"Will the stock market close on a high note tomorrow, the last day of the fiscal year for most colleges?" Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "As always, the answers could help determine whether some colleges will face demands to pay off their debt faster than planned or be subjected to extra monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education ... accreditors and the Department of Education look at net assets when they assess whether the institution has adequate resources to educate students or properly steward federal student aid. End-of-the-year financial statements are also important to credit-rating agencies, whose assessment of colleges' finances determines how much it will cost institutions to borrow money, although those agencies say they consider the broader picture. Both Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service have noted the deterioration of college finances over the past several months and say they expect the difficult financial conditions to continue through 2012."