

Colleges with the Worst Credit Ratings - mcarvin
http://smartasset.com/blog/news/are-you-attending-a-university-with-bad-credit/

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jmduke
A related anecdote: my alma mater, the College of William & Mary, was founded
in 1693 (second only to Harvard, which was founded in 1636). As you'll
generally find, the biggest indicator of endowment size is year of
establishment: older schools, in the aggregate, have more alumni, more cachet,
more everything.

W&M is a huge exception: despite our age, our endowment per student is only
around $80.5K (compare this to Stanford's $342K or UVa's $239K).

Why is it so low? Because we took the side of the Confederacy in the American
Civil War. We spent our entire endowment on confederate war bonds and the
majority of the student body (being in Virginia) went to fight for the South.
They converted the Wren Building -- the oldest academic building still in use
in the U.S. -- to a barracks.

After the Civil War ended, Virginia was broke -- and W&M was even more so.
They kept the college closed for eight more years until they had enough money
simply to operate.

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larrys
"older schools, in the aggregate, have more alumni,"

What would effectively be the difference in alumni between a college founded
in 1693 and 1890 or even 1930 by that thinking?

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EvanKelly
A school founded in 1693 has a 200 year head start on alumni donations on the
school founded in 1890. Living alumni are not the only ones whose money is in
the endowment.

I'm not sure how recent the phenomnenon is, but many people bequeath much of
their wealth to their university when they pass. 200 years of alumni, and in
the case of many of the named schools, especially wealthy alumni can have a
dramatic effect.

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k8si
I attend University of Massachusetts "Anheuser-Busch". Should I be worried?
They DO seem to be spending a lot, what with the enormous new lab science and
academic classroom buildings, swank honors dorms, and library updates. Are
they spending too much on us? Are we going to go bottom up next time the
market crashes?

Also: For what it's worth, I'm not here to party, I'm here to learn. There are
plenty more like me (and we would all make more than adequate additions to
your development team...). And another thing: no one calls it UMass "Anheuser-
Busch". It's "Zoo"mass. Sigh.

~~~
GabrielF00
I wouldn't worry too much. UMass' Computer Science program is ranked very
highly - comparable to Ivy League institutions. It's also the flagship public
university in a state where higher ed is very, very important. Talking to
Boston-area CS profs, I've heard that UMass is better than, say, Harvard for
PhD students because the support provided to students is better.

In a financial crunch things can get uncomfortable, but UMass Amherst probably
qualifies as too big to fail. And administrators are less likely to damage
nationally-ranked departments then weaker parts of the university. For
instance, after Katrina, Tulane killed off its CS and engineering departments
(including civil engineering!) but kept areas where it was nationally ranked.

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tokenadult
The federal IPEDS database collects mandatory reports from just about all
colleges and universities in the United States, including many financial
details. It's possible to queries on the federal database directly, but I'm
grateful to the Education Trust for its user-friendly College Results website,

<http://www.collegeresults.org/>

which allows looking up a lot of details about colleges, including displaying
information about colleges comparable to some college of interest.

[http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=23...](http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=231624)

(The link shown above compares the College of William and Mary in Virginia to
colleges deemed similar to that college by characteristics chosen by the
College Results editors. You can then use the various tabs, e.g., "Finance and
Faculty" or "Admissions" to look up details about the colleges, sorting by
each column as you wish.)

Colleges range from amply supplied with funds to struggling and in danger of
going broke at any moment. It's a good idea to check out a college's finances
before actually enrolling.

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nraynaud
"It borrows money frequently to cover its operating costs like salaries of the
professors, maintenance, maintaining the dormitories, making sure the library
is stocked, and keeping the sports program in tip top shape."

When you borrow for operating costs, don't complain about bad credit... Borrow
money for project that will hopefully drive more money home later. Pay
operating costs with you income (hum, or your capital if you're starting, but
this is a ticking bomb).

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616c
As a Georgetown alum, I am not even surprised. I have nothing to say about
their bio program, but as a language major in one of their more reputed
language faculties in a certain language, my best year was my year abroad and
my senior year back made me contemplate why we spend so much money to stay.

Their CS department was also terrible in a big way, despite professors who
were really good and tried hard for the intro classes.

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linuxlizard
Not a lot of details why Boise State is "Most Wasted Resources".

Also, Raptor Biology refers to the bird, not the dinosaur.

(Current BSU student.)

