- Anna Maria College — a small, rural, private nonprofit college located in Paxton, Mass. — has announced it is closing, catching many newly accepted students off guard and forcing them to scramble to find alternative plans for their education, CBS News reports.
- The decision to close reflects “years of financial pressure that we were ultimately unable to overcome, and the honest recognition that continuing would not be responsible to the students, faculty, and staff who depend on us,” President Sean J. Ryan and the Board of Trustees said in a statement.
- Regis College — located in Weston, Mass., which is about an hour’s drive from Paxton — has teamed up with Anna Maria College to accept affected students who want to transfer. Regis will also store academic records, such as transcripts and degree certification, CBS News reports.
The bigger picture:
The closing of Anna Maria College represents just one in a series of such closures that have taken place in recent years due to declining enrollments and the financial problems that a drop in tuition revenue entails. Many of those closures are taking place in New England states.
Earlier this month, for instance, Hampshire College – a small, liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts — announced that it is closing after the Fall 2026 semester, saying it “no longer has the resources to sustain full operations and meet our regulatory responsibilities.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says a major factor is low birth rates in the New England region. “The six New England states have six of the nation’s seven lowest fertility rates,” the bank observes.
One key distinction with the Anna Maria closing is that the decision to shut down came just days after the institution sent students their acceptance letters. The school's president, Sean Ryan, and the Board of Trustees apologized to the community in a statement, saying, “We are also mindful of the students who chose Anna Maria for the fall and were looking forward to starting here. This news is a particular loss for you, and we do not take that lightly.”
