Dozens of US Colleges Close as Falling Birth Rate Pushes Them Off Enrollment Cliff (bloomberg.com) 146
A new article from Bloomberg says dozens of America's colleges "succumbed to a fundamental problem killing colleges across the US: not enough students. The schools will award their final degrees this spring, stranding students not yet ready to graduate and forcing faculty and staff to hunt for new jobs."
The country's tumbling birth rate is pushing schools toward a "demographic cliff," where a steadily dropping population of people in their late teens and early 20s will leave desks and classrooms empty. Many smaller, lesser-known schools like Cazenovia have already hit the precipice. They're firing professors, paring back liberal arts courses in favor of STEM — or closing altogether. Others will likely reach the cliff in the next few years... [T]the US birth rate ticked upward slightly before the 2008 financial crisis, and that brief demographic boost has kept enrollment at larger schools afloat. But the nationwide pool of college-aged Americans is expected to shrink after 2025. Schools face the risk that each incoming class could be smaller than the last. The financial pressure will be relentless...
Since 2020, more than 40 schools have announced plans to close, displacing students and faculty and leaving host towns without a key economic engine... Close to 400 schools could vanish in the coming decade, according to Huron Consulting Group. The projected closures and mergers will impact around 600,000 students and redistribute about $18 billion in endowment funds, Huron estimates... Pennsylvania State University, citing falling enrollment at many of its regional branches, plans to shutter seven of its 20 branch campuses after the spring 2027 semester... [C]ampuses in far-flung places, without brand recognition, are falling out of favor with students already questioning the value of a college degree. For example, while Penn State's flagship University Park campus saw enrollment grow 5% from 2014 to 2024, 12 other Penn State campuses recorded a 35% drop, according to a report tasked with determining whether closures were necessary.
The article notes that "Less than half of students whose schools shut down before they graduate re-enroll in another college or university, according to a 2022 study."
But even at colleges that remain, "The shrinking supply of students has already sparked a frenzied competition for high school seniors..." Some public institutions are letting seniors bypass traditional requirements like essays and letters of recommendation to gain entry automatically... Direct-admission programs, which allow students to skip traditional applications, are one potential response. Some 15 states have them, according to Taylor Odle, assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He found in a 2022 paper that direct admissions increased first-year undergrad enrollment by 4% to 8%... And they don't require nearly as many paid staff to run, since there are no essays or letters of recommendation to read.
Since 2020, more than 40 schools have announced plans to close, displacing students and faculty and leaving host towns without a key economic engine... Close to 400 schools could vanish in the coming decade, according to Huron Consulting Group. The projected closures and mergers will impact around 600,000 students and redistribute about $18 billion in endowment funds, Huron estimates... Pennsylvania State University, citing falling enrollment at many of its regional branches, plans to shutter seven of its 20 branch campuses after the spring 2027 semester... [C]ampuses in far-flung places, without brand recognition, are falling out of favor with students already questioning the value of a college degree. For example, while Penn State's flagship University Park campus saw enrollment grow 5% from 2014 to 2024, 12 other Penn State campuses recorded a 35% drop, according to a report tasked with determining whether closures were necessary.
The article notes that "Less than half of students whose schools shut down before they graduate re-enroll in another college or university, according to a 2022 study."
But even at colleges that remain, "The shrinking supply of students has already sparked a frenzied competition for high school seniors..." Some public institutions are letting seniors bypass traditional requirements like essays and letters of recommendation to gain entry automatically... Direct-admission programs, which allow students to skip traditional applications, are one potential response. Some 15 states have them, according to Taylor Odle, assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He found in a 2022 paper that direct admissions increased first-year undergrad enrollment by 4% to 8%... And they don't require nearly as many paid staff to run, since there are no essays or letters of recommendation to read.
Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:4, Insightful)
This country is half-way through committing economic suicide 67 different ways, and destroying our university system is one of them.
Re:Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:5, Informative)
Tuition for 4 years:
In-State (PA Resident): Around $160,000 - $200,000.
Out-of-State: Around $240,000 - $280,000.
Re:Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:5, Informative)
Holy smokes! That's just tuition??
Tuition at the University of Toronto, which is a prestigious university by Canadian and international standards, is about CAD $50K for four years, depending on the program.
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A US citizen, going to an absolutely solid mid-tier state school with really strong employm
60K? That's still highway robbery. (Score:3, Insightful)
In 1990, in-state tuition at my state uni was $1000 a semester. That was $8K over four years, and Pell grants covered it all. In fact, I even had some money left to cover my dorm.
Now did I choose the right major? That's a different story.
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Some stats - enrollment and costs (Score:5, Insightful)
Major public universities cost $11,000 yearly for tuition and fees plus $13,500 for housing and food (Nebraska in-state tuition -https://admissions.unl.edu/cost/)
What's never been in the discussion of college enrollment is that the staring enrollment numbers, typically 1970 to 1972 all are inflated due to men going to college to avoid being drafted and forced to fight in the Vietnam war.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=... [google.com]
The starting enrollment number from a percent enrollment and a men to women percentages are skewed by the Vietnam war numbers. This is lost on the political news articles on somehow men were advantaged in the 1960s and 1970s as based on their much higher college enrollment rates. Those men were avoiding being forced to risk life and fight in the Vietnam war. When women had no duty to the country.
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no, they are not, the reality is that those high educations costs are a deliberate way to exclude the lower classes from prestigious and well paying jobs, this is exactly how elitism works
the US education system is clearly corrupt, discriminatory and exploitive
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High paying jobs are the result of working your way up the corporate ladder(s) or contracting. A degree from a good or even great university will give you a leg up but will not guarantee long term success.
If you have the technical chops and CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS, you can attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), tuition free [mit.edu], espec
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And all this time I thought rapid increases in tuition etc., costs were a result, mostly, of free for all student loans. Free as in lunch, of course, but 'guaranteed' federal student loans, I thought, encouraged the high school graduates to choose a school not for affordability, but pure attraction.
I forget, economics is truth.
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loans are usury and the first step in the debt trap that is institutionalized classism, welcome to economic slavery
yes boss, no boss, right away boss
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CAD $50K for four years?! That's something like 36000USD.
To study at the University of Oslo, the tuition (semesteravgift) is about $100USD per 6 months, or .. $800 for 4 years.
Of course, there are books and living expenses in addition, but the tuition is .. cheap.
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Yes. I think Canada should follow the European model for tuition, but that's not a popular opinion here, unfortunately.
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CAD $50K for four years?! That's something like 36000USD.
To study at the University of Oslo, the tuition (semesteravgift) is about $100USD per 6 months, or .. $800 for 4 years.
Of course, there are books and living expenses in addition, but the tuition is .. cheap.
They probably have people from all over the globe looking to be educated at those prices.
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:2)
I would guess foreign students don't get the subsidized rate... and yep, ~$20k-29k USD per year depending on the field for the 26-27 academic year: https://www.uio.no/english/stu... [www.uio.no]
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I would guess foreign students don't get the subsidized rate... and yep, ~$20k-29k USD per year depending on the field for the 26-27 academic year: https://www.uio.no/english/stu... [www.uio.no]
Ah, yes. I figured as much. Thanks for that.
Before too many people get the idea that I'm some sort of ride or die supporter of our post secondary system, the US system has a lot of problems. We've allowed people who shouldn't even be in college to attend, taking gut degrees, spending 4 years living on borrowed money, then trying to figure out out how to pay it back after their degree doesn't qualify them for much.
We've taken that money paid to the universities by those loans and slathered layer upon la
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"I'm also of the opinion that we need to regulate those majors a bit."
That would only get used by the politicians to nail degree programs with ideologies they disagree. In your case, you are a right-leaning person, so you want to knacker degrees with which you do not agree. If you are a Maggot, then you want nail science degrees because they generate graduates who want to base policy on scientific evidence. If you are left-winger, you want to nail business degree programs because they benefit the upper clas
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:4, Informative)
"I'm also of the opinion that we need to regulate those majors a bit."
That would only get used by the politicians to nail degree programs with ideologies they disagree. In your case, you are a right-leaning person, so you want to knacker degrees with which you do not agree. If you are a Maggot, then you want nail science degrees because they generate graduates who want to base policy on scientific evidence. If you are left-winger, you want to nail business degree programs because they benefit the upper classes.
Just to be certain, I haven't voted for a Republican - not once - since 1999. So you can decide for yourself if I'm a Maggot. More interesting however, is that you seem to know all about me.
Yes, some degree programs attract people who are very left wing. Some people on the right don't care for those majors. But pray tell, do you wish to have gainful employment for graduates?
And the idea that I am against science education is really odd - I'm a science researcher. I have no career suicidal tendencies.
Perhaps I can illustrate the problem.
You are running a bank. I come in and ask for say a 100K loan. You ask if I can repay the loan, and I tell you yes, my job at the fast food drive through will allow me to repay it. You run the numbers, and they tell you it is not possible for me to repay the loan. I do not make enough money to support myself and repay the loan. Do you give me the loan? If yes, explain why you would give a loan to a person who won't repay the loan. That isn't a loan, it is giving money away.
Give me the reason that we should loan students money for tuition, books, and living expenses when they graduate and cannot find employment that will allow them to both support themselves and repay the loan. That's where the student loan crisis began.
Made even more awkward that young people who can obtain gainful employment after graduating, and both support themselves and pay their loans back.
And that is why I suggest some throttling back on the opinion degrees. There is a place for gender studies and other majors that don't have a huge demand in the workforce. But is it doing the student any good when they graduate without much of a career path?
Aside from trying to insult me, what is your plan for college education. Even a. utopian system, with free tuition, free books, and complete coverage of all living expenses - how exactly fair is it if the graduating student cannot get a job other than ones a person with no education can do? And I'm the bad guy?
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Those would be in-province students - you know where they live and likely their parents live and contribute taxes for.
The out of province (but in Canada) rate is usually a bit higher because you didn't contribute as much in taxes.
The out of Canada rate is far higher and likely is over 10x what the in-province rate is.
But this is for UofT, so a rather prestigious school. Community colleges are even cheaper . There are ot
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Holy smokes! That's just tuition??
Tuition at the University of Toronto, which is a prestigious university by Canadian and international standards, is about CAD $50K for four years, depending on the program.
It depends on the university. AC has an active imagination.
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:3)
How about you show us data that demonstrates that a lower percentage of students are attending college? That might support your argument.
You claim that high tuition is the real culprit here but you failed to support that claim in any meaningful way.
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:3)
Those numbers are completely wrong. A 5 second google search reveals that.
Its closer to $8k per year for tuition for PA residents at a state school with Penn University being arounf $15k per year.
These are in line with many other states.
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It is not a "falling birth rate" or barring foreign students. Those are factors but they are minor. The real problem is greed.
Tuition for 4 years:
In-State (PA Resident): Around $160,000 - $200,000.
Out-of-State: Around $240,000 - $280,000.
Not just tuition. $160k will more than cover 4 years of tuition, fees, room, and board for an in-state student in a Pennsylvania 4 year public college
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:2)
Yep and you'll have at least $100k left over. The 45 year old AC living in his mom's basement delivering pizza for a living has absolutely no idea what they are talking about.
Re:Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:4, Informative)
Tuition at a California State University is running about $5K/semester.
These universities are severely overpriced.
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Yes, there's greed, but you're looking at the inflated sticker price. A 10-15k per year is the normal "scholarship" for anybody who gets in, except for foreign students who are willing to pay more to get into the US. So knock 40-60k off the top right there. A lot of people get more off, depending on need and desirability to the school in question.
Public schools are, of course, far cheaper. For in-state students, UC Berkeley is under 18k per year, and it's a world class education.
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Demographic Cliff in effect ? https://www.npr.org/2025/01/08... [npr.org]
Numbers seem high [Re:Barring foreign student...] (Score:3)
Tuition for 4 years:
In-State (PA Resident): Around $160,000 - $200,000.
Out-of-State: Around $240,000 - $280,000.
The university mentioned in the article is Penn State, so I assume that's the one being discussed here? From their website [psu.edu]:
2024-2025 Penn State University Park tuition rates for an academic year (fall and spring semesters):
PA Resident: $20,644
Non-PA Resident: $41,790
multiplying by 4 years, that comes to $82,576 for in-state, $167,160 for out of state. So, your numbers seem wrong by a factor of 2 to 2.5
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Perspective from Sweden: no tuiotion fees (Score:2)
Interesting reading on the exuberant tuition fees in the US, and how it hinders people from getting higher education. I live in Sweden, and we have *no* tuition fees, at least if you are a citizen. College / university is free - you just have to be accepted to the programme / course, which is usually done on either high school grades, standardised test results or previous academic merits. Even travel (for example excursions when you study biology, geology, urban planning ...) is usually free.
Every student a
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greed is indeed the problem, the upper classes have turned our country into a slave society, this is exactly what classism looks like
yes boss, no boss, right away boss ...
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:4, Insightful)
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Score:4, Funny ?
I guess funny is the closest equivalent to life and consequences of complex dynamics being full of ironies.
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the rich don't want to have children because that's a responsibility, something the rich have no taste for
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Political leaning and desire for children is heritable.
The left will elect themselves out of the population pool in time. It will accelerate as more people choose more traditional values and family structures.
The state needs immigration to counter this effect, but they didn't move fast enough in America.
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It's clearly ' a form of birth control'.
You mistake the why for the what. It doesn't matter much why to the fetus.
"MORE access to abortion would encourage them to get pregnant"
You are so close, so close.
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To be clear, you are ok with decriminalizing abortion, but then you want hold women accountable for having an abortion, which would require criminalizing women who get an abortion. Maybe you could get your brain cells to talk with one another and reach a consensus on what you believe and get back to us.
Re:Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:4, Insightful)
Foreign students don't fix the issue but just kick the can further down the road.
Eventually, the countries you're getting the students from will also run out of people, and we will end up just like Japan. A bunch of ghost-cities with elementary schools that have a single class with half a dozen students of different ages.
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Foreign students don't fix the issue but just kick the can further down the road.
Warning to foreign students: Don't kick any cans down any roads, you'll get deported by ICE - or worse.
(ICE is channeling Jimbo and Ned - My God! It's coming right for us! [youtube.com])
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This country is half-way through committing economic suicide 67 different ways, and destroying our university system is one of them.
s/country/Administration/
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A 6-7 reference, your grandkids would be proud!
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Glad somebody saw it!
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This country is half-way through committing economic suicide 67 different ways, and destroying our university system is one of them.
That is one way. Another is turning Universities into minefields for men. And before anyone stars with the I word, I've worked at University for several decades now. It is around 70/30 female to male at this point, and the males there stay well away from the women. One false accusation, or one case of regret grape, and you can kiss your future goodbye.
Ironically, the misandric treatment of males had put a stop to bothering women. Not attending and active avoidance has left female college students alone
Re: Barring foreign students doesn't help (Score:3)
In further irony, as many of us have quipped. Women have demanded that men stop bothering them. Men completely stopped as ordered
This is Slashdot, nobody was affected.
Cruel (Score:2)
But probably fair...
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In further irony, as many of us have quipped. Women have demanded that men stop bothering them. Men completely stopped as ordered
This is Slashdot, nobody was affected.
Mic drop! 8^)
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Umm... incel much?
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Umm... incel much?
There ya go. Your alpha and Omega of interaction is flinging out an insult so over used that it reflects more on you.
Sorry, muchacho, I'm not an involuntary celibate, Since you seem interested in my sex life, I'm still sexually active at my age, achieve erection and orgasm - I mean I wouldn't let knowledge out, but you seem interested in it, even if it is a little creepy to me. Sorry - I'm taken. You show the prominent one way of thinking only, where women are perfect flawless creatures, incapable of fa
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Yip yip yip!
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This country is half-way through committing economic suicide 67 different ways, and destroying our university system is one of them.
Smaller colleges have been closing for years. It has nothing to do with the current administration.
Yes, there are a number of reasons. Falling birth rate is one, general misandry is another, the student loan issue allowed people who had no business being in college to attend college, while taking opinion degrees, which prepared them with a skillset that was similar to the guy who dropped out of high school in 10th grade.
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I seriously doubt there are a lot of people with college degrees, at least those beyond an AA, doing crap retail work at Walmart, at least not for long. And I bet those who are have made some questionable life and major decisions.
Diminishing Returns (Score:2)
It's also about the continuously diminishing returns from investing tens or even hundreds of thousands to get higher education.
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The returns on college education are still huge, unless you get that interpretive macrame degree. Even my philosophy degree has paid large dividends.
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It's also about the continuously diminishing returns from investing tens or even hundreds of thousands to get higher education.
The majors that have good employment and renumeration prospects still do well. The opinion major degrees do not.
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I got an idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Immigra ^ `@j # ~ NO CARRIER
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No! Don't pick up the dog!
KLJ*(&@#H!))!*!U90uhd1hj NO TERRIER
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Upgrade associate's to bachelor's (Score:2)
Trying to make that make sense:
Foreign students with a sufficiently rigorous associate's degree (2 years) could transfer to a US university for two more years to earn a bachelor's degree.
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Go to Hell, Nazi!
University is broken (Score:2)
Sure, gotta be the birth rates (Score:2)
And not the super high tuition fees coupled with little chance of getting a degree that you can apply with any success in the real world.
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Tuitions aren't helping, but birth rates are a real factor. My kids' school district closed five elementary schools over the summer, and it may close one of its middle schools in the next couple of years after it escaped this round. The district built up about 20-25 years ago to accommodate over 50,000 students based on population forecasts, but it peaked at 44,000 and has been slowly sliding for several years. Other districts are doing or considering the same thing for the same reason. This is in the Dalla
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And not the super high tuition fees coupled with little chance of getting a degree that you can apply with any success in the real world.
Funny - I work with engineers and scientists entering the field who aer doing quite well. Paid off their student loans in a timely fashion. Seems you are pretty bitter there homey, along with a side of delusion
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We do seem to have hit a perfect storm, employers were basically insisting on college degrees for jobs that should not have required or even preferred a college degree, prices spiked because suddenly even to be an ordinary office worker or admin assistant or the like one basically had to have one, to the spiking prices dooming many who went to school with debt that their work would not readily let them pay back, to a revulsion against the system itself.
And this is all in the last say, 30 years. This happen
that's a rounding error (Score:4, Insightful)
There are almost 6000 colleges in the United States. "Dozens" of closures amounts to well under 1%. I think we'll be just fine.
Good (Score:5, Insightful)
I acknowledge that it sucks for those who lose their jobs or who have to transfer, but we have too many colleges trying to capitalize on the education bubble.
Not everyone needs a college education. We have turned college into High-School part 2. Students enroll in college "because it is what is next".
It is out of control, and the bubble needs to deflate.
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Not everyone needs a college education. We have turned college into High-School part 2.
Everyone needs a college education in a democracy. Lack of education is how we get reality stars as president.
Re: Good (Score:2)
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Yeah, because seeing males as females is part of the educated Dems, uh?
If you have an education, at least you know what DNA is so you can discuss the topic reasonably.
People like you can't even do that.
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Democrats could have run someone with brains and was a leader and won.
Not likely. As long as the person isn't entertaining like a reality TV star, they will lose to the person who is a reality TV star.
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"the Democrat college educated voter will vote for a dingbat who knows nothing."
We would have even voted for a potted plant because even a potted plant would be a better choice.
"I voted for a 3rd party candidate."
Would you like a sticker? Supporting a 3rd party is nice and all but in the current US system, voting 3rd party in any remotely competitive state amounts to not voting. Basic game theory stuff. I'll vote 3rd party when we have a proper STV system in place or something comparable.
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Not confused at all. Don't blame the voters for the candidates.
"Do better in 2028 or you'll have Vance."
I think even Vance would be a solid upgrade.
A lot of them are weird religious schools (Score:2, Informative)
I also suspect that the absurd cost coupled with the affordability crisis in general is a problem. I put my kid through college a while ago now and I have no idea what I would do with instead of paying 500 or 600 a month for rent it was $1500. Never mind that every year more subsidies get pulled.
We're basically making College a luxury for the rich and the people
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I teach at $stateuniversity. We have been expecting this for years. For us the number of 18 years old has peaked in 2023 I think. And the enrollment prediction of freshman in the state are within 2% of the prediction we made in 2019 purely based on population.
Ironically, we are getting more students. What is happening is that when the total number of student regionally decreases, we did not lose student. But hyper local small universities lost students to us. We admitted the same fraction of students give
Or maybe... (Score:2)
...people have been told for years that a degree is a ticket to wealth.
Some interpreted this to mean that the degree was all that mattered, not the education or the trained mind that results from hard work. So they slouched through college, putting in minimum effort, socializing, binge drinking and cheating on exams. When it came time to get a job, they discovered that they had no marketable skills. Maybe the slackers no longer want to accumulate a mountain of debt for a useless degree.
The excellent, who wa
College doesn't make sense anymore. (Score:2)
falling birth rates? (Score:3)
A hint... (Score:4, Interesting)
What was going on ~18 years ago in the United States? The Great Recession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] That's not the only cause, but it definitely helped create a hole in the population in the population of senior high school/college age kids.
The two Universities I'm associated with (Norwich, where I got my undergrad, and UNH, where I took courses as a non-degree student) both have been talking about this for the last 5 years or more. The local city school district also talked about this as part of their budgeting presentations. So this should not be a surprise to anyone who is actually in the eduction business (unless, of course, they can't do simple math...)
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The fertility rate in the US has been below replacement level since 1972, except for a handful of years. It started to decline with the Great Recession, and it continued a steady decline until 2022. It blipped up in 2024, but it's still not enough.
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This is correct, the education world has known this was coming. The same cohort has already had to enroll in high school and earlier, so there's already plenty of data about their population.
Of course there is a broader trend of declining birth rates, but a gradual reduction in population is easier to cope with. The Great Recession baby bust is probably going to be a little more acute for a few years, so we can expect the rate of closures to increase temporarily.
Personally I'm a lot more concerned about t
Not every institution merits preservation. (Score:5, Interesting)
Compete or perish. Not every school is worth attending. Not every degree gets money, and without money there is no leisure to take programs purely for fun.
Incurring debt for fun is almost always a terrible idea but the US primary education system is trash so students don't know how to make wise choices. Not everyone SHOULD bother with conventional secondary education when there are so many ways to make money.
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Compete or perish. Not every school is worth attending. Not every degree gets money, and without money there is no leisure to take programs purely for fun.
Incurring debt for fun is almost always a terrible idea but the US primary education system is trash so students don't know how to make wise choices. Not everyone SHOULD bother with conventional secondary education when there are so many ways to make money.
I put it to you that "fun" is not the only alternative to "money".
I think that it is of value to take a degree in Philosophy, not for fun, but in a sincere quest to, for example, form an educated opinion of what is right and wrong.
What happens to a country when the only motivating factors are money and fun?
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Wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
There are lots of reasons enrolment could be down. Price of classes, rise in demand for blue collar jobs, lack of certainty in getting a white collar job, economic instability, and increased cost of living.
This may sound crazy, but if you have a large population who struggle to pay for basics, a lot of them won't pay insanely high rates to get an education which might not land them a job.
Re:Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
The number of people in the US might be the highest ever, but is the number of college-aged people the highest ever? I doubt it. The US population, like populations pretty much everywhere, is aging.
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Yup. Native born women have had a total fertility rate of below 2.1 (replacement) since the 70s. It's been the first generation immigrant women keeping the average up, and even that average has been slipping of late.
Can they transition to trade schools? (Score:2)
The job openings for electricians, plumbers, welders and mechanics is huge.
Price competition? (Score:3)
Perhaps the lack of students will cause the universities to cut their tuition charges and compete with other schools for students. School fee increases have strongly outpaced inflation for many years now and they are due for a cut. It also would make me happy to hear about administrators at big schools being cut instead of professors and instructors. How many "Dean of Alumni Development"-type positions do these schools really need?
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They'd rather die. And they will.
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High school used to be privatized, was not mandatory, or universally available to all. It became socialized in 1st world nations; that is, they became 1st world after doing so. The world got more complex and an 8th grade education was no longer enough.
The complexity continues to rise. Those who will lead the world will be those who prepare for it ahead of time. The USA is going backwards and only was standing still previously. 1 step forward, 2 steps back... like a sequel, they don't know what was great
Yeah that's it (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, it must be a falling birth rate. It couldn't possibly be decades of assault on education and progress on equal rights by the far right and the current administration. Not at all.
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1/3 of my state's funds for high ed comes from foreign student tuition. They pay a much higher rate than locals.
Hmm (Score:2)
It has nothing to do with ridiculously high tuition, or with unmarketable degrees, that leave students high in debt and low in jobs.
Here's a simple solution: charge students for the cost of instruction and no more. Then you'll find it should cost around 20-35K for the WHOLE degree.
I think colleges would do well to pivot back to prioritizing educating undergrads rather than other things. As a parent, I'd pay for that.
Indentured Servitude and Useless Degrees (Score:2)
College is more expensive than ever, leaving graduates living a life of virtual indentured servitude until their 30s or 40s when they might be trying to raise families.
Degrees with no Jobs
There are plenty of degrees being offered that have no actual real job market, some students spend all that money on a degree and don't even have that "high paying" job to go to, because they wasted their time.
Many people are starting to see the value in learning a practical trade and being ab
Text books are rediculous as well (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My college education has paid back 6 fold every year on average.
I'm sure it's not nearly as good now, but if you can get more than 100% ROI on any 4 year investment, it's going to beat out everything except Nvidia and Bitcoin in their best years. Not that you have any money to invest in Nvidia as a high school graduate.