Colleges and universities are closing or merging at a the rate of one per week, double last year's rate, reports Hechinger's Jon Marcus.
"Most students at colleges that close give up on their educations altogether," according to a study by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, or SHEEO. "Fewer than half transfer to other institutions," and of those who do transfer fewer than half complete degrees.
Transfer students "lose an average of 43 percent of the credits they’ve already earned and paid for," writes Marcus. But they still owe on their student loans.
Selective colleges have plenty of students to choose from, but third-tier private colleges face a double whammy: Falling birth rates mean fewer high school graduates, and high college costs discourage those in the shrinking cohort of teenagers.
"The closings follow an enrollment decline of 14 percent in the decade through 2022," writes Marcus. "Another decline of up to 15 percent is projected to begin in 2025."
Wells College in upstate New York announced its closing Monday, with a week to go in the semester.
The University of Saint Katherine in San Diego County, California will close and declare bankruptcy on May 18, students were told last week.
Often, students get little advance notice their college is folding, and little help in finding an alternative, writes Marcus.
Some colleges -- including state universities in New York and Wisconsin -- are turning to "direct admissions" to fill empty seats, writes Harrington Shaw for the Martin Center blog. Struggling institutions mail unsolicited college acceptance letters to high schoolers who haven't applied.
What's the college completion rate for students who weren't motivated enough to apply? We don't know because the trend is new. But we can guess.