'Losing A Generation': Fall College Enrollment Plummets For 1st-Year Students

[ASTalumna06]

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/92583...bCybFBJ8MppYJg

According to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse, undergraduate enrollment this fall declined by 3.6% from the fall of 2019. That's more than 560,000 students and twice the rate of enrollment decline seen last year. Most of that decline occurred at community colleges, where enrollment fell by more than 10%, or more than 544,000 students.

"To see this level of decline all at once is so sudden and so dramatic," says Doug Shapiro, who leads the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse. "It's completely unprecedented."

Students attending college for the first time represent one of the largest groups missing from college classes this fall, Shapiro says. For students who graduated from high school in the class of 2020, the number of graduates enrolling in college is down by 21.7% compared with last year, based on preliminary data. For graduates at high-poverty high schools there was a 32.6% decline in attending college, compared with a 16.4% decline for graduates of low-poverty schools.

"That's a lot of individuals whose lives are on hold, whose career and educational aspirations are suspended," says Shapiro. "You can almost think of this as an entire generation that will enter adulthood with lower education, lower skills, less employability, ultimately lower productivity."

Shapiro says the pandemic is largely to blame for this year's drastic declines, but it's also true that attending college has been on a decade-long downward trend. College enrollment nationwide fell 11% between 2011 and 2019, the Clearinghouse found.

The obvious question here on Greekchat is: what will this mean for Greek life in both the short and long term?

[Cheerio]

As with any life cycle, adaptability is key. Greeks are well-prepared to weather this long-predicted baby bust as well as the unpredicted pandemic. We will find solutions. We have plans.

Why all the dramatics from Mr Shapiro? He seems to want to complain of lowered expectations of students and more limited access to higher education rather than say collegiate curriculums are changing with the times.

Machines have long been taking over functions formerly accomplished thru jobs held by citizens of the world. New formulas and processes often mean civilization is PROGRESSING, and people need to ADAPT instead of cry foul because the old way no longer works.

Having more free time because we have freed ourselves from the burden of jobs now done by machines, what could we be doing to improve ourselves and mankind with all that free time?

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

Having more free time because we have freed ourselves from the burden of jobs now done by machines, what could we be doing to improve ourselves and mankind with all that free time?

Apparently, from the people that I know, watch Cat Videos....

[AGDee]

I suspect they will skyrocket for Fall 2021. With all the uncertainty, a lot of kids took gap years. Who wants to pay mega tuition to stay at home and take courses online?

[carnation]

Many students I know were angry that they were paying full tuition to essentially teach themselves. I don't blame them. My 2 youngest sons had to take advanced foreign language courses online and hardly learned a thing.

[Sciencewoman]

My best friend is a university president and she told me that fear of taking out student loans, in the current economy, has also been a big factor.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

My best friend is a university president and she told me that fear of taking out student loans, in the current economy, has also been a big factor.

A lot of these schools charging $35K+/year are going to be victims of their own greed.

[lake]

Originally Posted by Kevin

A lot of these schools charging $35K+/year are going to be victims of their own greed.

Amen!!

[Sciencewoman]

My daughter coordinates state alumni interviews for W&L, and she has been inundated with interview requests from applicants this fall: full, current, annual price tag for W&L is $74,000. They have a huge endowment, offer very generous need-based and merit aid, and they've created a "bubble" this year where life has gone on as normally as possible with face-to-face classes and activities.

I think the only "winners" in this are going to be the pricy, highly selective, small liberal arts colleges who have the funds to create the safest possible space for students, can offer generous financial aid, and have small enough student populations to make it possible. They're going to attract more of the high achievers than schools with brand name recognition who are offering mostly online this year.

Most other institutions are going to feel the heat -- even the prestigious research universities haven't been able to provide the face-to-face, normal instruction.

[33girl]

A year isn’t a generation.

[*winter*]

Yeah- a generation is a bit dramatic.

I took a gap year before gap years were a “thing”...as a working class person, I was ready to rush into college after a year of low paying menial jobs.

[andthen]

I'm glad others take issue with the title of the article, a year does not make a generation. Honestly if I was a incoming freshman now I would have probably waited too versus paying through the nose for tuition when basically I have to teach myself online.

I would imagine in the next year or two especially as the COVID vaccine rolls out there will be a significant increase in those enrolling.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by carnation

Many students I know were angry that they were paying full tuition to essentially teach themselves.

It's this.

It's not necessarily a generation, but I am seeing a good bit of the Fall 2020 freshman class ask "WHY I AM I PAYING TO GO TO XYZ UNIVERSITY AND TEACH MYSELF WHEN I CAN GO TO XYZ COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND ALSO TEACH MYSELF FOR LESS MONEY?"

Then they transfer.

Especially if you paid and planned to go somewhere out of state and are now online.

Same for their parents. Let's say you paid for Molly to go to Beach State, got her a cool Beach State beachfront apartment back when things were slightly better, and she is now stuck inside and calling you every night stressed about teaching herself Calc. Your first suggestion after a semester of COVID is "HOW ABOUT COMING HOME TO SNOWBANK COMMUNITY COLLEGE WHERE YOU CAN STAY WITH US AND TEACH YOURSELF FOR LESS MONEY?"

[KSUViolet06]

I wonder if chapters who had some form of recruitment this fall are seeing retention issues from this. Especially if your recruitment was in person in some way.

It is really hard to feel connected to humans in Zoom meetings with whom you have had limited face to face interactions. It's even harder to feel invested when you are teaching yourself calc and wondering if staying at school is practical right now.

[DZ_Turtle86]

KSU I can only speak to my daughter's experience, but her chapter is seeing retention issues in the sophomore class (her class). The freshmen who initiated Fall 2020 knew somewhat what they were getting into (limited experience) when they pledged, no different than their whole college experience, really. They are looking forward to perhaps better days in the spring. The sophomores, however, have paid dues for 1-1/2 years and have experienced one semester of sorority life. Everything they anticipated last year hasn't come to pass.