The COVID-19 pandemic, rising college tuition rates, and a poor FAFSA rollout have affected many prospective college students’ financial situations. According to the National Students Clearinghouse Research Center, enrollment increased by roughly 1.2% in the 2023-2024 academic year following several years of declines. Enrollment figures stayed before the 16 million pre-pandemic levels.
Some students have already announced that they are choosing to drop out of college due to financial aid failure; however, it is too soon to predict how tuition expenses will affect enrollment figures for the next semester.
The media examined undergraduate enrollment trends over the previous decade to determine who enrolled in college, what subjects were most popular, and how the pandemic affected enrollment.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse report released earlier this year, almost 176,000 more undergraduate students enrolled in fall 2023, a 1.2% increase from the previous fall.
For the 2023-2024 academic year, almost 15.2 million undergraduate students enrolled. Community colleges saw the biggest growth, gaining 118,000 new students this fall. Enrollment at private, for-profit universities increased as well.
The Department of Education has not yet released the complete number of undergraduates enrolled for Fall 2023.
Enrollment at two-year and four-year universities has drastically declined since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that between 2010 and 2021, undergraduates fell by 15%.
The Education Department discovered that, in Fall 2022, women accounted for nearly 60% of all new college enrollees, an increase from 56.6 eight years ago. Women have been more likely than men to enroll in and attend college for a number of decades, but the gender gap has only widened.
According to the Education Department, the top three most common fields of study for earning an associate’s or bachelor’s degree were business, health, and related programs.
Over the past decade, the most common degree awarded to graduating students has been in business. These were the top bachelor’s degrees awarded by the field of study in the 2021-2022 academic year.
- 18.2% in business
- 12.9% in health professions and related studies
- 7.7% in social sciences and history
- 6.1% in psychology
- 6.3% in biological and biomedical sciences
Many potential students can no longer afford college tuition. Many who decide to continue their education will have to pay almost twice as much as their parents did for an undergraduate education two decades ago.
According to the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of tuition and fees for education at public four-year institutions has risen 179.2% over the past years.
Simultaneously, many students’ lives were disturbed, and difficulties in applying for financial aid turned the college decision-making process upside down. Before this, the media revealed that numerous economically disadvantaged students were forced to scramble for financial assistance, endangering their hopes of attending college due to delays and technical issues with the FASFA form.
