The grades measure financial fitness as determined by nine components broken into three categories.

Forbes reports.

Forbes 2016 Financial Grades: Is Your College Financially Fit?

Each year, FORBES Financial Grades measure the fiscal soundness of some 900 four-year, private, not-for-profit colleges with at least 500 students (public schools are excluded). Why should you care about a non-profit’s college’s financial health? Because struggling schools often charge high tuitions, and then quietly offer steep discounts to students.

Some of these schools, often with B grades on our list, offer excellent values for prospective students. Others that are more desperate tend to skimp on things a student might care about like facilities and maintenance, professors, and other instruction expenses. Even worse, some colleges actually go out of business, effectively stranding students, parents and alumni. No fewer than 378 colleges on Forbes list skate by with financial grades of C or lower, including University of Dallas, Dowling College and Drexel University. (For the full list of private colleges and grades, see the links at the end of this post.)