Tuition, Trends, Trouble: What College Closures Signal for Independent Schools

Between 1996 and 2023, nearly 20% of higher-ed institutions closed, and a third of those were four-year private colleges. Independent schools face similar financial pressures: heavy reliance on tuition (including international), rising costs, demographic shifts and murky data. Add a dynamic political landscape and a shifting perception of elite higher education, and the risks become even clearer. What can independent schools learn from higher ed’s financial warning signs? Participants will unpack patterns and chart a forward-looking course that helps schools not just stay afloat but ride the waves toward greater financial and organizational sustainability.

Learning Objectives: Participants will:

• Analyze financial warning signs from recent college closures using Federal Reserve Bank data and apply these insights to independent schools. 
• Explore common financial pressures and identify strategies to strengthen financial sustainability amid economic challenges. 
• Discuss ways to navigate risks, build resilience, and pursue long-term organizational health.

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Nonmembers: $125.00

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Presenters

Sadie Albertyn

Senior Organizational Effectiveness Strategist

Mission & Data, LLC

Sadie Albertyn is Mission & Data’s senior organizational effectiveness strategist, combining her expertise in finance, education leadership and student-centered program design. Before moving into independent schools, Albertyn worked as an associate client advisor at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest institutional hedge fund. There she helped explain the firm’s complex portfolio strategies to employee-elected investment committees for municipal and state-level retirement systems.  Albertyn then worked for more than 15 years as an independent school teacher, department chair, dean and division head. She has experience in both day and boarding schools within the U.S. and abroad.  Sadie also serves on the board of trustees for a K-8 school for students with language-based learning differences. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Barnard College and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts.

Ari Betof

Co-Founder and Partner

Mission & Data, LLC

Ari Betof, Ed.D., MBA, is co-founder and partner of Mission & Data. He is a nationally recognized expert in independent school financial sustainability and organizational stewardship. Betof has served as a trustee, head of school, chief advancement officer, director of enrollment management, director of strategic planning and faculty member. He has been an instructor in University of Pennsylvania’s PennGSE Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Leadership Master’s Program. Betof has also served as a mentor in Harvard University’s School Leadership Program and faculty member in the NAIS School Leadership Institute. He earned his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on financial and organizational sustainability of independent schools and an  MBA with distinction from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he was an Emerging Markets Institute Fellow. He continues to be a Cornell Johnson Executive MBA mentor and mentor in the Cornell's Smith Family Business Initiative.

Ben Hammond

Chief Financial & Administrative Officer, Board Secretary

The Lawrenceville School

Ben Hammond has served as Lawrenceville’s chief financial and administrative officer and secretary to the board of trustees since July 1, 2017.As Lawrenceville’s CFO, Hammond has primary responsibility for the school’s business operations, financial management, budget and financial planning, and endowment and other assets, including off-campus real estate. As the School’s chief administrative officer , he also oversees auxiliary services and summer programs, human resources, legal and risk management the Lawrenceville Summer Scholars program, and Lawrenceville’s Childcare Center.Previously he spent six years in Massachusetts serving as vice president for finance and administration and treasurer at Wellesley College (2013-17) and vice president for finance and administration and treasurer at Mount Holyoke College (2011-13). Between 2002-11, he served as a senior administrator at Princeton University. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant at McKinsey. Hammond earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard College. He grew up on the campus of and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy.