Like way, way down.
Across American colleges and universities, freshman enrollment has dropped more than 16 percent from last year, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported today.
Its even worse at community colleges, where most Black, Latino and low-income students enter the higher education system. There, freshman enrollment is down by what the centers executive director, Doug Shapiro, called a staggering 22.7 percent.
In the 2008 recession, Mr. Shapiro said, community college enrollment went up.
The current drop could have repercussions for years.
The big worry is that people who interrupt their education with the intention of completing it later dont always do so, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government relations for the American Council on Education, a higher education trade group.
Undergraduate enrollment, Mr. Shapiro said, was down in every region and at nearly every type of institution.
In part, thats a reflection of the national economy: Many college students have dropped out to avoid failing while they try to make rent and feed their children. Students are also postponing enrollment to avoid the strangeness of college right now. Online learning is inconsistent at best. Socializing is a mess. And campus quarantines can be both restrictive and ineffective. A New York Times survey counts more than 178,000 cases across more than 1,400 colleges and at least 70 deaths since the pandemic began.read more
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