College Viability Inspection Report

Fisher College

Massachusetts · Private, not-for-profit

Fisher College is a private, nonprofit institution in Massachusetts, enrolling 1,259 students as of 2024. It graduates 27% of students in four years, returns 55% of freshmen for a second year, and costs an average of $28,596 a year after grants and scholarships. Of the 8 inspection checks that could be evaluated, 4 are flagged: Retention, Graduation, Cost vs. Completion, and Price vs. Outcomes. This report benchmarks Fisher College's most recent reported year (2024) against 2,000+ U.S. colleges across three dimensions: student outcomes, financial health, and value for money. All figures are drawn from federal IPEDS filings and are reported without editorial judgment.

Data note: The U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS database did not include every reported figure for Fisher College between 2020 and 2024. 1 indicator is not reported in IPEDS for any year 2020–2024 and 1 inspection flag could not be evaluated for lack of data — affected indicators are tagged below; missing years are shown as gaps in trend charts rather than estimated.

Fisher College Inspection Flags

Student Outcomes
Financial Health
Value for Your Money

Inspection flags are nine independent checks across student outcomes, financial health, and cost-to-value that surface areas of a college's reported numbers worth a closer look. A triggered flag means the college's data met a specific threshold that students and families may want to ask about — for example, graduation rates slipping below a level, or tuition rising while outcomes decline. A clear flag means the threshold was not met. Flags are signals for further conversation, not verdicts.

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College Viability
Data Summary

Fisher College — All Reported Indicators

Plain-text reference table of every metric and inspection flag for Fisher College. Values reflect IPEDS-reported figures; percent changes reflect endpoint-to-endpoint 2020 → 2024 comparison; percentiles reflect 2024 national rank against four-year public and private nonprofit institutions. Cells marked "not reported" indicate the indicator was not present in IPEDS for this institution.

Student Outcomes

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Four-Year Graduation Rate27.0%+92.9%27th
Six-Year Graduation Rate32.0%-3.0%15th
Full-Time Retention Rate55.0%-12.7%8th
Pell Grant Six-Year Graduation Rate25.3%-21.2%13th
Pell-to-Non-Pell Graduation Gap-1.1pp+66.3%14th
Pell Share of Cohort56.0%+15.1%79th

Financial Health

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Revenue-to-Expense Ratio1.31×+32.8%87th
Total FTE Enrollment1,259-0.2%43rd
Endowment Valuenot reportednot reportednot reported
Net Assets (End of Year)$56.5M+24.9%38th

Value for Money

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Instructional Spending %38.4%-9.9%70th
Student Support Spending %24.5%+23.5%88th
Administrative Spending %17.0%-1.2%45th
Instruction+Support to Admin Ratio3.69×+1.9%71st
Average Net Price$28,596+13.3%84th
Net Price: $0-30K Income$25,071+40.0%90th
Net Price: $30K-48K Income$25,267+35.2%89th
Net Price: $48-75K Income$27,168+12.9%90th
Net Price: $75K-110K Income$26,511-8.4%78th
Net Price: $110K+ Income$30,661-4.0%73rd

Inspection Flags

FlagSectionStatus
Retention Below 80%
Fisher College's retention rate fell below 80% in 5 of 5 reported years — triggering the 3-of-5 threshold.
Student OutcomesTriggered
Four-Year Graduation Rate Below 50%
Fisher College's 4-year graduation rate fell below 50% in 5 of 5 reported years — triggering the 3-of-5 threshold.
Student OutcomesTriggered
Pell Gap Exceeds 10 Points
Fisher College's Pell graduation gap exceeded 10pp in 1 of 5 eligible years — below the 3-of-5 trigger threshold.
Student OutcomesCleared
Revenue-to-Expense Below 1.0
Fisher College's ratio fell below 1.0 in 2 of 5 reported years — below the 3-of-5 trigger threshold.
Financial HealthCleared
Enrollment Declined 5% or More
Fisher College's total enrollment fell from 1,261 to 1,259 students between 2020 and 2024 (-0.2%) — less than the 5% decline that triggers this flag.
Financial HealthCleared
Endowment Under $50M or Growth Under 15%
Endowment was not reported for 2020 or 2024, so this flag could not be evaluated.
Financial HealthNot Evaluated
High Cost, Low Completion
Fisher College costs more than the national median AND graduates students at below-median rates — both conditions for this flag are met.
Value for MoneyTriggered
Spending on Students Below the National Median
Fisher College spends $3.69 on instruction and student support per $1 of admin in 2024 — at or above the national median of $2.75 in every reported year.
Value for MoneyCleared
Rising Price, Falling Outcomes
Both conditions were met: Fisher College's net price rose while the 6-year graduation rate declined between 2020 and 2024 — a prompt to ask whether tuition increases are translating into stronger student outcomes.
Value for MoneyTriggered