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re: Birmingham Southern College may shut down
Posted on 12/19/22 at 8:36 am to SlowFlowPro
Posted on 12/19/22 at 8:36 am to SlowFlowPro
Alabama targeted this issue starting around 20 years ago by aggressively targeting out of state kids. This also allowed them to build funds with the higher tuition. The problem is a lot of these out of state kids end up leaving the state after graduating because the job market here hasn’t kept pace.
1
Posted on 12/19/22 at 8:39 am to Ramblin Wreck
I went to school there. It’s sad stuff because this isn’t because they went woke or had corruption. They just overbuilt, had an incompetent President, and got on the wrong side of the financial collapse in 2008. They’ve been working hard to dig out of the hole ever since.
Posted on 12/19/22 at 9:10 am to Ramblin Wreck
quote:
Seems odd that a SMU fan would be glad to see a lot of small liberal arts colleges to be shutting down
SMU is small?
Posted on 12/19/22 at 9:41 am to TomJoadGhost
quote:
Alabama targeted this issue starting around 20 years ago by aggressively targeting out of state kids. This also allowed them to build funds with the higher tuition. The problem is a lot of these out of state kids end up leaving the state after graduating because the job market here hasn’t kept pace.
What's the difference? It's a private school - tuition is the same whether you are an Alabama resident or an out-of-state resident, right?
Going back to my original post, these "small" liberal arts colleges in the South really have to struggle to even break even. Look at some basic enrollment numbers:
Birmingham Southern has approximately 1,200 students;
College of the Ozarks has approximately 1,400 students;
Centenary has approximately 700 students;
Hendrix College has approximately 1,200 students
Millsaps has approximately 1,000 students
Factor in the cost of maintenance of a college campus, paying professors, staff, and employees...I don't know how they even break even. Not every student is paying full tuition. For example, let's say the average cost to attend Millsaps is $45,000.00; however, only 2/3 pay that price (the rest are on full scholarship). That would come out to a little over $30,000,000.00 a year. Is that practical to maintain and upkeep a full blown college campus, insurance and pay all employees? Maybe, but I assume it would be very tight.
This post was edited on 12/19/22 at 9:53 am
Posted on 12/19/22 at 10:09 am to Tupelo
quote:
The Forbes ranking system is very subjective. The academic portion of the Forbes ranking counts for very little of the overall ranking. It is based on how many Rhodes and Fulbright scholars the college produces, and on Research done at the college. These criteria don't work in favor of small colleges (Birmingham Southern only has about 1100 students). The percentage of a college's graduates that are accepted to Law Schools or Med Schools aren't part of the ranking. Birmingham Southern's academic reputation is quite good. But it's in what has become a high crime area now, and they made a disastrous error in how they applied financial aid for years.
My wife went to BSC, so my daughter applied out of consideration to her. She was accepted and they offered her a $10k per year merit scholarship. While we were excited because it was the first school she heard from, we learned that they offer every student the same scholarship. The tuition is approximately $25k per year which is "cheap" compared to other schools, it just didn't seem like a good business model to offer a $10k scholarship to every single student who is accepted.
Posted on 12/19/22 at 10:39 am to GentleJackJones
From the link on page 1, they are dumbasses
Their response from this crisis was to cut spending for a bit, then forget it and start treating their endowment like a Clark Griswold bonus and build as many buildings as they could.
quote:
The private college, with about 1,500 students, has been mistakenly adding Pell grants to the financial aid packages it awards students without adjusting the college's own contribution, said college President David Pollick. That error and other financial aid irregularities discovered earlier this year cost the school about $5 million a year and combined with the sour economy to necessitate the deep cuts in spending, he said.
Their response from this crisis was to cut spending for a bit, then forget it and start treating their endowment like a Clark Griswold bonus and build as many buildings as they could.
This post was edited on 12/19/22 at 10:40 am
Posted on 12/19/22 at 10:40 am to Ten Bears
quote:
My wife went to BSC, so my daughter applied out of consideration to her. She was accepted and they offered her a $10k per year merit scholarship. While we were excited because it was the first school she heard from, we learned that they offer every student the same scholarship. The tuition is approximately $25k per year which is "cheap" compared to other schools, it just didn't seem like a good business model to offer a $10k scholarship to every single student who is accepted.
The industry term is tuition discounting and virtually all privates do it.
Posted on 12/19/22 at 10:41 am to titmouse
quote:
The industry term is tuition discounting and virtually all privates do it.
so artificially jack up the price then offer a discount to make it seem like you're getting a bargain?
Posted on 12/19/22 at 10:44 am to 777Tiger
quote:
so artificially jack up the price then offer a discount to make it seem like you're getting a bargain?
basically. there are criteria to receive it so it's not guaranteed to all students but it sort of is. It's also typically tiered so some of ties into needs-based.
It also has some bookkeeping impacts that make it beneficial.
Posted on 12/19/22 at 11:04 am to titmouse
quote:
The industry term is tuition discounting and virtually all privates do it.
Her first choice didn't do it...lol
This post was edited on 12/19/22 at 11:05 am
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