Fewer US students are going to college
Image: Ruobing Su/Business Insider
This spring, the number of US students attending college across all sectors fell for the tenth consecutive year to reach 17.1 million, per a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. And that’s despite seeing the first increase in community college enrollment in at least a decade.
📈📉 A deeper dive… The percentage of US high-school graduates who attended college in 1990 was 60%. By 2010, it was 70%.
But then, in the early 2010s, that figure reversed course and began to decline, eventually reaching 62% by the fall of 2022, according to Labor Department data published last month.
Experts say the overall decrease in US college enrollment can be attributed to three main factors:
- The rising cost to attend. Average tuition and fees at US universities have increased 73% since 2008, per a US News & World Report analysis of the top 440 schools in its annual rankings. (For comparison: US inflation was 41% over the same period.)
- More HS graduates are opting for specialized training programs. Over the past decade, the number of young Americans entering apprenticeship programs – sponsored by companies working in construction, consulting, cybersecurity, auto repair, banking, software development, and more – has risen by more than 50%, per data from the WSJ.
- They’re also choosing to enter the workforce. The unemployment rate for Americans between the ages of 16 and 19 fell last month to its lowest level in over 70 years. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate among that age group (aka the percentage actively seeking work) has risen from 33% in 2011 to 37% today.
📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, what’s the No. 1 reason behind the recent decline in US college enrollment?
There are better post-grad education options
More teens are choosing (or are forced) to enter the workforce
See a 360° view of what media pundits are saying →
Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that America’s declining rate of college attendance is a grim sign that our ongoing era of economic and scientific superiority over the rest of the world will soon come to an end.
- Others contend that the Covid pandemic and the learning challenges it presented – especially the advent of remote learning – has caused a drop in performance for many high school students, and is the main reason why fewer HS graduates are attending college currently.
- “Want to know why America is losing its edge? Look around campus.” –Seth Bodnar, WaPo
- “The Pandemic Generation Goes to College. It Has Not Been Easy.” –Eliza Fawcett, NY Times
- “The solution to declining college enrollment? Immigrants.” –Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Boston Globe
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that the recent decline in US college enrollment represents a much-needed lesson for America’s universities, which aren’t providing nearly enough value in this day and age to justify the high costs of tuition as well as the extended time it takes to complete.
- Others contend that US colleges and universities deserve to lose students since they have largely abandoned the intent and purpose of education in favor of social justice causes.
- “As enrollment plummets, academia gets schooled about where it went wrong” –George F. Will, WaPo
- “What's a college degree worth anyway?” –Kaylee McGee White, Washington Examiner
- “Colleges Are Culpable in the Enrollment Crash” –George Leef, National Review
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