The mid-2010′s saw an uptick in U.S. college closures, particularly among private nonprofit schools. This trend has affected tens of thousands of college students across the country.
Since 2016, 91 U.S. private colleges have closed, merged with another school, or announced plans to close, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Higher Ed Dive. Almost half of those schools closed after the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020. For many struggling schools the pandemic was the final straw — but two major themes showed up consistently throughout the closures: finances and enrollment.
“There are two significant issues affecting higher education right now, specifically, through the admission and enrollment offices,” said Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review. “Number one, it is the admission cliff, and that is the impending decline [in the number of prospective students]. We’ll be graduating our lowest high school classes by population in 2025. And most enrollment professionals have been wringing their hands about this date of 2025, but many schools have seen those enrollment declines already.”
About 95% of U.S. colleges rely on tuition, according to Franek, meaning they rely on money from students to operate. Dwindling enrollment numbers mean less money, fewer student offerings and eventually a shuttered institution.
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out… colleges today are nothing more but liberal indoctrination factories. Instead of educational opportunities and career growth, they pride themselves on who can “teach” the most woke ideas and promote the left-sided socially divisive issues. People are quickly figuring out that they can make a very good living without putting themselves in 100k+ worth of debt for a worthless degree. Skip your degree in liberal psychology, go to a trade school or find a job in a useful, relevant field and learn an honest person’s work and live a comfortable lifestyle.
Poor ROI. Kids and their families have figured out that the cost of a college degree results in just too much debt fresh out of college. Some degrees are 50k or more and result in a salary that isn’t much of a living wage, let alone having to pay off that degree. Better off going to trade school and working your way up. Plenty of plumbers, electricians, etc. make a great wage and can well support a family.