MSN article about a consistent drop in college enrollment

[Deja Q]

Between 2005 and now, enrollments, each year, has dropped 14%.

I am currently browsing for the article, especially as it did not mention offshoring (much anything else) as to why fewer people are enrolling. (It makes common sense, fiscally, to not get education in a field that is being migrated elsewhere or dropped entirely. For example, graphic design, a job that pays $30k/yr, needs $40k worth of training at the diploma mill "college", and those jobs are going offshore too due to "high cost". The relative nature of costs is certainly a topic for debate.)

But there are no doubt many possibilities. Anyone want to discuss why few people are enrolling for higher education?

[varkam]

1. It's getting to be prohibitively expensive.

Tuition is just the start. Now many schools are charging various "fees" that can cost upwards of 2k, that are really just tuition in a fancy dress. Add onto that housing and books (which are, again, insanely expensive) and you've either got to go into debt or have wealthy parents in order to go to school.

[Lars39]

3. Even community colleges, long considered the cheaper way

to get basic courses,are losing students. People can't afford the gas to get to classes. :(

[NJmaverick]

2. Yet the prices keep going higher

What happened to supply and demand?

[Fumesucker]

4. The large number of people with a degree

That cannot find work in their field at a wage which will allow them to live and pay back their loans at the same time.

Why bother to get a degree if you can get a retail job paying about the same without a degree? Not only do you not have to pay for the education, you start making money right away instead of wasting years racking up debt you won't be able to repay.

[GoesTo11]

5. International students is a big one

Visas and other concerns about security make it a huge hassle and many don't think it's worth it. Also they aren't as keen on the US in general as they used to be.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. Question. Is a college education free in India? Curious. n/t

[AnneD]

9. No....

not the good education anyway but if memory serves-there may be a sliding scale. The free school are not that good- this is in Hyderabad, it might be different elsewhere. It is based on the British system and offers different media (English, Hindi, state language). I know Hubby's family are Bahamian (poor but honorable) but there are fewer seats available and they pay a premium. At one time Brahmin's may have been at the top of the social ladder-but that has changed since then and his family is slowly losing any wealth they may have had. They tend toward engineering and music so they will get by.

[knitter4democracy]

10. Yes. So's med school.

We had a couple of good friends who went to med school in India, even though they grew up in the States, so they wouldn't be saddled with massive loans like we are.

[AnneD]

13. Where did they recieve their education....

hubby's family was shocked when I told the way our schools worked. The free schools were so bad in the lower grades.

[knitter4democracy]

17. One went to Stanford, and the other went to one of the Ivies.

I forget which one. Then, they went to India for med school since it was free and came back here for residency.

[BigDaddy44]

21. Its clearly not free for everyone

Ever been to India? Those in lower castes have a hopeless existance. I don't think free medical school is in the cards.

[knitter4democracy]

22. I only know what my friends told me.

Maybe it wasn't free for everyone, I have no idea. They told me it was, and they went there, so I figure they'd know.

[Bonhomme Richard]

14. I'm Sooooo Confused. Yes, No..Maybe.

Thanks for the answers anyway.

[KharmaTrain]

7. What's The "Upside"???

This is a question I heard recently from one of my son's friends who never bothered to go to college and works at an auto parts dealer. Money is a prime factor...his parents, like many, don't have 30k just lying around to throw at a four-year school...and he felt going to a JC was also a waste of time and money. His feeling is that his grades were never good enough and that at least being in the work force is "doing something". I see a frustration in my own son (not unlike my own 30 plus years ago), about what awaits him upon graduation, but I attempt to assure him that a college education will have a value (both money and social) that will be to his benefits. Ya know...I say that with a lot of reservations these days...

[Robbien]

8. Sallie Mae and other big lenders stopped giving out college loans

If one doesn't already have the cash in hand, one is stuck.

[plcdude]

11. what article?

could you include the source?

[flashl]

12. Valid issues for low enrollment: costs, ability to pay debts, and fewer opportunities

And, there is also ...

Record Wait List Led by Amherst, Yale, MIT Brings High Anxiety

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Anxiety for U.S. high school seniors, always high this time of year, is growing after elite colleges put record numbers of applicants on waiting lists.

Acceptance at Harvard tougher than ever
BOSTON (Reuters) - Getting into Harvard University, one of America's most selective colleges, became even more difficult this year after a new financial aid offer prompted a record number of applications.
...
Harvard's admissions committee cut the acceptance rate to 7.1 percent from 9 percent last year, a record low at the 372-year-old university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston.


College frenzy likely to ease as fewer graduate high school>
High-school seniors across America are anxiously awaiting the verdicts from the colleges of their choice later this month.
...
Projections show that by next year or the year after, the annual number of high-school graduates in the United States will peak at about 2.9 million after a 15-year climb. The number is then expected to decline until about 2015. Most universities expect this to translate into fewer applications and less selectivity, with most students likely finding it easier to get into college.

IF enrollments are lower, why are there waiting lists? Why must high-school graduates wait until 2015 for relief?

[fed-up]

15. being really poor helps, my son just got a full grant for Chico State after finishing the local JC

This semester he is working full-time and taking four night classes, he is overwhelmed.

Next year he will only have to work part-time.

The people having a tough time financing college are the middle, middle and upper middle class.

At least there is one bright side (for my son anyway) to being poor.

[knitter4democracy]

18. Good school. Good for him!

Four night classes on top of working full time is definitely a lot of work. Wow. You raised a wonderful man there--a hard worker who won't let anything stand in his way.

[SoCalDem]

16. Can't scrape enough money together to go to college and NOT work too

Too much work, means not enough study time..and after a certain amount of debt piles up, they get discouraged and quit..

Back in '68 when I went to KU..NO ONE I knew , worked.

AND you could FINISH a degree in 3-4 years, and graduate DEBT-FREE...ready to start your life..

School + job + debt + stress = drop out

[libnnc]

19. tuition too expensive plus textbook costs

if you're lucky enough to get assistance for tuition it's the textbooks that end up killing you

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. Is the number of college-age people constant?