College Enrollment Decline Worsened

[bjcheung77]

Yes I know that college enrollment worsened for "all players", but I would have thought it hit the For-Profit players harder than the others, the article below indicates otherwise... Wow, just a slight decline for the For-Profit players compared to either Public, Private, Non-Profit, or Public institutions!  Something that they're doing are keeping the enrollments active!

All institutional sectors experienced enrollment declines this spring, but their severity varied considerably.

Public community colleges and four-year institutions saw a combined drop of more than 604,000 students, or a 5% decline.
Community colleges were again hit the hardest, losing about 351,000 students, a 7.8% decrease over last spring. 
The total loss in community college enrollment since spring 2020 has now reached 827,000 students.

Public four-year college enrollment was down 3.4%.
Private four-year institutions saw their enrollment drop 1.7%.
Private for-profit colleges, the smallest higher ed sector, had a .2% decline.

Link: New Report: The College Enrollment Decline Worsened This Spring (forbes.com)

[LevelUP]

Small colleges are going to be under a lot of pressure over the next decade. There will be a lot of them shutting their doors.

[Alpha]

(I haven't actually read the report)  The first thing I'd want to know is if a portion of the decrease was due to a drop in the population within the relevant age group.  Then, I would guess that the enrollment rate has not dropped at the elite schools, such as the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, etc.  I think that more people have concerns about the prospects of incurring large debt with some increased in appreciation of the idea that a degree in English Literature (e.g.) does not have adequate ROI.

[ReyMysterioso]

With a few exceptions, I don't believe state schools market their online programs nearly as aggressively as for-profit schools market their products.
This is just one person's anecdotal evidence, but I deal with people all the time who still mistakenly believe the only online degrees are from sketchy for-profits like U of Phoenix. If they're largely unaware even their own B&M alma maters have online degrees, who knows what the average prospective student is aware of.

My social media platforms definitely seem to feed me for profit school ads I'm guessing five
times more often than state school online degree ads. (And most of the state school ads I get are from ASU.) It looks like those millions for profits put into aggressive marketing seem to be working.

[sanantone]

I think for-profits already reached their peak in decline. They had an 11% decline in enrollment in Fall 2021.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022...%20percent.

[ss20ts]

With a few exceptions, I don't believe state schools market their online programs nearly as aggressively as for-profit schools market their products.
This is just one person's anecdotal evidence, but I deal with people all the time who still mistakenly believe the only online degrees are from sketchy for-profits like U of Phoenix. If they're largely unaware even their own B&M alma maters have online degrees, who knows what the average prospective student is aware of.

My social media platforms definitely seem to feed me for profit school ads I'm guessing five
times more often than state school online degree ads. (And most of the state school ads I get are from ASU.) It looks like those millions for profits put into aggressive marketing seem to be working.

I agree. I RARELY get ads on social media and elsewhere from state schools. At least 95% of the ads I see are for private colleges. Most are non-profit but there are some for profit. State schools just don't seem to market. It's like they're living in the 90's with if you build it they will come. All of the schools I've attended online I've found online. Some programs through ads. Others through searches. It's rare a state school even comes up. Those marketing departments are really good at marketing online at the private schools.

[Alpha]

I see ads for SNHU a lot. And ASU.  This article says something about which universities are spending the most on marketing
Education Advertising: Who is Spending the Most During COVID-19? (pathmatics.com)