The Changing Landscape: What Are Colleges Cutting?

Posted on March 25, 2009
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Gross

In a down economy, financing college isn’t the only thing on high school graduates’ minds. Another issue is how colleges’ shrinking endowments will affect their programming. How to choose a college based on your academic and extracurricular interests when everything is in flux?

Steve Yoder, chief of The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau, and his son, Isaac, a high school senior, discuss their concerns in the latest installment of Yoder & Son, a series of articles on the college application process. Isaac explains the quandary well:

Many of the qualities that schools advertised when I was putting together my short list may be reduced significantly or cut altogether. Will some of the very things that made a school appeal to me in the first place be gone? What if they cut funding for their radio stations, for example? What if they cut back the English department?

The problem, he writes, is that even when schools acknowledge cutbacks, they offer few specifics. How to make a college decision based on a sketch of a school’s offerings that will likely change?

The good news is that it was never simple to choose a college: even when endowments were relatively stable, it was impossible to know exactly what a school would be like once you were there. So, now there’s one more wrench in the decision-making process, but in the end, it’s always been largely a faith-based choice.

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One Response to “The Changing Landscape: What Are Colleges Cutting?”

  1. Candy Dish: Guys Love Lady Gaga : College Candy on March 31st, 2009 10:01 am

    […] What is your college cutting? […]

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