John Marcus

Of the half that transfer, half of them never graduate.

And the reasons for that include just the sort of the cost, the fact that the successor college often doesn't take all of their credits or won't accept their transfer credits toward the major.

And in many cases...

Students have left these small colleges that have closed, gone to another college, and then it closed.

So students have experienced this more than once.

And that includes some students in Hampshire who already came there.

Well, New College in Florida didn't close, but it significantly kind of changed its...

ideological approach to higher education.

And so Hampshire College reached out and recruited those students and said, come here, you'll be welcome here.

They came to Hampshire and then Hampshire announced that it will close.

So this is becoming a cycle.

And one really fascinating thing that I started hearing a few years ago from a student tour guide at a small college was that parents were beginning to ask a question he never heard.

And it wasn't, how's the food?

It was, will this college still be here in four years?

Oh, no.

So people are beginning to pay attention.

Yeah, that's a great question.

And it's something I've learned a lot about by visiting communities where colleges have closed.

And I've been surprised by the answer to that.

So the first and most important thing is not everyone needs to go to college, but somebody needs to go to college.