Summary

College enrollment among 18-year-old freshmen fell 5% this fall, with declines most severe at public and private non-profit four-year colleges.

Experts attribute the drop to factors including declining birth rates, high tuition costs, FAFSA delays, and uncertainty over student loan relief after Supreme Court rulings against forgiveness plans.

Economic pressures, such as the need to work, also deter students.

Despite declining enrollment, applications have risen, particularly among low- and middle-income students, underscoring interest in higher education. Experts urge addressing affordability and accessibility to reverse this trend.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Higher education is too expensive. Not everyone can afford it. Also, some people can’t go to school full time because they need to work. I know some people would say these people should be able to do both, but that doesn’t work for everyone. If you’re someone who got a degree while working full time, good for you, but I’ve tried working full time and going to school and I found it to be really difficult. If there comes a point where people decide they have to choose between school and work, well, school is going to lose every time because school doesn’t pay the rent.

    • GingaNinga@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’m bracing for this right now. I’m working casual hours while I go to full time schooling but part of that schooling includes unpaid placements, I’m absolutely dreading not having income for basically half a year while i’m on the hook for tuition, bills/rent, transportation ect…

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yup, and since public schools only teach kids to regurgitate curated information, critical thinking and proper researching skills are paywalled.

    • aln@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You don’t have any flexibility if you work and go to school at the same time. Extracurriculars are tough. Internships doubly so, you can also just forget them if they’re unpaid and temporary.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That’s interesting. It would be more interesting if universities didn’t use tuition to rebuild their sport complex every ten years.

        • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Oh that’s a whole other issue: inter-university competition. They’re all competing with each other over the same pool of students. Each one spends money to attract students away from the other schools who then spend money to attract them back.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            They’re competing for very specific students too though, the kind that become big giving Alumni.

    • DeadWorldWalking@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The article says it has to do with declining birth rates

      "The enrollment cliff concept came about within higher education after years of declining birth rates in the US, triggered by the Great Recession. Earlier this year, the CDC released data indicating that the US had hit a historic low in its annual number of births – declining 2% from 2022 to 2023 and then 3% in 2023.

      “Since the most recent high in 2007, the number of births has declined 17%, and the general fertility rate has declined 21%,” the August 2024 data shows."

      • Hazor@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        While Park said an [sic] seeing an enrollment cliff isn’t occurring just yet, […]

        None of those people are 18 yet. The 2007 kids, from when birth rates last peaked, are just now 17. The declining birth rate hasn’t caught up yet.

        The article says it’s multifactorial, but predominantly cost and the need to work;

        The cost of college is the number one barrier to enrolling in higher education for adults not enrolled in such a program, according to a 2024 report from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. That report also found that for more than three-quarters of the more than 3,000 unenrolled adults polled, cost and the need to work were preventing them from pursuing further education.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Education to any level should be free at the point of use. Hell I’d even go as far as to say people should be given a (non-means-tested) grant if they go into higher education. We need more smart people.

    The more educated & informed a society is, the more productive, safe and free it is. No one should deny themselves the education they otherwise want because they can’t afford it.

    • DeathsEmbrace
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      2 months ago

      Man this is the most anti capitalist way of looking at things. This is basically socialism. Not a single NA country would support this system for Europe it’s a different story tho.

      Edit: you guys are idiots I’m literally telling you why it doesn’t happen and you downvote me. In my opinion USA is a third world country as long as healthcare is a for profit business. Capitalism is akin to peasants and lords all over again which is why unions form because the working class have to force it to be fair. You are living in a society that values money more than anything and therefore you are just a number they give you one as well to define your being.

      • DomeGuy@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They essentially described how the US primary education system works, and prerry much how secondary education worked until Regan.

        That you think it’s “socialism” and therefore impossible is a reinforcement of hard-right elitist propaganda.

      • Riskable@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        Think about it: What is socialism? It’s collectively funding or working on things via the government. There’s many competing definitions but that’s basically all there is to it.

        Under that definition we’re already living under socialism:

        • Fire departments
        • Police
        • Infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc)
        • Weather services
        • USPS
        • The entire military as a construct

        With socialism the people get a say in how such things are run. In private institutions they don’t. That’s the biggest realistic difference.

        Either way people are still paying for these things. If they’re not really competitive then private industry will fleece the masses because that’s what capitalism encourages (see: Healthcare). If there’s a robust, competitive market then socialism can fall behind in things like innovation and price.

        Whether or not something is funded-and-run by the government is irrelevant. What matters is the value. If government can provide a better value for a dollar than private industry it should. If the people don’t like the result they can change it or use a private alternative.

        Sure, they’ll be paying extra (on top of taxes) for the private alternative but at least it’s an option. If the government isn’t providing an alternative to private institutions then there’s really no option at all. Best anyone can do is vote with their wallet but as we can all see that just doesn’t work in certain industries (in fact, entire caregories of need!) and services.

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I live in the UK, a capitalist country.

        The Scottish have this already, everyone gets free education including university, no strings. In England we only have it for people from lower economic backgrounds (via means tested grants to pay tuition), but still, we still do it for some people. It’s not a remotely absurd idea.

        Hell even most pragmatic capitalists would agree that a free-at-the-point-of-use education system is generally a good investment in the labour pool. If skilled workers are rare, they have negotiating power, and we know how much capitalists just love workers that are able to negotiate from a position of power.

      • missingno@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        You sound surprised to find out that not everyone here thinks capitalism is perfect.