Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Hibush]

  It's also not clear why someone who is looking for a good college education in the same region, but not totally in love with the SLAC version would choose Beloit over Platteville.

The plan seems to be that the student or parent will have heard Beloit's story a lot more than Platteville's, even if the student would be happy at either.

So the story is supposed to win over data?  Interesting for a place selling critical thinking.

There is no question we are talking marketing of quality products.

In sales & marketing, the better story usually wins. If you have no story...nobody looks at your data.

[polly_mer]

  It's also not clear why someone who is looking for a good college education in the same region, but not totally in love with the SLAC version would choose Beloit over Platteville.

The plan seems to be that the student or parent will have heard Beloit's story a lot more than Platteville's, even if the student would be happy at either.

So the story is supposed to win over data?  Interesting for a place selling critical thinking.

There is no question we are talking marketing of quality products.

In sales & marketing, the better story usually wins. If you have no story...nobody looks at your data.

OK.  What's Beloit doing to compete with Platteville in terms of having kids from the region regularly visit campus to hear the story?  We visited Platteville multiple times per year for math team, music competitions, and science camps starting in middle school.  I've never been on Beloit campus, despite living within half an hour drive for years.

[irhack]

Well, Beloit is nationally famous for the annual https://themindsetlist.com/2018/08/beloit-college-mindset-list-class-2022/.

But I grew up in the general region and neither it nor Platteville ever crossed my mind as options. Beloit is in, well, Beloit, which must be about the worst town in Wisconsin and if I were going to pick a UW it would be Madison. So, I worry for them both.

Anyone read https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/19/private-colleges-convinced-company-scuttle-release-list-projected-college-closures?

[mythbuster]

Polly, your training makes you very data driven. But most people are not. They may consider a school because they know someone who went there, or their college counselor has had luck getting students in to a particular school, or the sports team did well that year, or they want the "prestige" of attending a private school. Lots of very irrational reasons that have nothing to do with data.
   This why alumni networks and legacies can be so important to these smaller schools.  I've seen this effect even with highly educated parents who should know better. So don't discount the "fuzzy" impact of a good story. Besides, Bob Benson on Mad Men went to Beloit, so there's a real selling point! I'm sure they loved the PR.

[Aster]

Colleges need more horses in them. Everyone loves horses. I think that's the only thing keeping that little tiny women's college from shutting down.

And beer gardens. Beer gardens are white hot right now.

Having a pharmacy school is also pretty reliable as an attention grabber.

I predict that "food forests" might be one the next big lures. Everywhere I go, people keep yammering about food forests. I'd much rather put in a microscale wildlife preserve than deal with an effing mess of fruit trees.

[Hibush]

I predict that "food forests" might be one the next big lures. Everywhere I go, people keep yammering about food forests. I'd much rather put in a microscale wildlife preserve than deal with an effing mess of fruit trees.

Be sure you stop and smell the daisies! (That's good for student mental health, so there's an institutional rationale.)

[Aster]

Be sure you stop and smell the daisies! (That's good for student mental health, so there's an institutional rationale.)

Funny you should mention that. I helped set up an aromatherapy garden a few years back at Big Urban College. It never really took off. This makes me sad.

[lightning]

Lazy rivers?

[spork]

Well, Beloit is nationally famous for the annual https://themindsetlist.com/2018/08/beloit-college-mindset-list-class-2022/.

[. . . ]

Not anymore. It is no longer affiliated with the Mindset List.

Colleges need more horses in them. Everyone loves horses. I think that's the only thing keeping that little tiny women's college from shutting down.

[. . .]

My employer recently started an equestrian team. I assume it's because rich girls looking for a place to take their horses don't need as large of a tuition discount.

[Bede the Vulnerable]

Having a pharmacy school is also pretty reliable as an attention grabber.

No joke.  My undergrad alma mater started a Pharm. D. program several years ago.  It's actually bringing in students and $$$.  The place should be on the "Dire Financial Straits" list, given its profile.  But it has had two really capable presidents in a row, and a board that will support them. 

(My graduate U. has more money than God. I'll discuss it if there's ever a thread about "Colleges that are Really Annoying.") 

[secundem_artem]

Colleges need more horses in them. Everyone loves horses. I think that's the only thing keeping that little tiny women's college from shutting down.

And beer gardens. Beer gardens are white hot right now.

Having a pharmacy school is also pretty reliable as an attention grabber.

I predict that "food forests" might be one the next big lures. Everywhere I go, people keep yammering about food forests. I'd much rather put in a microscale wildlife preserve than deal with an effing mess of fruit trees.

Not anymore.  Every dinky faith-based school that was worried about making payroll has opened one.  20 years ago, there were ~ 70 schools of pharmacy.  Now there are ~ 140.  Most are not filling their classes.  The job market is largely saturated, layoffs abound (Wal-Mart is talking about laying off 40% of their senior staff including pharmacists), and student interest has declined significantly. You all should hope they are not just diving deeper into the candidate pool just to fill their roster.  Do you want the person who handles your medications to have graduated from a school with a 30% pass rate on the boards -- which is the reality right now.  What used to be a cash cow for cash strapped schools is rapidly turning into a law school kind of debacle.

[Aster]

That's good to know. I have been wary of the explosion of pharmacy programs for some time now. Thank you for providing some recent background on market saturation.

It has always seemed to make little sense to me how any health science program with small cohort sizes was a "money maker". I mean, what actually brings in all the money if it's not the students? And most of these professional health science programs are expensive to operate. Is there some weird pool of big-budget grants and gifts that associate with and specially fund health science programs?

Or are they more like football, a money pit itself in operating costs but offset by generous alumni support?

[Hibush]

Or are they more like football, a money pit itself in operating costs but offset by generous alumni support?

Alumni provide the most generous support at two points in their lives: just after retirement and just after death. Both of those events are a number of decades after they graduate. A successful new Pharm D program will not see substantial operating costs begin to be offset by alumni donations until 2070. Can they hold out that long?

[secundem_artem]

Or are they more like football, a money pit itself in operating costs but offset by generous alumni support?

Alumni provide the most generous support at two points in their lives: just after retirement and just after death. Both of those events are a number of decades after they graduate. A successful new Pharm D program will not see substantial operating costs begin to be offset by alumni donations until 2070. Can they hold out that long?

Replying to you and Aster

Are The U of Artem, it's a 6 yr program and ideally students come to your school as entering FR.  Their financial aid package/tuition discount etc. is for their first 4 yrs.  Their last 2 yrs are full freight tuition.  So, if you are down 30 students a year x 2 yrs x $40,000..... That's $2.4 million for each cohort you're down by 30.  Do that for a few years and sooner or later, you're talking about real money.  Add in that clinical faculty cost a whole lot more than faculty in the humanities and you can see where this is headed.

[kaysixteen]

One might wonder why anyone would want to be a pharmacist today.  Anyone can put pills in a bottle and read printouts describing possible side effects of meds, etc.  I get that sometimes there are serious questions to answer, potential drug interactions that the computer didn't flag, etc., but most of the time the job sounds pretty boring and a waste of the pharmacist's skills.