<p>What will be the effect of the current financial crisis on college applications and acceptances?</p>
<p>It will be much harder to get loans, which will hurt the middle classes especially hard. I would expect the elite schools to increase thier aid packages, but the less wealthy schools will struggle.</p>
<p>What about in relation to how many kids they will accept?</p>
<p>I doubt that there will be a change in enrollments, just a drop in applications as some kids simply will not be able to pay.</p>
<p>what about enrollment in certain sectors majors, such as finance?</p>
<p>"I would expect the elite schools to increase thier aid packages, but the less wealthy schools will struggle."</p>
<p>While this would be nice, this may not be the case. Many of the wealthiest schools were only able to grow their endowment so rapidly by taking on extraordinary risk - whether this includes the mortgage market or not is dependent on which schools you're applying to.</p>
<p>However, rest assured that all colleges across the board have posted smaller net profits (or even losses) on their endowments, so more finaid may not be the case. Time will tell</p>
<p>Do you think people will apply to less colleges? and in turn, allow acceptance rates to increase at all?</p>
<p>I bet enrollments drop as student loans dry up. I bet applications to state schools goes up and applications to private colleges goes way down.</p>
<p>Its going to be very tragic.</p>
<p>Enrollments will DROP by a LOT if student loans dry up which is predicted to happen IMMEDIATELY if Congress does NOT approve a rescue bill very very soon. </p>
<p>Even Government Guaranteed loans will dry up.</p>
<p>Applications to state schools will surge. Applications to private colleges will plummet.</p>
<p>MAIN STREET does not yet realize how serious this is. WallStreet is CONNECTED to Main Street at the hip.</p>
<p>If kids stay instate there usually is plenty of aid for the needy. That's not really tragic.</p>
<p>barrons....Are you serious? You don't see that aid going away? What state do you live in?? I've been trying to reseach what happens to colleges. I found one article online about a state teachers' college. Their enrollment dropped by 30%, but made mention of some other schools, including Dartmouth, which dropped by 60 students.</p>
<p>And taking it a step further, I think we'll have to pick the school based on the level of safety they can provide. If you think crime is high now, you haven't seen anything yet.</p>
<p>State aid depends on tax revenues. In economic hard times tax revenues COLLAPSE DIRECTLY AFFECTING education: public secondary and elementary schools and colleges. </p>
<p>Private colleges will be hammered as student loans dry up. YOU BETTER PRAY CONGRESS HAS AN EPIPHANY AND VOTES YES (and the Republicans stay engaged in the process or the Dems will jam a really bad bill down our throats!)</p>
<p>Right. Social upheaval is coming. Anyone who thinks this crisis is restricted to wallstreet is deluded. This is a global problem and its very very serious. It also has serious national security implications. Count on it.</p>
<p>Wake up people! Call your Congressman/woman and URGE them to support this bill. Its a bitter pill to swallow. I know. But its better than total collapse. We are on the brink. Literally.</p>
<p>That's what I've been saying for months. Seeing the future through our crystal ball, we decided that 50K (top ten school) vs. free (UMCP) was a no brainer.</p>
<p>Actually all the top schools have record yields and applicants. Financial aid is better than ever.</p>
<p>Congress passing this bill is not going to be the silver bullet everyone hopes. You're still going to need excellent credit to get loans. </p>
<p>However, student loans may be different because they can't be forgiven in bankruptcy. Kids just better be smart about how much debt they undertake (i.e. no $100k private student loans @ 8.0% initial APR for a communications degree).</p>
<p>The tippy-top colleges have plenty of money. Kids at state colleges will be fine since states will not likely eliminate finaid programs. Federal aid (Pell, Stafford) will just be funded more. OTOH, it is a GOOD thing, IMO, if many private loans dry up. For undergrad, there is absolutely no reason that kids should be taking on debt that exceeds Stafford limits and if that means attending your instate public, so much the better. If some lower end privates go out of business? "Tragic"? How so?</p>
<p>Better than ever? That was BEFORE the crisis blew up......and they havent started admissions for 09 yet.</p>
<p>Poor kids....kids from families with incomes below 60k will be fine, because the wealthy colleges will give them aid out of their endowment pool. But MIDDLE CLASS kids who depend on student loans and their families who depended on stock market gains, real estate gains etc to pay for it will be hammered. That is tens of millions of kids.</p>