Changes in the financial situations among the second tier of liberal arts colleges between 1996 and 2001 are documented using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System financial and enrollment data. These data show large disparities in net assets per student, expenses per student, and the subsidies per full-paying student and the average student. Differences in comprehensive fees are much smaller. The comprehensive fee exceeds actual operating expenses at many of the schools, and subsidies per full-paying student increase more rapidly with wealth than subsidies for the average student. In this article we describe some of the dramatic financial developments that occurred in the second tier of the nation's top liberal arts colleges between 1996 and 2001. This is a follow-up exercise to our earlier article (Kaufman and Woglom, 2005), in which we examined the top-ranked 49 liberal arts colleges. We also highlight the differences in patterns between the schools in the top two tiers. (Contains 6 tables.)