Drexel Revenue Down

[Deleted]

From the Inquirer:

The announcement follows several other belt-tightening moves by the private West Philadelphia university. For fiscal 2015-16, Drexel cut $20 million from its operating budget, including several dozen layoffs. For this fiscal year, Drexel reduced expenses or increased revenue by $43 million to balance the budget, Fry wrote.

This fall's class of 2,330 freshmen is down again, from 2,720 in 2015.

It's interesting to contrast this with the Inquirer's coverage of similar belt tightening at St. Joes of Pennsylvania and La Salle.

[durenduren]

Drexel also made a highly publicized change in their recruiting efforts, successfully upping freshman retention rates, acknowledging they would likely be sacrificing freshman commitments in exchange for those higher retention rates.

Long story short, the challenges La Salle has faced aren't absolutely unique. Higher education is facing a monumental challenge - there's more schools vying over less potential students than there were 5-10 years ago. Each school is trying to position itself for the changing higher education landscape.

[JoeFedorowicz]

I wonder how much debt Drexel has. That school has exploded in the past decade, in both expansion and marketing. This was due in large part to campus investment.

[Deleted]

Dec 26, 2016 20:34:37 GMT -5 JoeFedorowicz said:

I wonder how much debt Drexel has. That school has exploded in the past decade, in both expansion and marketing. This was due in large part to campus investment.

Unlike La Salle, Drexel releases financial statements publicly. The most recent figure available is $447m.

drexel.edu/comptroller/financial-reporting/audited-financial-statements/

[JoeFedorowicz]

Seems like a shit ton.

[Deleted]

Roughly 38k in debt per undergrad. If they pay the debt down in 20 years, then it's only 5% of tuition or so. I think my numbers could be off, but there is some change in perspective with that, since half a billion is very hard concept to associate with. Also I am not sure how long it takes to pay down such debt, if 20 years is on the mark or not. But we are in a low interest rate environment.