Celia Mann | Social Media Editor
October 25, 2024
A college education. Something that grew to become a staple of the American Dream as it evolved over the generations. But, recently, the enrollment of freshmen in college has dropped overall for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. What could be the cause of this downward trend, which revamps the trends of the pre-pandemic years with less and less enrollment in college? Can it be attributed to the cost? Or maybe the growing interest in professions that don’t require higher education? Whatever the cause, less enrollment in college starts to affect society as a whole.
Overall, the general undergrad numbers have risen for the second year in a row, thanks to continuing students and high-schoolers getting a headstart on college courses, while the enrollment for freshmen alone has dropped at least 5%. At the start of the pandemic in 2020, this enrollment number plunged a whopping 10%, a trend highly uncommon in the American education system.
Researchers have explained the difficulty in pinpointing any single cause for this decline in enrollment, but they say many factors could contribute. San Clemente junior Jack Vermillion explained that the reason he doesn’t plan to attend any college or university post-high school is because he thinks “being a firefighter is a cool job that [he] can do straight after high school,” and will be able to do “a lot more with [his] life with the extra four years” that college would usually occupy. Many important service jobs, including firefighting, joining the military, or being a police officer don’t require any college degree to be considered, leading to a 4% increase in those employed with these jobs by the year 2033.
Not only are young adults taking an interest in careers that don’t require a college degree, but many agree that tuition for most universities is far too expensive for them to afford. Some students who were bound for four-year institutions instead were “forced” to choose a smaller, lower-tuition community college instead, to afford the more advanced level of education that they desired. Sophomore Emma Nelson agreed that “college can be very expensive, especially for those planning to attend a more well-known school.” She further stated that she hopes “for a scholarship for either academics or to be recruited to play soccer in college,” which would lower the cost of this higher level of schooling.
Many students today hold the opinion that college is not necessary for them to have a successful career and enjoyable life in the long run, and would only consume four years of their life, all to be wasted in the end. While it may not seem harmful now, if this decline in college enrollment continues, high-level jobs including doctors, specialists, lawyers, engineers, and even teachers will continue to have a lack of practitioners.
This downward trend that is seemingly becoming a pattern needs to be corrected, with redirection of students and encouragement to receive a higher education, along with more financial aid in order to save our society from a lack of skilled and educated workers.
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