<p>Fresh off the press of the NYTs</p>
<p>In a Recovering Economy, a Decline in College Enrollment</p>
<p>I think the schools are going to get more international students to make up the drop.</p>
<p>By and large internationals aren’t found at the schools which are seeing declines in enrollment.</p>
<p>There was an article in our local paper this week about a decrease in enrollment in the 5 PA state colleges in the area - IUP, Cal U of PA, Slippery Rock, Clarion, and Edinboro, blamed on declining numbers of HS graduates in the area. (Instate tuition at these is $6622 annually.)</p>
<p>I would guess not many internationals interested in these schools.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/education/in-a-recovering-economy-a-decline-in-college-enrollment.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/education/in-a-recovering-economy-a-decline-in-college-enrollment.html</a></p>
<p>The college-age population is dropping after more than a decade of sharp growth, and many adults who avoided the job market and went back to school during the recession have been drawn back to work.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1532481-recovering-economy-decline-college-enrollment.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1532481-recovering-economy-decline-college-enrollment.html</a></p>
<p>I actually thought there was a third thread on this topic, too, but I can’t find it ATM.</p>
<p>Alternatively, in a bad economy, parents can’t afford college and kids don’t want to go into debt, just to be among the 50% who work in a job that does not require a degree when they graduate.</p>
<p>Higher prices, lower returns: that’s not a good economy, that’s people wising up to reality.</p>
<p>^^That’s what I was thinking. The last five years have been so catastrophic for so many that people couldn’t save for college. That combined with the horrid job market for college graduates means essentially, why bother with college to flip burgers either with or without a degree.</p>
<p>Many of the low to minimum wage workers I meet have college degrees. They are often underemployed, working as car rental agents, low level clerical jobs (answering phones and light typing). Some get part-time jobs as special education assistants and schools, but no benefits because that would cost more to the state. It’s a very tough economy out there for many young adults–college grads or not. One kid I know has a master’s in Japanese and is working part-time at GameStop. Others get whatever they can.</p>
<p>Would be a bad time to acquire significant debt with no feel for whether you’d be able to get a job with sufficient income to pay it off.</p>
<p>Fewer high school seniors means that there are fewer college-bound students. Lower unemployment means that older folks are able to get jobs & so do not need to return to school to get a job (believe me, I saw a lot of that in 2008-2011). That contributes to lower undergrad enrollment.</p>
<p>At the grad level, students are finding jobs after undergrad, so they aren’t flocking to grad school right away, as they did in 2009-2011. I have also found that many students are more debt-averse than they used to be.</p>
<p>Interesting. I just talked with oldest yesterday on the phone. He’s about to start his senior year at a small private southern LAC and said his school, for the first time in many years, has a large waiting list and likely won’t be able to take any off of it (rolling admissions school). In the past few economic downturn years they were dropping enrollment, but next year is set to be their largest ever.</p>
<p>Middle son’s private research U also had more apps and a higher yield than in other years and will see more freshmen coming than hoped for.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if students/parents are simply changing which schools they decide to attend - leaning against state schools more now - perhaps due to a better economy and perhaps due to all the stories about public school cutbacks.</p>
<p>No idea how representative this is, but I was told by the Emory president that part of the reason for the rapid growth of Californians in the student body (for my year, the only state to send more students was GA), had to do with both aggressive marketing and capitalizing on the wealthy’s concerns about the UC system. Given that the UCs are in much better shape than most other flagships or directionals it seems reasonable to assume that some privates are finding success by capitolizing on the fears of wealthier parents. </p>
<p>The GA private may also benefit from HOPE which causes many Ga students to be denied from the flagship. Obviously at Emory this isn’t an issue (although it’s increasingly hard to convince qualified Georgians to go to a non state flagship) but at some schools whose student’s only option is a Ga directional, this may be a factor into their decisions. </p>
<p>Overall however the trend seems to be a grater reliance on publics. According the the Chronicle, many students are now turning their backs on 4 year institutions with enrollments of less than 4,000 in favor of larger research universities.
[Small</a> Private Colleges Lose More Students Despite Rise in Discounting - Finance - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Small Private Colleges Lose More Students Despite Rise in Discounting”>Small Private Colleges Lose More Students Despite Rise in Discounting)</p>
<p>“In a Recovering Economy, a Decline in College Enrollment”</p>
<p>the economy is not recovering, the recovery is a myth. that may explain a big part of what is going on.</p>
<p>I agree. The recovery is a myth, substantiated only by manipulating statistics. Most of the new jobs were part time anyway.</p>
<p>Some if the uc’s have had the highest application rates ever this year. I’m attending ucsc, whose acceptance rate dropped from ~68% down to ~54% for transfers. It’s interesting to see that the UC’s seem to be in a bubble. Thanks for the link.</p>
<p>Did the proportion of graduating hs seniors who go on to college drop or is it just a function of a population decline in some areas?</p>
<p>This report has excellent statistics on this very subject: [Knocking</a> at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates 8th Edition, December 2012 | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.wiche.edu/pub/16556]Knocking”>http://www.wiche.edu/pub/16556).</p>
<p>After the big budget cuts a few years ago, there were some horror stories about difficulties graduating within 4 years from some California publics, and the extreme difficulties of getting into some majors. I don’t know how true they were, but they did cause a number of Californians to look at east coast colleges.</p>
<p>Some students also have left colleges because they couldn’t afford it, and/or because they had used up much of their federal aid and federal loans.</p>
<p>One University President told me that they have seen a huge drop in non-traditional evening students taking classes in classrooms. Part of the reason is the shift to online classes, particularly for people who don’t live nearby and who have many work and family obligations.</p>