colleges.

I think the handwriting is in the wall for many private universities- adapt or die. My Alma Mater is Abilene Christian. While ACU is not an ‘elite private school’ it’s large enough and sufficiently well endowed not to be in immediate danger, it has adjusted its offerings to meet contemporary demand- an applied doctorate in nursing, bachelors programs in engineering and computer science as well as bolstering on line offerings for applied graduate program such as educational administration.


It seems University of Charleston in West Virginia adapting as well. They were below 1000 a few years ago, and they are over 2100 while Wheeling is struggling financially and looking to sell or merge with West Virgina.

West coast privates are struggling as well as the midwest and northeast.
05-15-2022 02:32 PM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-15-2022 02:32 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(05-15-2022 10:16 AM)OscarWildeCat Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 08:52 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  There has been such a tilt toward STEM careers the last couple of decades which are not a strength of the private colleges.

I think the handwriting is in the wall for many private universities- adapt or die. My Alma Mater is Abilene Christian. While ACU is not an ‘elite private school’ it’s large enough and sufficiently well endowed not to be in immediate danger, it has adjusted its offerings to meet contemporary demand- an applied doctorate in nursing, bachelors programs in engineering and computer science as well as bolstering on line offerings for applied graduate program such as educational administration.


It seems University of Charleston in West Virginia adapting as well. They were below 1000 a few years ago, and they are over 2100 while Wheeling is struggling financially and looking to sell or merge with West Virgina.

West coast privates are struggling as well as the midwest and northeast.

Wheeling had the issue of being a Catholic school at a time where the Diocese that supported the school having significant fiscal issues because of the sexual assault scandals that compared to other parts of the church were extreme.
05-15-2022 02:46 PM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-11-2022 04:25 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  Yeah small schools have gone out of business or merged for years. I don't think this is some apocalyptic issue.

There's been a big decline in high school seniors.
Further, the constant increase in the % going to college has declined.
And the middle class is getting squeezed while the upper class is going for quality.

On top of that a high % of these schools are in the midwest and northeast in states with relatively static or even declining overall population.
05-15-2022 03:04 PM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
Non-elite, small privates are really struggling. Lots of reasons for this.

Non-traditional options have become available. The increase in online universities or brick and mortar universities offering online degrees is staggering. Back in the day, many of these people would be going to night school at their local universities.

The cost of college has skyrocketed over the past 50 years, especially at private schools. So, unless you are going to one of the top schools, does it really make a lot of sense to pay up to $85,000 a year for a private school.

The number of kids going to college has dropped. So, there are less kids available to these small private schools.

More widespread information is also allowing kids to make more informed decisions. Kids now know the earning potential of degrees. Do you want to go a couple of hundred thousand of dollars in debt to be a teacher, with no hope of paying the loans off in the next 30 years?

I also think the world is smaller and kids are willing to travel to find a school that meets their needs, instead of going to the home town school. My daughter goes to a relatively small, private school in Wisconsin. I would say the families are middle to upper-middle class. She has classmates going to Malibu, Dublin, Cardiff, Maine, New York, Alabama, Utah, Arizona, and all places in-between. Forty years ago, how many kids from Wisconsin would go to college in Alabama? Now, her school sends at least one kid every year.

Also, I would link our sports culture has led to the increase in name recognition of major public schools in the past decades. Schools like Oregon were an afterthought 40 years ago, unless you were from the pacific northwest. Now, with their Nike branding, I think it leads kids to investigate the school more so than in the past.

Public schools started recruiting students heavily. When I was in high school, I don't remember ever receiving info from the public universities near me. Now, my kids get swamped with recruiting materials.

Finally, the academic reputations of the state schools have skyrocketed. Look at the US News top rankings, the publics have rise in the rankings have been dramatic over the past 40 years.

Unless the small private school has a unique niche or it is has a fantastic academic reputation, I have hard time thinking the school will survive. I also believe the effects will be felt in larger private schools too. Unless they are academically elite, I think more and more privates are going to struggle.
(This post was last modified: 05-16-2022 10:30 AM by MU88.)
05-16-2022 10:28 AM
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Post: #33
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-12-2022 02:51 PM)Todor Wrote:  
(05-12-2022 08:55 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  I also think that people are becoming more aware of student debt. Even though they usually offer scholarships/aid, a lot of these small private schools still can run you a total of ~$40k or so per year, while a state school (that's probably more well known), is gonna cost you half of that.

But a lot of small private colleges regularly undercut state colleges and universities on price. They need to be better at getting that message sometimes.

The percent of any colleges students paying actual cash in the neighborhood of 40-60K is so small it may as well not even be measured.

I never understood why they don't advertise that more. My nephew went to a small private school in Pennsylvania that matched the tuition of Shippensburg, Bloomsburg, IUP, etc. for students from middle class families.

But it's not something that's advertised. I'm sure a lot of students are scared off from the $50,000/year price tag listed on their webpage.
05-16-2022 10:45 AM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-13-2022 04:08 PM)inutech Wrote:  
(05-13-2022 01:50 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  The most obvious offenders are Central Arkansas and UALR, which are about 30 miles from each other. You could combine those and have one large university with a lot of resources.

What would you do with the other campus?

Those two schools are both big enough to justify their existences in my opinion, and there is population enough to support both (even if enrollment is decreasing). UCA pulls a ton from the LR area (I bet of my high school class that went to college at all probably almost half went to UCA), but they also serve areas to the north and west of LR, while UALR is much more convenient to the city itself.

I do agree that this is an issue broadly, but it's going to be really tough to fix. The politics of closing a campus (that's often going to be a main employer and cultural driver for the area) are just brutal. I grew up in Arkansas (as we're discussing) but went to school in a state with way too many schools per capita, too (there are public state schools, in the same university system, 3 miles and 30 miles away from Tech's campus). But good luck getting anywhere shutting them down. It's almost a non-starter.

I wouldn't close either campus, but I'd eliminate duplication of admin and programs. I'd put program offerings in the most strategic locations - more graduate programs and professional offerings in Little Rock, more focus on traditional undergrad degrees in Conway. The Henderson State location in Arkadelphia would become more of a community college with just a few limited bachelors programs to meet community needs. It's like what Georgia has done with some of their mergers where the physical campus locations stay open but with modifications in the nature of operations.

One thing we've seen from Florida's universities, which have been able to leverage size to make up for low levels of state funding, is that creating economies of scale matters. Having fewer universities with more students is better than having more universities with fewer students. You limit duplicated costs, recognize administrative efficiencies, and have a great purchasing power.

Arkansas is far from the worst offender here. As another poster said, Louisiana is way oversubscribed for universities, and they all struggle financially as a result.
05-16-2022 01:49 PM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-16-2022 01:49 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  
(05-13-2022 04:08 PM)inutech Wrote:  
(05-13-2022 01:50 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  The most obvious offenders are Central Arkansas and UALR, which are about 30 miles from each other. You could combine those and have one large university with a lot of resources.

What would you do with the other campus?

Those two schools are both big enough to justify their existences in my opinion, and there is population enough to support both (even if enrollment is decreasing). UCA pulls a ton from the LR area (I bet of my high school class that went to college at all probably almost half went to UCA), but they also serve areas to the north and west of LR, while UALR is much more convenient to the city itself.

I do agree that this is an issue broadly, but it's going to be really tough to fix. The politics of closing a campus (that's often going to be a main employer and cultural driver for the area) are just brutal. I grew up in Arkansas (as we're discussing) but went to school in a state with way too many schools per capita, too (there are public state schools, in the same university system, 3 miles and 30 miles away from Tech's campus). But good luck getting anywhere shutting them down. It's almost a non-starter.

I wouldn't close either campus, but I'd eliminate duplication of admin and programs. I'd put program offerings in the most strategic locations - more graduate programs and professional offerings in Little Rock, more focus on traditional undergrad degrees in Conway. The Henderson State location in Arkadelphia would become more of a community college with just a few limited bachelors programs to meet community needs. It's like what Georgia has done with some of their mergers where the physical campus locations stay open but with modifications in the nature of operations.

One thing we've seen from Florida's universities, which have been able to leverage size to make up for low levels of state funding, is that creating economies of scale matters. Having fewer universities with more students is better than having more universities with fewer students. You limit duplicated costs, recognize administrative efficiencies, and have a great purchasing power.

Arkansas is far from the worst offender here. As another poster said, Louisiana is way oversubscribed for universities, and they all struggle financially as a result.

That might help things with UALR/UCA. University of Central Arkansas @ LR and @Conway? Folks around there would probably rather it be UALR and UAC, I guess, even though I think that kind of thing is a little silly.

My stronger ties are across the ravine in Arkadelphia, although I did have several classmates go to HSU, including my best friend. I'd hate to see them go away, but I can see the argument. I know they've really struggled recently. And if you left a community college plus having OBU there you wouldn't be totally wrecking the local economy. And it wouldn't be a terrible ask for students that might once have gone to HSU from the area to consider SAU since Magnolia isn't so far away (or the ones like my classmates in suburban LR would mostly just end up at UCA or your new UALR/UCA hybrid).

Louisiana's situation is bad, but as I said above, it's just a losing proposition politically.

In the case of both Louisiana and Arkansas there still may also be a case to make for having institutions of higher ed with a range of missions. But in these specific situations I guess UCA and UALR have similar missions (at least to some extent, although as you said above UALR used to provide more of a service for non-traditional students working on that MBA or certification at night while working) and HSU and SAU are reasonable close to one another with what I'd think are (these days) very similar missions.
(This post was last modified: 05-16-2022 02:06 PM by inutech.)
05-16-2022 02:03 PM
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RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-15-2022 03:04 PM)bullet Wrote:  
(05-11-2022 04:25 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  Yeah small schools have gone out of business or merged for years. I don't think this is some apocalyptic issue.

There's been a big decline in high school seniors.
Further, the constant increase in the % going to college has declined.
And the middle class is getting squeezed while the upper class is going for quality.

On top of that a high % of these schools are in the midwest and northeast in states with relatively static or even declining overall population.

Just my opinion, but I believe that varies according to what political party is in power. This is what I mean: if you have a President and a Congress that supports the upper class. (i.e. Dem), the middle and lower classes are going to get squeezed. If you have a President and Congress that supports the lower and middle classes(i.e. GOP), expect to see more lower and middle class students in college. If the President and Congress majority are not the same, nothing happens.
(This post was last modified: 05-16-2022 08:59 PM by DawgNBama.)
05-16-2022 08:55 PM
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dbackjon Offline
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Post: #37
RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
(05-16-2022 08:55 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  
(05-15-2022 03:04 PM)bullet Wrote:  
(05-11-2022 04:25 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  Yeah small schools have gone out of business or merged for years. I don't think this is some apocalyptic issue.

There's been a big decline in high school seniors.
Further, the constant increase in the % going to college has declined.
And the middle class is getting squeezed while the upper class is going for quality.

On top of that a high % of these schools are in the midwest and northeast in states with relatively static or even declining overall population.

Just my opinion, but I believe that varies according to what political party is in power. This is what I mean: if you have a President and a Congress that supports the upper class. (i.e. Dem), the middle and lower classes are going to get squeezed. If you have a President and Congress that supports the lower and middle classes(i.e. GOP), expect to see more lower and middle class students in college. If the President and Congress majority are not the same, nothing happens.

LMAO. You have that reversed. Only class the GOP supports in the upper, upper class.
05-17-2022 12:04 PM
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