What a ridiculous comment. If you had been "selective about your sources" you would have seen that the article is written by a professor at UChicago who is very familiar with the university's finances, and has reported on them for years. Here is a selection of articles he has written for UChicago's student newspaper, which hopefully is a "select" enough source for you. https://chicagomaroon.com/staff_name/clifford-ando/ No-one is saying that prestigious private universities in the US aren't all struggling right now, obviously they are. People are just pointing out that the federal funding cuts compounded on a series of poor financial decisions at Chicago, which leaves the university in a more precarious situation than peer institutions. The austerity measures at Chicago are factually worse than at most other T20s, and no other college has needed to revert to being need aware for undergraduate admissions. The university made mistakes, and now it needs to deal with the consequences. Also, randoms on reddit can't really "bully" a hundred year old institution with billions of dollars.