Less Students = More Money for You!
You got your financial aid offer, and it wasn’t as much as you hoped. By the way, they NEVER are. So, you’ve sucked it up and sent in your summer tuition/room & board payment for the fall semester. But, what if there are a few shekels lying around? What if all it took was a phone call and a request for a review? Check the article below.
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College Enrollment Slips for Fifth Straight Semester
Pandemic-induced declines in undergraduate enrollment continued into Spring 2022, with colleges and universities seeing a one-year decline of 662,000 students.
Published on June 2, 2022 · Updated on June 7, 2022
Edited by Raneem Taleb-Agha
The enrollment declines are detailed in a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Colleges and universities enroll 1.4 million fewer students now than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public institutions saw the sharpest declines in enrollment, according to the report.
Enrollment in colleges and universities fell across the U.S. this spring as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reverberate throughout higher education.
Undergraduate enrollment dropped by 662,000 students (4.7%) compared to Spring 2021, while overall enrollment dropped by 685,000 students (4.1%), according to the spring 2022 enrollment report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The decline constitutes the largest year-to-year dropoff in overall spring enrollment since the enrollment tumble began in 2012.
It’s a trend that worries some researchers who see few positive signs in the data.
“College enrollment declines appear to be worsening,” Doug Shapiro, executive director at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said in a statement. “Although there may be some signs of a nascent recovery, particularly in a slight increase of first-year students, the numbers are small, and it remains to be seen whether they will translate into a larger freshman recovery in the coming fall.”
“The decline constitutes the largest year-to-year dropoff in overall spring enrollment since the enrollment tumble Began in 2012.”
The bright spot Shapiro highlighted was the increase in first-time, first-year students. That population of students rose 4.2% from spring 2021, and it follows a 3.5% decline from the previous spring semester.
Only a small portion of first-time students enroll during the spring semester, the report said. For example, 340,000 first-year students enrolled in spring 2022 compared to 2.1 million in fall 2021.
Trends Vary by Institution Type
Overall declines in enrollment weren’t standard across institution types. Here’s the overall breakdown for enrollment changes from the previous spring semester:
Public four-year: -3.4%
Private nonprofit four-year: -1.7%
Private for-profit four-year: -0.2%
Public two-year: -7.8%
The for-profit industry seems to have avoided the worst of the declines. According to the Clearinghouse data, the sector was buoyed by enrollment gains from students seeking associate degrees (2.4% increase) and graduate or professional degrees (5.4%).
State-to-State Differences
Enrollment trends weren’t standard across states, either.
Indiana was the only state to report double-digit growth in enrollments (10.7%) compared to spring 2021. Only nine states reported growth of any kind from the year-ago period.
Michigan reported the sharpest decline in the country (-15.5%). The report, however, stated that Michigan was among a handful of states with inconsistent data submission across years, which made enrollment estimates less accurate. Michigan was the only state that reported a double-digit decline.
Signs of Hope
Fall enrollments have also been on the decline since the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact higher education in early 2020, per fall 2021 data.
Another potentially positive sign for the future is the number of students who have already submitted their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2022-23 school year. According to the Form Your Future FAFSA Tracker, 49% of the high school class of 2022 had completed a FAFSA through May 20, up 4.6% compared to the last academic year.
FAFSA completions don’t always translate to enrollments. However, the National College Attainment Network stated that seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to enroll in a college or university after graduation.
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Forget about the false hope numbers at the end of the article. Statistics are not backing that up. Instead, make the call NOW to your student’s college. Ask for a review and reconsideration of any grants or scholarships your student may still qualify for. This is especially important if your finances have been hurt in the last few months; you lost your job or couldn’t get a similar salary, incurring significant medical expenses, or are financially helping elderly parents. These financial challenges (and they should be real) may open some eyes and institutional options.
Important tip: Lots of stuff gets stuck in your student’s “portal.” Case in point- freshman summer. a Mom gets this crazy balance due bill. She calls the University Financial Aid Department. Comes to find out, her student just didn’t press the “accept” button for over $800 in scholarship grant money. Yeah. They weren’t paying attention or managing their “portal.” Maybe you start there first. It is never as important to them as to you!
Even if NOTHING is different, just ask- it may not work but it MIGHT!
Until Next Time,
All My Best,
Bonnie Burkett
