I am a huge supporter of families throwing a wider net when looking for colleges.
I’m not going to lie, however, I do get push back from skeptical parents. Here is one of the questions that I hear from these folks:
What if a promising college is on the verge of going belly up?
Even though it’s rarely going to be an issue, I understand the fear.
Consequently, I decided to tackle the topic of how you can determine if a college is financially sound.
I shared what I discovered in the following article that I wrote for Cappex. Here it is:
How To Tell If a College Will Go Belly Up?
After I wrote the article, I discovered one more tip. Parents can check out a college’s credit rating.
If you’re interested, head to Moody’s and register for a free account. Access to some of the more nuanced research is reserved for subscribers only, but anyone can access issuer ratings with the free account.
From there, just search the name of the school, and assuming Moody’s rates it, you’ll be directed to a page with its rating and outlook like this:
The rating for Boston University is A1 and the outlook (which signals which direction the rating is likely to move in the short-term) is positive.
Learn more:
I’ll be relaunching The College Cost Lab this summer! To learn when I’m ready to share more information about the online course, please let me know here.