Out-of-State Public Universities–A Good Idea?

Today’s issue of Inside Higher Ed has an article about public universities eager to boost revenues–and head count–by recruiting out-of-state students.

Many public universities are facing deep budget cuts, and some are hoping to make up their revenue shortfalls by recruiting out-of-state students.   The article expresses many doubts that this will be a good strategy for most state universities.

One of the doubts–raised by me, as I was quoted in the article–is that most students from the west and south who desire to go out-of-state for college are looking at either the most prestigious and reputable public universities (Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina) or at the private colleges and universities.  Why, for example, would a qualified Colorado student choose the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (at out-of-state tuition prices) when he can go to the University of Colorado at Boulder?

I also pointed out that some public universities closer to home may be attractive to some students, especially if they offer generous scholarship programs.  The  University of Wyoming and Montana State University, for example, offer great packages to some students to attract them to their campuses.

But it seems unlikely that many state universities will be able to make significant increases in their out-of-state applicants.

With budgets being cut back, might it actually be time to reassess how  many university slots a state actually needs?  If there is more supply than demand, then why not cut back the supply to match that demand?

Or, might it  make more sense for a UMass-Amherst to put more energy into retaining and graduating students within six years?  For example, recent data suggest that only 84% of freshmen at UMass-Amherst return for their sophomore year.  If UMass could raise that to 93% (which is the first-year retention rate at University of Washington-Seattle), it would be able to make up a heck of a lot of revenue that way.

Similarly, only 68% of entering freshmen at UMass will graduate in six years.  If UMass could raise that rate to, say 78% (which is the six-year graduation rate at the University of Texas-Austin), the university would fill quite a few holes in its budget.

Sometimes the solution to a problem is closer at hand than we think.

Mark Montgomery
College Counselor

Choosing the Right College Curriculum–How Much Choice Is Right For You?

I recently toured several colleges in New England, including Amherst and Hampshire Colleges in Massachusetts, and Bennington and Marlboro Colleges in Vermont.  These visits brought home the fact that students do have choices in the sorts of curriculum they would like to form the core of their academic experience in college.

The core of college is the curriculum, after all.  I mean, the residence halls, the athletic facilities, and the free massages are all nice, of course.  But this is school, not a resort.  So it makes sense to think about the kind of curricular structure is right for you.

This short video explains the “Open Curriculum” of Amherst College, and compares it to the more structured–but still very individually directed–academic structures of Bennington and Marlboro Colleges. 



Mark Montgomery
College Consultant

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In Defense of Large University Endowments

The Los Angeles Times ran an opinion piece today written by Anthony W. Marx, the president of Amherst College, in which he eloquently defended independent decision-making by independent colleges.  In the past year or so, Congress has had its knickers in a twist about the rising value of college endowments at some private colleges–even as tuition rates have continued to rise.


Now with the economic downturn, I expect the outrage about balooning college endowments will subside–because they’re not balooning very much right now.  Up until the past few weeks, the “American Way” has been characterized by debt burdens, excessive leverage, and wanton spending.  Our collective profligacy has caught up with us, and the immediate future doesn’t appear very rosy.


If we remember Aesop’s fable of the grasshopper and the ants, we can think of Congress and the rest of the outraged public (or, the grasshoppers) complaining that private colleges (the ants) were unnecessarily stuffing their mattresses with investments.  Well, winter has now come, and the ants are sighing with relief that they made some good decisions.


Congressional grasshoppers, left out in the cold, how have to turn their attention to the messes they neglected, rather than continuing to complain about the apparent wisdom of the ants.  Most private colleges have weathered economic storms for decades, if not centuries in some cases.  While some colleges have gone under (and a few of the more spenthrift colleges may lose their shirts in this downturn), we don’t hear about Harvard or Yale or Vanderbilt going belly up like AIG, Lehman Brothers, or Washington Mutual.


Undoubtedly well-endowed colleges and universities will feel the economic pain of the current crisis, and while many (like Amherst) will try to continue to offer large financial aid packages to those who need them.  It will be interesting to see, however,  if all of them will be able to make good on every pledge they made a few months ago when their endowments wer at record highs.  If university endowments have shrunk by 40% in the past year (as has the average porfolio), we may see some colleges backtracking.


Ants will be ants.


Mark Montgomery

College Admissions Consultant




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