Opinion | What Chinese applicants to US universities should watch out for as campus closures gather steam
- With the number of American students attending college expected to drop, many US universities face an uncertain future
- Chinese applicants must pay close attention to an institution’s teaching and research record, graduating student career data and annual reports
But students and their parents need to exercise caution. A stark demographic drop is coming for US colleges. The US high school population, which has been declining, will drop significantly by 2026. This will strain an already financially stressed industry.
In nine years, the number of US students attending college is projected to plunge by 11 per cent or 292,000. In parts of the US, such as the Northeast (Massachusetts) and Midwest (Illinois), schools are already struggling with falling enrolments due to lower US birth rates.
In the past three years, over 90 non-profit US colleges have closed, merged with other colleges or consolidated their administrations, such as in the Wisconsin and Georgia state systems. Middlebury College, ranked seventh among liberal arts colleges in the latest US News and World Report, enacted a voluntary employee buyout – despite its US$1 billion endowment – to close a budget deficit.
Consulting firm EY-Parthenon predicts 800 colleges are at risk. The College Stress Test, by Robert Zemsky, Susan Shaman and Susan Campbell Baldridge, expects 40 per cent of four-year undergraduate schools to struggle or close.
