<p>Not taking issue with the general thrust of this thread, or with the figures, projections, etc… but one thing that always confuses me is the reference to Baby Boom Echo, or Baby Boomers’ children being the swell in college admissions applications.</p>
<p>My husband and I were both born in 1954. (I’m 54 now.) And we were on the late, outer edge of the Baby Boom. Most people traditionally classified as Boomers are a little older than we are. We had our children relatively late in life – I was 36 and 38 respectively when my kids were born. My son is one of the record number of college bound students this year.</p>
<p>It surely doesn’t seem to me that he qualifies as Baby Boom Echo. If the Baby Boom peaked in 1950 (let’s just say… I don’t know when it actually did, but imagine it must be somewhere around there) and those Boomers peak childbearing years were, say, when they were 30 years old (which I suspect is older than it actually was, but just to err on the side of trying to make this Baby Boom Echo tag work), then their high school seniors would have graduated in 1998. So how is that 10 years later than 1998 we are seeing the Baby Boom Echo?</p>
<p>I think the swell in applications has more to do with higher numbers of students going to college rather than straight to work, among other factors. I don’t really know… but I think we need another catch phrase for it, because I don’t think this is really the children of the Baby Boomers going off to college. Those children should be around 30 years old now!</p>