New York State is home to a disproportionate group of the nation's speculative-rated colleges and universities.
New York has 6.2% of the United States population but has 27.8% of all of Moody's Investment Services' speculative grade nonprofit or government postsecondary institutions. Of the 18 schools that Moody's currently gives a speculative grade to, five of them are in New York.
"New York is a highly competitive market with an abundance of private colleges, as well as regional and national competition," said Moody's senior vice president Susan Fitzgerald. "In most of the speculative grade credits, we have cited governance and managerial challenges, but those are not unique to New York."
The five speculative grade New York colleges are Yeshiva University at B3, Bard College at Ba1, College of New Rochelle at Ba1, Sage Colleges at B2, and Dowling College at Ca. All of the colleges are private nonprofit colleges. Moody's has negative outlooks on all the ratings.
The values of the schools' approximate outstanding rated debt are $315 million at Yeshiva, $135 million at Bard, $58.5 million at College of New Rochelle, $14 million at Sage, and $13 million at Dowling.
Standard & Poor's has four New York schools rated at a speculative grade: Pace University at BB-plus with a stable outlook, Dowling College at B with a negative outlook, Medaille College at BB-plus with a negative outlook and Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology at BB with a stable outlook.
These schools' approximate outstanding rated debt values are Pace with $159 million, Dowling with $55 million, Medaille with $48 million, and Vaughn with $46 million.
Fitch does not have any speculative graded nonprofit or government colleges in New York.
The ratings agencies may also rate some for-profit colleges in the state with a speculative grade.
