Claremont Lincoln University

Claremont, CA · official site ↗

Private nonprofitSpecial Focus: EngineeringGraduate/Professional
31
Fin. Resilience
Resilience score

vs. 13 peers in its group

Claremont Lincoln University is a private nonprofit institution in Claremont, CA, classified by Carnegie as “Special Focus: Engineering.”

It enrolls about 54 undergraduates and is benchmarked here against 13 peer institutions (Special Focus: Engineering · Private nonprofit).

On Ibex's Financial Resilience score it rates 31 out of 100 within that peer group, a transparent composite of endowment per undergraduate, net tuition revenue per student, and instructional spend per student.

Its strongest standing relative to peers is months of operating cushion (15.5 mo, 75th percentile).

Its weakest is full-time faculty share (6.4%).

Peer group

Special Focus: Engineering · Private nonprofit

13 institutions

No cross-metric risk flags triggered.

How exposed Claremont Lincoln University is to the structural shifts reshaping higher ed: a composite structural-risk index plus the 2025 federal budget law’s endowment excise tax and Grad PLUS elimination and the demographic enrollment cliff. Only signals that apply to this institution are shown.

Structural risk indexAn indicative 0–100 structural-risk index (higher = more pressure) blending operating margin, months of cash cushion, tuition dependency and the home-state enrollment cliff. Screens for the financial and demographic strain that precedes closures and mergers — directional, not a prediction.
40
Elevated
Enrollment cliff (home state)Projected change in the institution's home-state high-school graduates from 2025 to 2041 (WICHE). The U.S. total falls about 13%; a directional feeder-market signal, not an enrollment forecast.
-27.7%
Severe decline

Indicative signals, not forecasts — see each metric’s definition and the methodology. Endowment-tax and Grad PLUS figures appear only where the institution is actually exposed; “nationally” compares against all schools that report each signal.

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7.0
on a −4 to 10 scale
Financial Health IndexStrong

NACUBO Composite Financial Index — the balance-sheet health score accreditors and institutional boards use to gauge financial health; bond-rating agencies track similar ratios. 75th percentile of 13 peers. Carries little or no plant debt, so the viability ratio is excluded and weights re-normalized.

Primary reserve 55%15.5 mo
Return on net assets 30%1.1%
Operating result 15%32.5%

Composite of four ratios on a strength-factor scale (−4 weak → 10 strong): below 3 falls short of the threshold for financial health, below 1 signals acute stress, and above 6 is strong. Computed from IPEDS FY2022-23, the most recent finance release (it lags the current year by 2–3 years). Branch campuses that report finances at a parent/system level can show distorted ratios. For informational benchmarking, not a credit rating or financial advice.

Where the money comes from $10.1M total revenue · IPEDS FY2022-23

Private gifts & grants is the largest single source at 65% of revenue.

Private gifts & grants65.2%
Tuition & fees18.5%
Investment return14.2%
Other revenue2.0%

Where each dollar of revenue comes from, as a share of total positive revenue. Sources are standardized across public (GASB) and private (FASB) reporting; a net investment loss in a down market is shown as 0% and excluded from the mix.

Net tuition revenue / FTETuition revenue per full-time-equivalent student after institutional aid/discounts — what tuition actually nets.
Below peers
$10,727
31st percentile in peer grouppeer median $14,579
Instructional spend / FTESpending on instruction per FTE student — how much of the budget reaches the classroom.
Below peers
$4,153
31st percentile in peer grouppeer median $5,946
Avg monthly faculty salaryAverage monthly salary of full-time faculty (IPEDS) — a proxy for faculty investment.
Average
$6,861
38th percentile in peer grouppeer median $8,840
Average monthly salary of full-time faculty, as reported to IPEDS.
Operating marginNet surplus as a share of total revenue — whether the institution runs in the black.
Strong
4.1%
69th percentile in peer grouppeer median -0.3%
Net surplus as a share of total revenue (IPEDS FY2022-23): (total revenues − total expenses) ÷ total revenues. A surplus above 4% is strong; a thin surplus near 0% leaves little margin for shocks.
Tuition dependencyTuition's share of total revenue — how exposed the budget is to enrollment swings.
18.5%
8th percentile in peer grouppeer median 49.6%
Tuition & fees as a share of total revenue (IPEDS FY2022-23). Higher = more exposed to enrollment swings.
Tuition discount rateInstitutional grant aid as a share of gross tuition (IPEDS, private nonprofits only) — the tuition-discount rate. The share of sticker tuition handed back as aid; a high rate (the national average is ~56%) signals heavy price competition for students.
Moderate
5.3%
38th percentile in peer grouppeer median 24.7%
Institutional grant aid as a share of gross tuition & fee revenue (IPEDS FY2022-23, FASB): allowances applied to tuition ÷ (net tuition revenue + those allowances) — the tuition-discount rate enrollment leaders track, i.e. the share of sticker tuition handed back as institutional aid. Private nonprofit institutions only; public (GASB) institutions report tuition differently and are not shown. The national private-college average is roughly 56% (NACUBO); above ~60% signals heavy price competition.
State appropriations shareState appropriations' share of total revenue — material for public institutions, near zero for private.
0%
100th percentile in peer grouppeer median 0%
State appropriations as a share of total revenue (IPEDS FY2022-23). Material for public institutions; ~0 for private.
Administrative cost shareInstitutional support (central administration, governance, general administration, fundraising, and under FASB the operation & maintenance of plant) as a share of total expenses — private nonprofit (FASB) institutions only, where the figure is comparable. An informational gauge of administrative intensity, not a measure of waste.
64.4%
100th percentile in peer grouppeer median 30.1%
Institutional support — central administration, executive management, governance, general administration, fundraising and (under FASB rules) operation & maintenance of plant — as a share of total expenses (IPEDS FY2022-23, FASB). Private nonprofit institutions only: public (GASB) institutions report functional expenses on a different basis and frequently consolidate large hospital and auxiliary operations, which makes a comparable ratio unreliable, so they are not shown. Because FASB folds plant operations into institutional support, this runs higher than a narrow 'central-office' figure, and schools with sizable hospital or auxiliary operations show a lower ratio as those costs enlarge total expenses. An informational benchmark of administrative intensity, compared within the peer group — not a measure of waste or quality.
Months of operating cushionMonths of operating expenses covered by expendable reserves — the institution's cash cushion.
Strong
15.5 mo
75th percentile in peer grouppeer median 10.2 mo
How many months of operating expenses the institution could cover from expendable reserves (IPEDS FY2022-23 primary reserve ratio × 12). About 5 months — one semester — is the accreditor benchmark for solid footing; below ~3 months is thin. A negative figure means expendable reserves are themselves negative.
Return on net assetsChange in net assets over the year — whether the institution grew wealthier.
Weak
1.1%
58th percentile in peer grouppeer median 0.2%
Change in total net assets ÷ net assets (IPEDS FY2022-23) — whether the institution grew wealthier over the year. 2–4% is adequate; above 4% is strong.
Structural risk indexAn indicative 0–100 structural-risk index (higher = more pressure) blending operating margin, months of cash cushion, tuition dependency and the home-state enrollment cliff. Screens for the financial and demographic strain that precedes closures and mergers — directional, not a prediction.
Elevated
40
percentile in peer group
An indicative 0–100 structural-risk index (higher = more pressure), an equal-weight blend of the stress signals we measure: thin or negative operating margin, low months of operating cushion, high tuition dependency, and a shrinking home-state high-school-graduate pipeline (enrollment cliff). Averaged over whichever signals are available (at least two required). It screens for the financial and demographic pressures that precede closures and mergers — a directional indicator, NOT a prediction that any institution will close, and not a credit rating.
Undergraduate enrollmentNumber of degree-seeking undergraduates (IPEDS fall headcount). A size measure, not a quality signal.
54
27th percentile in peer grouppeer median 445
12-month FTE enrollmentFull-time-equivalent enrollment over the full year — the denominator for per-student finance measures.
226
38th percentile in peer grouppeer median 446
Full-time-equivalent enrollment over the full 12-month year (IPEDS 12-month enrollment, 2022-23). Counts part-time students at their fractional load, so it runs above fall full-time headcount and is the denominator used for per-student finance measures.
Student-faculty ratioStudents per instructional faculty member — lower usually means smaller classes and more contact.
9:1
36th percentile in peer grouppeer median 12:1
Students per instructional faculty member (IPEDS, fall 2023). Lower generally means smaller classes and more faculty contact, though the measure mixes undergraduate and graduate teaching and is institution-reported.
Enrollment cliff (home state)Projected change in the institution's home-state high-school graduates from 2025 to 2041 (WICHE). The U.S. total falls about 13%; a directional feeder-market signal, not an enrollment forecast.
Severe decline
-27.7%
percentile in peer group
Projected change in the number of high-school graduates in the institution's HOME STATE from the class of 2025 (the national peak) to 2041, per WICHE's Knocking at the College Door, 11th Edition (Dec 2024). The 'enrollment cliff' is the post-2008 birth decline reaching college age; the U.S. total is projected to fall about 13% over this window. A college recruits from many states, so its home-state projection is an indicative directional signal of feeder-market pressure, not a forecast of that institution's own enrollment.
Undergraduate race & ethnicity IPEDS 2024-25
White35.2%
Hispanic/Latino29.6%
Black22.2%
Asian7.4%
Two or more races5.6%

Undergraduate enrollment by race and ethnicity, as reported to IPEDS (College Scorecard). “International” denotes nonresident students; “Unknown” means race/ethnicity was not reported.

3-yr cohort default rateShare of borrowers who default within three years of entering repayment. Lower is better.
Strong
0%
27th percentile in peer grouppeer median 2.1%
Share of borrowers who defaulted within three years of entering repayment (U.S. Dept. of Education official cohort default rate). Shown for the FY2017 borrower cohort — the most recent cohort whose full three-year default window closed before the 2020-23 federal student-loan payment pause. More recent cohorts are reported by the College Scorecard at essentially 0%, but that reflects the payment pause (no payments were due, so almost no one could default), not borrower health, so the pre-pause cohort is the last meaningful reading. Lower is better.
Full-time faculty shareShare of faculty employed full-time — higher generally means more availability and continuity.
Below peers
6.4%
30th percentile in peer grouppeer median 19.7%

Claremont Lincoln University’s largest fields by completions, with graduate earnings (4 years out) and debt benchmarked against the same field at its peer group. Sparklines show the 8-year completions trend.

FieldCompletions / yrMedian earnings, 4 yrs outMedian debtEarnings premiumRisk score
Business, Management & Marketing65Low · 0
Health Professions & Clinical Sciences16
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies2
Public Administration & Social Service2High · 100

Earnings-premium status is an indicative estimate: median graduate earnings four years out vs the CA state median earnings of a high-school graduate (undergraduate credentials) or a bachelor’s-degree holder (graduate credentials) from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2022 ACS 5-year). The official U.S. Department of Education determination uses its own cohort definition and may differ.

The risk score (0–100) is an indicative blend of earnings-premium margin and the five-year completions trend—higher means a field pays closer to (or below) the benchmark and is shrinking. A directional screen, not an official determination.

See the interactive dashboard for all fields and credential levels (associate through doctoral). Source: College Scorecard Field of Study.

How financially healthy is Claremont Lincoln University?
On the NACUBO Composite Financial Index — the −4 to 10 balance-sheet score accreditors and institutional boards use — Claremont Lincoln University scores 7.0 (Strong), computed from its IPEDS FY2022-23 finances. This is informational benchmarking, not a credit rating.
What is Claremont Lincoln University's student-faculty ratio?
Claremont Lincoln University reports a student-faculty ratio of 9:1 (IPEDS, fall 2023) — that is, about 9 students for every instructional faculty member.
Which schools are Claremont Lincoln University's peers?
Claremont Lincoln University is benchmarked against 13 institutions in the Special Focus: Engineering · Private nonprofit peer group; all percentiles and medians on this page are computed within that group.

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Source: U.S. Department of Education — College Scorecard & IPEDS (most recent releases), with the U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Employment Projections, field-demand outlook) and WICHE (enrollment-cliff projections). Figures lag the current academic year by roughly two to three years. Percentiles and medians are computed within the institution's peer group. Financial Resilience is a transparent composite — see each component above. Compiled by Ibex Insights.