Dwindling Midwest High School Grads Spur College Hunt

[Purveyor]

By Janet Lorin Feb 25, 2014 6:04 AM ET

A waning number of high school graduates from the Midwest is sparking a college hunt for freshman applicants, with the decline being felt as far away as Harvard and Emory universities.

The drop is the leading edge of a demographic change that is likely to ease competition for slots at selective schools and is already prompting concern among Midwestern colleges.

“You can’t create 18-year-olds in a lab,” said Brian Prescott, director of policy research at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in Boulder, Colorado. “Enrollment managers are facing an awful lot of pressure that they can’t do much about.”

Nationally, the high school Class of 2012 ushered in a first wave of declines in the number of graduates, according to a report by the commission. The trend will worsen after 2025, when admissions officers face the impact of a drop in births that began with the 2007 recession. Over the next two decades, the biggest drain in graduates will be in the Midwest and Northeast. The demographic shifts are compounded by economic factors as the cost of higher education continues to rise.

“We are attempting to leave no stone unturned in our primary market,” said Ken Anselment, dean of admissions and financial aid at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. “Demographics are not working real well in the Midwest.”

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-25/dwindling-midwest-high-school-grads-spur-college-applicant-hunt.html

[Earth_First]

1. Gee, at $40K (+) per year with no job placement guarantee...

Who would have guessed.

[KansDem]

3. Tell me about it!

When I was finishing my graduate degree, I mentioned to one of my professors that I was wondering about the employment prospects for when I graduated. He replied by saying "Oh, higher education is all about self-fulfillment!."

I thought, "Yeah, not too good, eh?"

[HereSince1628]

2. This has put the small college the SO teaches at in crisis.

Pretty much 20 years after the Pappa Bush economic crisis caused parents to decline to have babies.

[raccoon]

4. I would suggest that they try to recruit international students. nt

[gollygee]

5. I'm sure the Free Market will save us

and the law of supply and demand will lead to college expenses being lowered, and college becoming more affordable.

Right? Right?

That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it? But we all know it doesn't and college expenses will not go down because the Free Market is a myth.