Moody's Highlights Gap Between Private College Haves and Have-Nots

Moody's Investors Service published two reports Tuesday that underscore the ratings agency's perception of a growing divide between the fortunes of wealthy private colleges -- and the rest. The more substantive of the two reports, which are available only to Moody's clients, focuses on "divergent credit trends" and finds that institutions that were highly dependent on tuition and "weaker market positions" were more likely than "high-reputation institutions" to experience declines in the agency's ratings metrics. A second report on private gifts anticipates a continued rebound in donations in 2011, but mostly benefiting "“highly rated, market-leading universities."