U.S. undergraduate enrollment continues to drop

College enrollment numbers in the U.S. are still on the decline, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. The group found that there are little more than 1 million fewer undergraduate students in 2022 compared with 2019 and a nearly 8% decline in transfers from community colleges to four-year colleges in the last year. Stephanie Marken from Gallup's education division joined Jeff Glor to discuss.

#news #education #college

[ryanwalters]

Pay 50k to 200k for college then only get paid $44k a year to be a teacher /police officer. Good luck filling these jobs in the coming years.

[vincentstevens]

As a HS Chemistry teacher, I see most of my students would prefer learning a trade rather than something they will never use. Dangling financially ruinous promises in front of students without offering true alternatives is cruel. Trade unions should step up with apprenticeship programs, and community colleges must do a better job at providing real trade skills programs. Too many young people enter sham/scam private trade ‘colleges’ only to end up in serious debt.

[ebby]

It’s too expensive, even for middle class families—$32k per semester to start off making $40k a year is a money pit!!

[tomr]

If you aren't in medicine or tech College is like a huge pile of burning money

[cheehee_]

Personally, as a college graduate if i had to redo it id rather have gone into trade school.

[annettegustafson]

Of course! Who wants to be carrying crippling college loan debt for years? It's expensive just to eat and keep a roof over your head

[Corkfish]

Most degrees are garbage and people are finally getting it.

[MasD]

I attended a top university to study Nursing when I was 18. I never finished and amounted a large some of debt. At the time, obtaining the degree was too difficult despite knowing if I was to complete the degree I’d be set financially and job security-wise. Now, I’m re-enrolling into community college with a focus on a degree that isn’t so demanding, while holding the likelihood of obtaining just as an in-demand job. They make these programs extremely difficult to complete and wonder why student opt out of completion.

[lostprophet]

Kids that are graduating now were raised by a generation buried in debt that experienced poor returns on their college "investment". Parental influence is probably a huge factor in enrollment dropping.

[chadtomriddle]

Wait "fortunately" more women are graduating then men? Imagine if it was the reverse when she said that

[lauracanedo]

Ok I’ll explain my story: I graduated college almost five years ago. I majored in Psychology. At the time that was what I wanted to do. Then my interests started to change. When I started looking for a job, all of these jobs required 2-5 years of experience. It was very difficult to find an entry level job. Now that I’ve been out of college for a while, my interests have changed and so have my views about colleges. If I can give anyone advice, I would say go to a trade school or community college. Go for something that is high in demand. Don’t get me wrong, I know people have 4 year degrees with jobs now which is great. However, this isn’t the case for everyone. I have more opinions about bachelors degrees and colleges in general but I’m going to keep these to myself.

[radiokid]

An 18-year-old graduates high school and enters a trades program. In one year he is an aprentice and making 40k to 50k. By the end of four years he's earned - with raises - nearly 300k by the time he's 22 years old. An 18-year-old going to college for a liberal arts, degree, or any BA degree that is not a valuable trade...then finds that he/she needs a masters to get a job. Two years later and another 100k in debt, that person is 24 years old and 200k in debt. College is not worth it, if you are not going for a professional trade, such as lawyer or doctor. There are even inexpensive trade, certificate and two-year programs for nursing and business. Forget college and build a career -not debt.

[Christina_]

Gee…Umm let’s see here, maybe it’s bc people don’t have money! 🙄🙄 This world is so far gone, just all the way around. Graduate with a bachelors it’s like a high school diploma. Get paid hardy anything. The whole system is messed up. Ridiculous.

[freda]

Enrollments should continue to drop. "College" has turned into yet another obstacle to keep working class and poor from achieving wealth. It's not to obtain higher education, which leads to wealth. It's just another stop block for those who are not dripping in wealth.

[dusk]

Well lets see: College student's pay more tuition towards campus amenities, sports complexes, and administrative fee than for the actual education. Which matches a desire for college campus's to play "keeping up with the Jones's". At the same time there has been deeply inadequate regulation of the lending sector who gets away with letting mere 18 year old's take out $50-100K in debts. At the same time, student loans are somehow immune to bankruptcy which only incentivizes lenders to loan more as they don't need to weight the risk of a teenager's likelihood to repay that debt (they know it will follow them), which also incentivizes colleges to inflate tuition.
At the same time, the mid-20th century wisdom that you need a degree to really succeed, no longer holds true. What you need is a specialization in a skill others will pay for. That's not always a degree and more often, it's a trade. And unless you're in a STEM field, how many graduates actually use their education? Make that return on investment even more meaningless...
Because the costs have skyrocketed over the past two generations, it's no longer a good economic decision for a wide swath of young adults.

Want that to change? Reign in costs, regulate lenders, allow for bankruptcy, and cut non-education bloat on campus. You know, actually make it economically viable again

[pabloalmeida]

Only degrees that I’ve seen with good salary and demand in the economy are Accounting, Finance, IT/Tech related degrees Engineering and healthcare/medicine anything else you’re wasting time and money.

[sakenu]

Colleges have gotten too expensive. Many also started to see them being useless when some colleges started offering students a way to create their own degree.

[angusdog]

I’m a Union Tradesman and most of our project management staff are college educated. They tell me that they learned absolutely nothing helpful in college as it applies to construction other then knowing how to put a spreadsheet together. 🤦‍♂️

[jon]

Studies proving an higher income for having a degree no longer holds true.

[mojobiel]

I know many HVAC repairmen, welders, plumbers, electricians, etc making well in excess of 100K. College probably isn't the best fit for the majority of students coming out of high school.