University enrollment down nationwide, but way up at some institutions (LSU included)

Posted on 10/5/22 at 6:31 pm

Posted by member12

Bob's Country Bunker

Member since May 2008

32602 posts

Posted on 10/5/22 at 6:31 pm

Some high school kids are rethinking college and questioning the value of a degree altogether.

quote:
‘Universities are going to continue to suffer.’ Some colleges struggle with enrollment declines, underfunding

LINK

Increasingly, high school students are rethinking the value of college, with a growing number of them questioning the return on investment. Some have decided against a four-year degree.

To be sure, undergraduate enrollment was falling even before the pandemic, but remote learning — coupled with the sky-high cost of college — triggered a nosedive. The number of undergraduates enrolled in college nationwide is now down 9.4% compared to two years ago — a loss of nearly 1.4 million students.

Those steep declines caused tuition revenue to fall, putting some schools in financial jeopardy. A few have had to shut down entirely.

quote:
To stay afloat, some colleges have cut faculty and slashed areas of academic study, including programs in sociology, creative writing, music and religion.

“Entire philosophy departments, history departments are closing down,” Lakhani said.

This isn't a universal fact - LSU is bucking this trend, possibly because tuition is relatively affordable and the university is benefiting from proximity to rapidly growing cities like Dallas and Houston. The 2019 football team being one of the best in history certainly helped too.

Flagship public universities are seeing increase in enrollment, likely because the value of their degrees relative to the cost of tuition are more favorable than smaller, private alternatives.

Over 37,000 students are now enrolled at LSU, and the university's incoming class has set record gains on the academic quality (GPA, ACT score).

quote:
Once again, LSU has brought in its most accomplished freshman class in university history, with an all-time high median GPA at 3.78, and an ACT composite of 25.5.

The freshman class is made up of 67.5 percent of students from Louisiana and 32.5 percent of them from out of state. About one-third of the freshman class are first-generation college students.

“We welcome an accomplished group of students to engage with our committed and talented faculty,” said William F. Tate IV, LSU President. “Students and their families understand that attending a flagship university provides a pathway to participating in discovery across academic fields. Opportunity to learn abounds.”

This year, 7,367 freshmen enrolled surpassing last year’s record of 7,038 freshmen enrolled. Overall enrollment at LSU is also at an all-time high of 37,354 – 28,899 undergraduates and 4,584 graduate and professional students, along with 2,871 LSU Online students – 1,160 undergraduate and 1,711 graduate and professional.

So don't expect parking and the housing situation on and around LSU to improve anytime soon. They will be knocking on the door of 40,000 students within a couple of years if this continues.

It's happening elsewhere too: Ohio State is now right at 61,000 students at the Columbus campus. Arizona State is now up to nearly 55,000 students. Texas A&M has grown to an astounding 72,000+ students.

Conclusion: The younger generation is making more pragmatic, logical choices about higher education. Fewer of them are going to college, and the ones that do are choosing schools with reasonable tuition prices and whose graduates are seeing competitive salaries in the job market.

This post was edited on 10/5/22 at 6:36 pm