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Sweet Briar College closes its doors after 114 years

By Aileen Graef
Sweet Briar College will close in 2015. Wikipedia user Vdeb40
Sweet Briar College will close in 2015. Wikipedia user Vdeb40

SWEET BRIAR, Va., March 4 (UPI) -- The private women's school Sweet Briar College is closing after 114 years due to "insurmountable financial challenges."

"The board, some key alumnae and I have worked diligently to find a solution to the challenges Sweet Briar faces," President James F. Jones Jr. said in a statement. "This work led us to the unfortunate conclusion that there are two key realities that we could not change: the declining number of students choosing to attend small, rural, private liberal arts colleges and even fewer young women willing to consider a single-sex education, and the increase in the tuition discount rate that we have to extend to enroll each new class is financially unsustainable."

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Undergraduate enrollment for the current academic year is 561 and tuition costs $34,935, with room and board at $12,160.

Despite a large endowment, the school could not overcome the large financial hit from high tuition and low enrollment.

Sweet Briar's last commencement will be May 16 and the school will cease operations on Aug. 25.

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