Why It Can Be So Difficult to Gauge a College’s Financial Health

Fissures in colleges’ finances have been starting to show in the past year, with some prominent institutions, like West Virginia University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Chicago, experiencing unexpected budget shortfalls coming out of the pandemic. Further down the rankings and prestige ladder, the environment is considerably tougher, as regional-public and small-private institutions have had to offer generous scholarship and financial-aid packages just to bring in students. All this instability has people asking how any particular institution — my safety college, my alma mater, my employer — is faring these days. It can be difficult to find the answer.