Some small, private colleges struggling to survive

[Gumbo4x4]

While that is true, there are some potential downsides to that path. I know a lot of welders in their 50s and 60s who just can't take the hot shops and physical work any more, and the benefits in the trades can be iffy. DH went into a trade; his sister got a degree, then a masters. He's always made more than her in actual take-home dollars, but we spent years scrambling to figure out affordable insurance coverage or just going without and he's never had so much as a 401k match, much less a pension like his sister has. And that's pretty typical for tradesmen around here. It can be really good money, but usually comes with less security, fewer benefits (unless you can get into a union position) and more physically taxing work conditions.

I would imagine PP’s example is a union job. He’ll probably be eligible for a pension by 50.

 

[Neesy228]

My daughter's college is closing a couple of the older dorms due to low enrollment. It is a problem. They need to recruit more students from overseas to fill the gap. The University of Washington is making up for reduced state funding by recruiting foreign students who are willing to pay full price.

We live in a university town and are seeing the same thing happening - a huge uptick of foreign students coming in for the same reason. It took me a while to make sense of what was happening.

When my DH and I finished college (20 years ago) we came out with a lot of student loan debt since we had to do it on our own. My oldest graduates next summer, and we are encouraging him to spend at least one or two years at a community college before heading to a “brand name” for his degree. He can graduate loan free that way with the money we’ve saved for him. Even if he goes to our local university and lives at home his costs would be close to $15,000/year. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

So, I’m not surprised that parents, who have been straddled with student loans themselves, are discouraging their children from a similar path.

 

[tvguy]

I clicked where it says "Not Now" and I saw the entire article.

When I was in college, the women's college Mills College in Oakland was facing financial difficulties and was thinking of admitting men as undergraduates. They did admit men to the graduate programs and their trustees decided to make it co-ed but then withdrew after protests. I think after WWII they also were required to admit men under the GI Bill.

1990. Remember writing stories about it at the time. I was LONG out of college by then.

 

[tvguy]

I wonder if people from your area are moving here. I live in the county south of Nashville, TN and we can’t build elementary schools fast enough.

People just don't move in the district I live in. So folks have raised kids......and now they have grand kids who live elsewhere. A couple of the folks on my street have been in their homes 42 years, their kids are grown, and some of their Grandkids are about to have kids. I think the biggest demographic group now is 65 to deceased.

 

[DawnM]

I will have two in college at the same time next year! GAH!

Oldest goes to a private school with some scholarships (enough for half tuition roughly). Middle will go to a state school with a full tuition scholarship, just need to pay fees and living expenses.

It is a lot.

 

[OhMari]

College is an institution that needs to be totally revamped. The first 2 years of college is a waste of everyone's time and money. The old saying that a college student needs a well rounded education of math, science and social classes, and a phy Ed. Class, that is what high school was for. Colleges need to eliminate these waste of classes and get these students into their classes to earn their degrees. What was a standard 50-100 years ago, needs to go.

 

[bcla]

1990. Remember writing stories about it at the time. I was LONG out of college by then.

During that time I was taking an English lit class at Cal taught by a feminist professor. I wasn't totally out of place in that class. I personally got along fabulously with the prof and in general had similar political leanings. However, we had an assignment to write an essay on a current topic that took a position, and that would reference some of the literature that we were reading in class. Mine was that Mills College should admit male undergrads. I juxtaposed that with the recent situations at state-sponsored military academies like The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute.

 

[DawnM]

Looking at the list, I only recognize one college on that entire list.

My mother went to a college that is now defunct. It was a small college and it just happens.

 

[bcla]

College is an institution that needs to be totally revamped. The first 2 years of college is a waste of everyone's time and money. The old saying that a college student needs a well rounded education of math, science and social classes, and a phy Ed. Class, that is what high school was for. Colleges need to eliminate these waste of classes and get these students into their classes to earn their degrees. What was a standard 50-100 years ago, needs to go.

There have been some proposals that my alma mater (UC Berkeley) revamp itself as upper-division only for undergraduate education, with undergraduate admission only via junior-level transfer. I don't know how workable it would be since the University of California is supposed to have an emphasis on junior transfers from California community colleges. Someone hoping to graduate from UC Berkeley would be faced with the option of going to a community college and then hoping to gain junior transfer admission, or going to another university (perhaps another UC campus or a CSU campus) and facing longer odds of being able to transfer because of the priority for community college graduates.

I don't exactly recall what the analysis was, but the idea was that there could be about the same-sized student body but an increase in the number of degrees awarded. It would have put intercollegiate athletics in an interesting situation. I'm not sure if they would have been able to allow student-athletes to take the majority of their classes at a local community college.

 

[mummabear]

People just don't move in the district I live in. So folks have raised kids......and now they have grand kids who live elsewhere. A couple of the folks on my street have been in their homes 42 years, their kids are grown, and some of their Grandkids are about to have kids. I think the biggest demographic group now is 65 to deceased.

OT: I read an interesting article a couple of years ago about the housing crisis, it pointed out that in the last 30 years developments have shunned mixed housings. This means that people aren’t moving out of their family home to downsize and making room for new families to come in, because people have no way to downsize and stay in the community they have loved in.

I have seen it the area where my husbands parents love-they built the house when he was 7 and it was a new subdivision, dh was at the local school the year it opened, they are still there 30 years a later and almost all of their neighbours are the same, because when the suburb was built they were all 3 bedroom double garage housing, with a retirement community at the lake. My parents moved into the area about 15 years ago and would like to downsize as dm has trouble with the stairs but the houses just dont really exist and the prices for anything slightly smaller are high because everyone wants them.
So until they are both old enough to go into a nursing home they will both be “taking up” these large family homes around the corner from the elementary school.

 

[Colleen27]

College is an institution that needs to be totally revamped. The first 2 years of college is a waste of everyone's time and money. The old saying that a college student needs a well rounded education of math, science and social classes, and a phy Ed. Class, that is what high school was for. Colleges need to eliminate these waste of classes and get these students into their classes to earn their degrees. What was a standard 50-100 years ago, needs to go.

I think that would be a real shame. Those classes serve a purpose, even if they aren't directly related to marketable bullet-points on a resume, and they teach perspective and reasoning in ways that get lost when you start thinking of university as nothing more than a white-collar trade school.

 

[Hikergirl]

College is an institution that needs to be totally revamped. The first 2 years of college is a waste of everyone's time and money. The old saying that a college student needs a well rounded education of math, science and social classes, and a phy Ed. Class, that is what high school was for. Colleges need to eliminate these waste of classes and get these students into their classes to earn their degrees. What was a standard 50-100 years ago, needs to go.

I agree partly. Like Colleen said those classes do serve a purpose, but maybe they should only be required for those who have undeclared majors.
The rest of the students, who know what they want and are attending college for that specific degree and career goal shouldn't have to waste their time and money taking them.

I think that would be a real shame. Those classes serve a purpose, even if they aren't directly related to marketable bullet-points on a resume, and they teach perspective and reasoning in ways that get lost when you start thinking of university as nothing more than a white-collar trade school.

I recognize a few mentioned in the article and I noticed one thing was missing, location of the campuses. I'm not familiar with all but one of the ones mentioned is in a pretty bad area. That may also play a role in whether students (or their parents) want to attend.

 

[Poohforyou]

It isn't just fewer students overall it's also fewer or no foreign students that have an impact. Foreign students don't qualify for financial aid. I'm not sure about merit scholarships. That means they pay more than the average student so US students benefit from that.

 

[tvguy]

OT: I read an interesting article a couple of years ago about the housing crisis, it pointed out that in the last 30 years developments have shunned mixed housings. This means that people aren’t moving out of their family home to downsize and making room for new families to come in, because people have no way to downsize and stay in the community they have loved in.

I have seen it the area where my husbands parents love-they built the house when he was 7 and it was a new subdivision, dh was at the local school the year it opened, they are still there 30 years a later and almost all of their neighbours are the same, because when the suburb was built they were all 3 bedroom double garage housing, with a retirement community at the lake. My parents moved into the area about 15 years ago and would like to downsize as dm has trouble with the stairs but the houses just dont really exist and the prices for anything slightly smaller are high because everyone wants them.
So until they are both old enough to go into a nursing home they will both be “taking up” these large family homes around the corner from the elementary school.

The folks not moving out sure has been my experience. But here in California, the other issue has to do with property taxes. They are 1% of what you paid for your house, with a 2% hike allowed each year. If you buy a smaller replacement house, it likely will cost a lot more than what you paid for your house 30 years ago. My mom was in her house 53 years. Her property taxes were $995 a year. If she bought a $200,000 condo, her property taxes would double to $2,000 a year, and likely would also require an HOA fee of $200-$300 a month. It was cheaper for her to live in a 1772 square foot house, even with upkeep, that to downsize.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

College is an institution that needs to be totally revamped. The first 2 years of college is a waste of everyone's time and money. The old saying that a college student needs a well rounded education of math, science and social classes, and a phy Ed. Class, that is what high school was for. Colleges need to eliminate these waste of classes and get these students into their classes to earn their degrees. What was a standard 50-100 years ago, needs to go.

I never had to take a phys ed class in college FWIW.

I do think it depends on what program you are going into. A liberal arts college within a college is by nature intented to give you a variety of course education. My husband who was in the school of engineering at the same university as me had very few non-engineering related courses.

Now what some colleges have done, including my alma mater, is adjust the number of graduating credits needed to graduate.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree partly. Like Colleen said those classes do serve a purpose, but maybe they should only be required for those who have undeclared majors.
The rest of the students, who know what they want and are attending college for that specific degree and career goal shouldn't have to waste their time and money taking them.

But at least some of those courses are actually important to your degree or are building blocks to them. Schools do already have options for testing out of a required course for certain ones so I guess maybe an option would be to open that up a bit more.

 

[Hikergirl]

But at least some of those courses are actually important to your degree or are building blocks to them. Schools do already have options for testing out of a required course for certain ones so I guess maybe an option would be to open that up a bit more.

Yes some are, but some are not so IMO those should not be required for a specific degree. Or they can just be an elective option for those students who may want to take them.
My ds is making his schedule next week, I already know the classes he is going to complain about having to take, they are the same ones my dd did, and her friends did in their freshman year (all had very different degree paths- art, science, aviation). I'll just tell him to suck it up though, it has to be done, but I will still think it shouldn't have to be

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes some are, but some are not so IMO those should not be required for a specific degree. Or they can just be an elective option for those students who may want to take them.
My ds is making his schedule next week, I already know the classes he is going to complain about having to take, they are the same ones my dd did, and her friends did in their freshman year (all had very different degree paths- art, science, aviation). I'll just tell him to suck it up though, it has to be done, but I will still think it shouldn't have to be

I remember one of the bigger ones was Western Civ. It used to be required to take for a degree in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at my alma mater and you had to wait until you were at least a sophmore to take it. Sometime after I graduated they changed that and added other Humanities courses to the list and made it so you could opt to take Western Civ or one of the other Humanities courses on the list.

 

[Hikergirl]

I remember one of the bigger ones was Western Civ. It used to be required to take for a degree in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at my alma mater and you had to wait until you were at least a sophmore to take it. Sometime after I graduated they changed that and added other Humanities courses to the list and made it so you could opt to take Western Civ or one of the other Humanities courses on the list.

I was required to take that my freshman year but my dd did have a couple choices that fulfilled that requirement, (and my ds will too) but they are still not happy with the choices. She is taking her's this semester (she's a sophomore) because she has been putting it off. Of course now she says she wishes she just got it over with freshmen year

 

[Southernmiss]

Ds entered college with some AP courses for credit. This is his 3rd year in a 7 year program. He has state merit aid that requires 15 credit hours to receive the aid.

Ds was down 3 required courses that are related to his major for this year. The school would not allow him to start taking year 4 courses. So he is taking an intro to music class and a very basic intro to computers class to get the hours to keep his merit aid.

Crazy that he can't move on and get more required courses out of the way.