TOP (10-27-2021)
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Not shocking, especially last year. I mean, why pay $70K/yr for strictly online classes? Unless you have F U money no way I'm paying that amount unless my kid gets the full 'college' experience (or the school is Stanford or Harvard).
But even with the pandemic the cost of an education is only increasing. For those with money there will never be an amount too much to pay. But the massive amount of debt so many kids are racking up will continue to make some consider alternatives such as trade school or no college at all.
'Depressing' college enrollment numbers show pandemic damage is 'far from over'
The coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage college enrollments, with new data revealing declines compounding from last year to this fall.
According to early data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, undergraduate enrollment continued to decline by 3.2% after dropping last year amid the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment at community colleges dropped by 5.6% and at public four-year colleges by 2.3%.
"These data are depressing, but they also show that the effects of the pandemic on higher education are far from over," Robert Kelchen, professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee, told Yahoo Finance.
The new data represents about half of the 3,600 post-secondary institutions the center collects data on and 8.4 million students as of Sept. 23. Combined with last fall's declines in enrollment, the number of undergraduate students has now fallen by a total of 6.5% since 2019.
“Far from filling the hole of last year’s enrollment declines, we are still digging it deeper,” Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said in a statement. “A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to see significant nationwide declines in undergraduate students, and community colleges remain the most adversely affected sector, experiencing a 14.1% total enrollment decline since fall 2019."
Enrollments determine many schools' financial future
Census data from earlier this month revealed how the coronavirus pandemic hit the education sector exceptionally hard, and college enrollments plunged in 2020 to the lowest level since 2007.
"These enrollment declines could be due to potential students choosing employment in a tight labor market over going to college or difficulties finding childcare during a pandemic," Kelchen said.
In other cases, he added, "some people may not be happy with the mode of instruction — either in-person or online — and are waiting out the pandemic."
Enrollments are key to schools' livelihoods as institutions.
"This continued decline in enrollment could affect how much funding public colleges get from their states, since enrollment is a key driver of appropriations," Kelchen stressed.
Jessica Wood, credit analyst at S&P Global Ratings, explained that experts "talk a lot about net tuition revenue," which refers to colleges' gross revenues (which is enrollment times sticker price) minus institutional financial aid.
"With tuition's discount rates [and] financial aid rising and enrollments decreasing, net tuition revenues have been challenged at many schools for a while now," Wood told Yahoo Finance. "Of course, this is not affecting all schools — but for those with consistent declining [net tuition revenue], this creates some real pressure on total revenues."
Among undergrad institutions, public two-year colleges suffered a 5.6% decline, public four-year colleges a 2.3% decline, and private four-year colleges a 12.7% decline. Certain schools managed better: Undergrad enrollment at private nonprofit four-year colleges only saw modest declines of only 0.7%, and highly selective schools saw enrollments in fact grow by 4.3%, to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Graduate student enrollment, meanwhile, grew by 2.1% above last year's level and has seen a total increase of 5.3% over the last two years. Online schools saw a decline in undergrad enrollment by 5.4% and graduate enrollment by 13.6%.
There were gender disparities: Male enrollment declines came in at 6% while female enrollment dropped by 1.8%.
"Cumulatively, male enrollment decline during the pandemic is now -9.3%, four percentage points steeper than the female decline of -5.3%, over the two years from 2019 to 2021," the report noted.
Overall, while the declines reveal a sobering picture for higher ed amid surging endowments at certain schools, Kelchen said he's only expecting a small number of closures in the coming months.
"I think we will see the rate of mergers and closures increase somewhat, especially as federal support funds run out," he said. "But it won't be a mass wave of closures as colleges do everything they can to survive."
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/colle...114351696.html
TOP (10-27-2021)
Free college isn't the answer either, as we have discussed on other threads.
I think males are looking to generate income more quickly and are unwilling to sacrifice 4-8 years of their early adulthood to get a college education. This is especially true when they see someone who has a degree struggling to make ends meet while there are lots of others...oilfield workers, HVAC technicians, Plumbers, Electricians, etc. with more work than they can do. We have had a lot of our recent male graduates go into either HVAC, Plumbing or Electrician work. They attend the local Technology Center and get certified. I have several former students who have done this, worked as technicians for a while for others and then opened businesses of their own. Another thing about oilfield work. If guys get promoted to drillers or safety inspectors (not sure what the technical term is) they also do quite well without so much, if any of the hard, manual labor. One of my kids responded to one of those memes that said "I have never used Algebra." He said that he used Algebra II every day on his directional drilling job. I have another former student who is a multi-millionaire and he couldn't do Algebra to save his life. Never attempted college. But he owns a construction company that has contracts to repair/create highways all over the state.
The dozen H.S. Math teachers that have come from our school since I've been teaching are my pride and joy though.
On a bright note, my son's freshmen class at OU is the largest and highest performing ever.
https://www.ou.edu/web/news_events/a...ersity-history
Pretty cool stuff there. Plus our football team is the worst 8-0 team I've ever seen...but they keep finding ways to come out on top. That is going to run out the next 4 games. I think we could go 1-3 if we don't figure some things out.
TOP (10-27-2021)
Ha! There is finally light at the end of the tunnel. The incompetence of previous AD’s Pat Haden and Lynn Swann are finally gone and we have adults in charge. We will hire a top notch coach and it will take a year or two to rebuild the talent level that has been depleted but we’ll be back.
Got to say I’ve heard the same rhetoric and hopes from more than one fan in just about every sport, what makes fans fan, Ernie Banks made it famous decades ago
Good luck, but as I’ve noted before, the ends you envision ain’t happening at a private University, the checkbook and liberty to cash the checks ain’t there
The drop is a lot less than I would have expected. The lifestyle has been decimated by COVID Martial Law....so much of the value has been removed.
This illegal illegitimate regime that runs America is at fault...not me.... they do not represent me and I have long objected to their crimes against humanity.
Sure, until the results are achieved on the field it's all talk. However we're talking about a college football blue blood. There's a reason it's continually being discussed on ESPN and other sporting outlets because it's not just any job. The fact that Mike Tomlin's name is even being mentioned shows you the high profile nature of it.
An outsider understandably isn't going to know all that's gone down this past decade at the University. But so far it looks like the ship has been righted administratively and there is now an alignment of interest between the athletic department and the Board of Trustees which did not exist before. This may sound arrogant but it's USC, we have money. We don't spend at Alabama's level but the delta isn't so much that we can't compete.
This program is a sleeping giant.
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