Posted on 03/05/2015 2:13:34 PM PST by Varsity Flight
A 114-year-old college that's closing its doors may have to give more than $50 million back to donors After 114 years, Sweet Briar College revealed this week that it's closing after the spring 2015 semester, an abrupt announcement that shocked students, alumni, and many people active in higher education.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I know one chick who graduated from Sweet Briar last year; she’s as far from dumb and unmotivated as you can get. She’s my niece.
She’s intelligent, ambitious, model beautiful, sweet and humble, and she loves guns and hunting. She drives a pickup truck.
She’s also a Christian. She tried to talk to some of her fellow students about Jesus, but she didn’t get much interest.
See, when you paint with a very broad brush, there are always exceptions.
Obama and other politicos want to see more people.go.to.college. Sweet Briar and others could be bailed out by giving more financial aid to more students???? Don’t ask how these loans eventually get repaid. But I can already think that some liberals will want to bail out colleges by increasing student loans to pay for more people to attend.
Don't know how to link, but check it out.
I would strongly encourage anyone near college age to consider their local community college. An intro to chemistry class, for example, is the exact same course whether it's at the community college or at the much more expensive university.
Get the basics out of the way at a community college, then transfer to a university for the upper level courses.
The only possible exception I'd make to that is for engineering majors. It's tougher to transfer in to an engineering program as an upperclassman than it is to get accepted there as a freshman.
Oh, and one more thing. Strongly encourage your kid to pick a local school, and commute from home. Independence and all that is fine, but room and board is very expensive. Why take on that debt if you don't really have to?
If by this one you mean Sweat Briar, I doubt Cuban is right. This school’s issues have little to do with any student loan bubble. This school closing probably has a lot to do with the rise of newer schools in Va, like Liberty and Regents. There are a finite number of potential college students. When new successful schools come into existence, they eventually cause some marginal schools to exit the business as with any business.
If she is all that she should have picked a better college not one that is going into bankruptcy.
Holding a degree from a college that no longer exist is not very smart decision. And the college did not deteriorate from viable to non-viable from the time she finished high school to now.
The only thing I know about your niece is a poor decision.
Many universities are no longer accepting credits from community colleges. They will require the student to retake the classes. Some may allow you to test out of a class, but many are starting to even disallow that.
It’s all about the money.
But you are right, years ago you could get your rhetoric classes done on the cheap at a community college.
She sounds to be, sadly, the exception. Somewhere a stat says that males are significantly outnumbered in college/university admissions.
So males on campus are getting rarer, too. There must be a reason.
This seems germane:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102477509
“Which colleges have the best return on investment?”
Not ones you’d expect if you watch the TV news.
link fixed
Good point. I know that many state universities are required by law to accept community college credits. Private universities can be more picky. As you said, it's all about the money.
This is my recommendation.
Sources of Free College Credit and Continuing Education Classes
http://hubpages.com/hub/Alternative-Sources-of-College-Credit-and-Continuing-Education-Classes
Get your kid in Pre-AP or AP courses as early as possible to get dual credit in high school.
Take online classes and CLEP or AP tests to shave up to a year and a half off college.
Test drive career paths so the kid knows they don’t like kids and shouldn’t go into teaching (happened to 2 friends of mine) or work as a candy stripper to decide before Junior year you don’t like medicine.
Oh,she is all that.
But since nothing was ever said to the students, alums, or community about the school's financial problems, and since the whole thing has been a shock to the area, I don't quite know how she would have been privy to information that was kept secret.
Do you?
"Holding a degree from a college that no longer exist is not very smart decision."
You must mean "exists."
Again, how or why do you think my niece would have known what everyone else did not? Any bright ideas?
....No?
Then you understand why blaming her for a poor decision is outright stupid.
" And the college did not deteriorate from viable to non-viable from the time she finished high school to now."
See above. You don't live here and you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
"only thing I know about your niece is a poor decision."
I told you what you need to know about her. Other than that, you know zip.
Don't feel sorry for her. She was hired right after graduation and she's doing wonderfully well. She just got back from a business trip to Las Vegas.
Sweet Briar is (was?)an all-girls’ school. Now that it’s closing, I think only two are left in the state.
She probably was the exception. Her roommate was a girl from California who believed in everything and nothing, and who was very politically correct. The girl had posters of Hindu gods, statues of Buddha, etc.
There is a follow-on issue for students; I know of guys who think twice about marrying a girl (and inheriting her tuition debt) as that is a large burden.
Less guys see college as a place hospitable to them (”rape culture” being one of those college themes).
Why pay to be hit over the head (metaphorically) and why marry a girl with heavy debt — curbing family and home and enjoying a growing standard of living.
Best of luck you your niece. She has the benefit of having her head on her shoulders, even without Buddha helping her out.
I see your point about guys not wanting to marry girls who have heavy debt, but that goes both ways. Either way, it’s a burden on the marriage.
My niece doesn’t have any debt. Thanks for the good wishes for her. I appreciate it.
Your niece sounds like a wonderful, young lady with a great future a head of her, Catherine.
Thank you, momofthree. That’s very kind.
She really is a good girl.
Tuition - not counting room and board - at my old college (Seattle University) is now pushing $40,000 a year. If tuition continues to rise at the same rate it’s risen since I went there, it will be almost $100,000 a year in 20 years. How can that possibly be sustainable? The only people in our colleges will be the sons of Saudi princes and upper-level Chinese bureaucrats.
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