Recent College Enrollment Decline; Why It Matters.
By James Kolvites
With many seniors applying and making college choices around this time of year, big decisions will be made in thousands of high school households. Due to all the uncertainty of the future, students will have an even harder decision to make. With Covid-19 forcing most colleges to go fully virtual this past year, many students have questioned college tuition prices and how beneficial virtual college is.
Numbers of students enrolling in college have dropped significantly lately. Decreases of 16.1% in freshman student enrollment are seen nationwide. Along with these numbers, community colleges have seen a collective drop to all students enrollment of 9.4%, and a 22.7% decline for freshmen. With all around numbers dropping at an astonishing rate, what can colleges do to maintain their costs, and will we see a complete reformation in the college system after this change?
This general trend around the nation could force colleges to cut their costs and lay off some of the 3,154,855 national college workers, and severely hurting our economy in the process.
According to Angel Perez, who oversees enrollment at Trinity College, “We’re in a crisis right now, and it’s a complicated one.” With possible cuts to college budgets, the college’s ability to provide a quality education may be more difficult.
Along with tuition being a rising expense for households while scholarships and funds decrease in quantity and value, it is becoming more and more expensive to get a higher education.
Declines in college enrollment are an issue that do not only affect college employees and students; if the working class of our country is less educated, jobs that require degrees will have less applicants. With college enrollment declines leading to high costs, possible lay-offs and a less-educated public, this pressing issue, which affects almost everyone, needs to be addressed and solved.