[UltimateCard]

Thanks for the update, UC, and sorry to hear they're forcing your son's hand before he has proper time to decide what he might do with a deferral year and understand what Brown's fall semester is likely to look like.

Interestingly, there was a front page article in the WSJ today (paywalled), which indicated that many colleges are giving longer windows of time to make enrollment decisions, though it didn't say much about whether colleges are changing their deferral policies. 

One thing is for sure: I would NOT want to be in charge of operating a university right now. It really does seem to be the perfect storm for higher ed, much of which was going to hit eventually, but almost all of which is crashing ashore at once.

I will be genuinely curious to see if schools post their admissions yield statistics the way they normally do, because I have to assume almost all but the top unis will be digging deep into wait lists given the probability that a good chunk of admits choose to defer.

Ooof, I think I'm getting an allergic reaction to being called UC... should've thought about that before choosing my user name.

Speaking of lack of foresight, I never would've thought that analyzing 990 returns (which I do for my work) should be part of the college search process but given what's happening as a result of COVID-19, it's not a bad idea if your kid is in the Class of '21 or '22. Brown has the smallest endowment of the Ivies. Perhaps related to that, a search of their 990 reveals that its Liquid Unrestricted Net Assets (LUNA) aren't exactly robust. Calculating the ratio of LUNA to annual operating expenses, the figure is just above 1. In other words, Brown can cover only a year's worth of operating expenses through simple financial transactions. They will have to look at liquidating assets and/or cutting expenses if their revenues take a big hit. For comparison, Stanford's ratio is about 3.4 on their 2018 990. So it's not surprising that Brown is taking aggressive enrollment management measures. We don't regret applying early decision - it's a great fit for Son #2. It just sucks that his experience may be punctuated by interruptions in instruction and program cuts.

Brown set July 15 as date for announcing fall plans. They’re considering the Dartmouth model, i.e., “shift to fall, spring and summer terms, with students only attending two out of these three semesters.” This article in their student paper describes the three options under consideration and addresses liquidity issues:
https://www.browndailyherald.com/2020/05...emic-year/

[UltimateCard]

Thanks for the update, UC, and sorry to hear they're forcing your son's hand before he has proper time to decide what he might do with a deferral year and understand what Brown's fall semester is likely to look like.

Interestingly, there was a front page article in the WSJ today (paywalled), which indicated that many colleges are giving longer windows of time to make enrollment decisions, though it didn't say much about whether colleges are changing their deferral policies. 

One thing is for sure: I would NOT want to be in charge of operating a university right now. It really does seem to be the perfect storm for higher ed, much of which was going to hit eventually, but almost all of which is crashing ashore at once.

I will be genuinely curious to see if schools post their admissions yield statistics the way they normally do, because I have to assume almost all but the top unis will be digging deep into wait lists given the probability that a good chunk of admits choose to defer.

Ooof, I think I'm getting an allergic reaction to being called UC... should've thought about that before choosing my user name.

Speaking of lack of foresight, I never would've thought that analyzing 990 returns (which I do for my work) should be part of the college search process but given what's happening as a result of COVID-19, it's not a bad idea if your kid is in the Class of '21 or '22. Brown has the smallest endowment of the Ivies. Perhaps related to that, a search of their 990 reveals that its Liquid Unrestricted Net Assets (LUNA) aren't exactly robust. Calculating the ratio of LUNA to annual operating expenses, the figure is just above 1. In other words, Brown can cover only a year's worth of operating expenses through simple financial transactions. They will have to look at liquidating assets and/or cutting expenses if their revenues take a big hit. For comparison, Stanford's ratio is about 3.4 on their 2018 990. So it's not surprising that Brown is taking aggressive enrollment management measures. We don't regret applying early decision - it's a great fit for Son #2. It just sucks that his experience may be punctuated by interruptions in instruction and program cuts.

Brown set July 15 as date for announcing fall plans. They’re considering the Dartmouth model, i.e., “shift to fall, spring and summer terms, with students only attending two out of these three semesters.” This article in their student paper describes the three options under consideration and addresses liquidity issues:
https://www.browndailyherald.com/2020/05...emic-year/