College Enrollment Stabilizing

After years of decline, it appears as though college enrollment is finally leveling out. Throughout the COVID pandemic, colleges saw smaller and smaller enrollment numbers. This is due to the fact that many high school graduates chose to defer and take gap years rather than start college in the midst of the pandemic. However, according to a survey conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center of more than 3,600 schools, those numbers are slowly starting to return to “normal”. 

For the 2022-23 year, first-year enrollments rose 4.3 percent from the previous year. Though these numbers are still roughly 150,000 less than in 2019, it is still an improvement from 2021. Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director said, “It’s very encouraging to start seeing signs of a recovery here, even though there’s still a long way to go before freshmen classes return to their 2019 levels.” 

Community Colleges saw the greatest rise in enrollment with 6 percent increase. Public four-year colleges saw a rise of 3.9 percent. However, private and highly selective schools saw a decrease of roughly 2 percent. Though this could be due to the fact that, while receiving historically high numbers of applications, many highly selective schools (especially the Ivies) admitted fewer students than in past years. 

While these numbers are starting to equalize, we want to emphasize that this is a good time to apply to colleges. With the enrollment numbers down, your chances of acceptance into these schools increases. 

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