Yearly Archives: 2013

School Name: Talladega College

Median Cost of Attendance: $17 996

Undergraduate Population: 712

Endowment Needed: $256 263 040

Analysis: Talladega College needs approximately a $256 million endowment for all of its undergraduates to attend debt free annually. Located in a distant shadow of Birmingham approximately 50 miles away the school is well positioned to be far enough away from the big city without being too far away from home for many prospective students. This makes future growth prospects for the college’s population very bright. A population in dire need of growth and needs to triple within the decade to give itself a fighting chance. Unfortunately, in the interim it simply is not graduating enough students and thereby its probability of high quality donors is diminished greatly. However, the students it does have, if they are successful in establishing themselves in Birmingham upon graduation could pay off greatly over the next 30 years as Birmingham is one of America’s fastest growing cities with an extremely healthy banking and medical industry along with an amazingly low cost of living. The college must position its graduates to own the growth that will occur in the coming decades and in doing so Talladega College will reap tremendous rewards. Its present situation is far removed from its historical one. Talladega College  in 1932 boasted the 7th largest HBCU endowment. Just where it stands now has been hard to pin down but safe estimates have it under $10 million. Ultimately, Talladega’s growth potential, geography, and relation to a major growth city give it the potential to become a major factor in the coming generation. If it manages these factors effectively we could see Talladega College once again rise to prominence.

As always it should be noted that endowments provide a myriad of subsidies to the university for everything from scholarship, faculty & administration salaries, research, and much more.