College Not the Refuge from Recession It Used to Be
During past recessions, many high school seniors elected to go to college and many college seniors elected to go to graduate school rather than face almost certain unemployment. This recession appears to be different.
Maureen Sharib, Telephone Names Sourcer/Trainer, drew my attention to a recent survey of 371 private institutions by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. According to the survey, two-thirds of the schools said they were greatly concerned about preventing a decline in enrollment. There are several reasons for the drop-off:
- Students are choosing to apply to and attend less-expensive state universities.
- Schools accepted more students under binding early-decision programs. The effect of each early acceptance is to reduce by eight to 10 the number of regular-decision applications.
- Some students are delaying their college plans.
- The cost of attending college or graduate school is many times greater than it was for previous generations even after inflation is taken into account so fewer students are able to afford to attend many of the schools.
I think students will be focusing more-and-more on work experience (and being more entrepreneurial) / building up online, social-network prescence (for job hunting / long-term career etc..) than just academic work / qualifications (because employers are focusing more-and-more on these traits than academic qualifications, alone).
I graduated in 2007, and now I certainly wish I'd gone to a cheaper college. I went to exactly the sort of college this research describes as struggling - a small, private, liberal arts college, and ended up with rather terrifying student loans. I wonder if the credit crunch is going to make it harder for people to get student loans? As much as I enjoyed my experience at the college I attended, I think it may be best if cheaper and more flexible options (state schools, online education, career colleges) become more widely accepted. Society will have a hard time functioning if all the young people are as weighed down with college debt as I am.