CHECK YOUR COLLEGE'S FINANCIAL HEALTH

Declining enrollment has forced a growing number of small colleges to shut down.

- KIMBERLY LANKFORD

CHRISTOPHER ROSE was close to finishing his third year at Fontbonne University in St. Louis last March when the entire student body received a message to meet in the school's main gymnasium.

After the students gathered, the college's president announced that Fontbonne would be closing at the end of the summer term in August 2025.

"It shook a lot of students," says Rose. "A lot of kids were in the same position as me, with uncertainty about the future and having to scramble to find a path forward. It had been a close community, like a second home. Everybody worried about financial aid and transferring credits." Fontbonne made agreements with 25 colleges that offered to accept most credits and charge students no more than they were paying at Fontbonne. But the disruption of having to change schools and possibly add extra semesters hit the students hard.

Several colleges came to Fontbonne's campus in April to discuss their programs and transfer process.

After meeting with a few schools, Rose decided to switch to the University of Missouri-St. Louis starting in fall 2024. Because the university didn't offer a marketing major, he had to change his major from marketing to business administration with a concentration in marketing and add an extra year to his studies.

Even though he liked the closeknit community of a small school, Rose chose to finish up at a large public university because he worried about the stability of some of the small schools. "With the financial uncertainty, it was the safest bet for me," he says.

Colleges throughout the country are struggling financially as enrollment shrinks and expenses rise.