College Enrollments Down More This Fall Than During the Pandemic
“Overall, enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs has been trending downward since around 2012, but the pandemic turbocharged the declines at the undergrad level.”
The effects of the pandemic on higher education are only beginning to be felt. Things are going to get worse.
NPR reports:
College enrollment plummeted during the pandemic. This fall, it’s even worse
Enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities is on track to fall by another nearly 500,000 undergraduate students this fall, continuing the historic drops that began with the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data out Tuesday.
The decline of 3.2% in undergraduate enrollment this fall follows a similar drop of 3.4% the previous year, the first fall of the pandemic, according to the research from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The numbers are from a preliminary data set representing 8.4 million undergrad and graduate students from about 50% of U.S. colleges. The numbers show there are now 240,000 fewer undergraduates enrolled this fall compared with the same time last year, and if that rate of decline holds up for the rest of the colleges, that could translate into almost a half-million fewer undergraduate students.
“It’s very frightening,” says Doug Shapiro, who runs the nonprofit research center. “Far from filling the hole of last year’s enrollment declines, we are still digging it deeper.”
If these preliminary numbers hold up, Shapiro says the last two years of undergrad decline, totaling more than 6%, would be the largest two-year decrease in at least half a century.
Overall, enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs has been trending downward since around 2012, but the pandemic turbocharged the declines at the undergrad level. When fewer students go to college, fewer students graduate, get job training and move on to higher-paying jobs, meaning all this could have huge ramifications for the U.S. economy.
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Comments
This can’t be right. Students MUST be lining up in droves to experience all that college wokeness that they’ve been so deprived of before.
Or are they all racists?
You’ve got it. They’re just racists marching around with white hoods, MAGA hats and tiki torches.
/sarc
1. All other things being equal, the person who will be offered the job will be able to speak Spanish. This applies for virtually any career in the USA today, in virtually any city or town of the country. Health care, the law, police work, social work, the trades, business sales , management, you name it.
2. If you’re bright enough to be contemplating “college” then you’re bright enough to learn Spanish. It’ll take you a year or two or three, and it will require some effort. But it’s quite do-able. And it’s fun. And it’s an adventure. And it’ll open up your world to a whole continent and ~250,000,000 people. Their jokes. Their tv shows. And more.
3. You can begin with online private and/or group classes. One or several hours per day, five days per week.
4. After a few months you’ll be ready to take it to the next level — overseas (or Puerto Rico) in an Immersion experience or school. There are many options. Look online. Don Quijote schools. Academia de Buenos Aires. Mente Argentina. Others as well. You can live with a host family. Or a dorm. Etc.
5. Before you know it, your Spanish will be good enough that you’ll be able to get a part-time job waiting tables, or tending bar. In Spanish, while you’re continuing with your Spanish language learning. Or you can teach English as a second language. Or work as an au pair.
– – – –
In a couple years you’ll have options that are completely unavailable to your former peers. One of those options’ll be to attend college overseas in Spanish. Which will likely be a whole lot less expensive than attending college in America.
Good luck.
Look I’m in higher ed but we’ve had a bubble ripe for popping for about 10 years now…this just might have been the needle.
Nothing to do with vax mandates. Nothing at all.
I’m sure it does, but I think the wokeness is the bigger factor.
Coming soon, a new stat : administrator-student ratios.