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The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA · official site ↗

Private nonprofitSpecial Focus: Business & ManagementGraduate/Professional
62
Fin. Resilience
Resilience score

vs. 21 peers in its group

The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara is a private nonprofit institution in Santa Barbara, CA, classified by Carnegie as “Special Focus: Business & Management.”

It is benchmarked here against 21 peer institutions (Special Focus: Business & Management · Private nonprofit).

On Ibex's Financial Resilience score it rates 62 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 3-yr cohort default rate (0%, 10th percentile).

Its weakest is endowment (end of year) ($1.8M).

Peer group

Special Focus: Business & Management · Private nonprofit

21 institutions

No cross-metric risk flags triggered.
Policy & demographic exposure

How exposed The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara 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.

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.

Turn these signals into action

Seeing exposure is step one. Ibex builds AI agents that monitor and act on exactly these pressures — explore an interactive demo. Live demos run real workflows; the rest are working mockups we build to your institution’s data.

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Financial Health Index
-0.1
on a −4 to 10 scale
Financial Health IndexStress

NACUBO Composite Financial Index — the balance-sheet health score accreditors and institutional boards use to gauge financial health; bond-rating agencies track similar ratios. reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura (excluded from rankings and peer percentiles). Carries little or no plant debt, so the viability ratio is excluded and weights re-normalized.

Primary reserve 55%0 mo
Return on net assets 30%-0.2%
Operating result 15%-0.3%

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.

Revenue composition
Where the money comes from $6M total revenue · IPEDS FY2022-23

Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura.

Tuition & fees is the largest single source at 99% of revenue.

Tuition & fees99.3%
Private gifts & grants0.4%
Other revenue0.3%

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.

Financial Health
Net tuition revenue / FTETuition revenue per full-time-equivalent student after institutional aid/discounts — what tuition actually nets.
Strong
$38,735
81st percentile in peer grouppeer median $28,157
Instructional spend / FTESpending on instruction per FTE student — how much of the budget reaches the classroom.
Average
$11,010
43rd percentile in peer grouppeer median $14,158
Endowment (end of year)Total endowment value at year end — long-term invested wealth that funds operations and cushions shocks.
Below peers
$1.8M
32nd percentile in peer grouppeer median $13.8M
Endowment per FTE studentEndowment per full-time-equivalent student — the FTE-correct measure of endowment wealth per student.
Average
$21,131
42nd percentile in peer grouppeer median $24,557
End-of-year endowment ÷ 12-month FTE enrollment — endowment wealth per full-time-equivalent student. The FTE-correct companion to endowment-per-undergraduate; FTE counts graduate and part-time load, so research universities look less wealthy on this basis than on a headcount basis.
Operating marginNet surplus as a share of total revenue — whether the institution runs in the black.
Deficit
-0.3%
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
Tuition dependencyTuition's share of total revenue — how exposed the budget is to enrollment swings.
99.5%
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
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
1.4%
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
State appropriations shareState appropriations' share of total revenue — material for public institutions, near zero for private.
0%
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
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.
32.7%
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
Months of operating cushionMonths of operating expenses covered by expendable reserves — the institution's cash cushion.
Thin
0 mo
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
Return on net assetsChange in net assets over the year — whether the institution grew wealthier.
Weak
-0.2%
Parent/system level
Reported at parent/system level — reflects The Colleges of Law at Ventura. Excluded from rankings and peer percentiles.
Enrollment & Pipeline
12-month FTE enrollmentFull-time-equivalent enrollment over the full year — the denominator for per-student finance measures.
83
5th percentile in peer grouppeer median 592
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.
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.
Student Outcomes & Risk
3-yr cohort default rateShare of borrowers who default within three years of entering repayment. Lower is better.
Strong
0%
10th percentile in peer grouppeer median 2.5%
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.
Top fields of study (all levels)

The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara’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
Legal Professions & Studies10$78,136
37th pct · 19 peers
—Above benchmark +4%High · 74

All 1 top fields shown clear the CA state earnings-premium benchmark (indicative).

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.

Frequently asked
How financially healthy is The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara?
The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara does not file its own IPEDS finance survey — its finances are reported by its parent institution, The Colleges of Law at Ventura, which scores -0.1 (Stress) on the NACUBO Composite Financial Index (the −4 to 10 balance-sheet score accreditors and boards use), computed from IPEDS FY2022-23 finances. This parent-level figure is informational benchmarking, not a credit rating.
Are The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara's programs at risk under the federal earnings-premium test?
Indicatively, at The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara, the single largest field with available earnings data clears the CA state earnings-premium benchmark used by the 2025 federal test (effective July 1, 2026) — median graduate earnings (four years out) exceed those of a typical worker without the credential. This is an estimate using College Scorecard earnings vs ACS medians; the official Department of Education determination may differ.
Which schools are The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara's peers?
The Colleges of Law at Santa Barbara is benchmarked against 21 institutions in the Special Focus: Business & Management · Private nonprofit peer group; all percentiles and medians on this page are computed within that group.
Compare with peers
Albany Law SchoolAppalachian School of LawAtlanta's John Marshall Law SchoolAve Maria School of LawBrooklyn Law SchoolCalifornia Western School of Law

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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.