College Enrollment Trends

In the past I’ve run some posts about the boom in private secondary education and home schooling. For the last day or two commenters have been discussing the state of higher education and, as it happens, my wife found a relevant article:

Enrollment at Catholic Colleges Skyrockets While Secular Enrollment Plummets

The article was run by CatholicVote.org so, naturally, it only deals with Catholic colleges. The focus is on more or less traditional colleges that don’t cater, or not too much, to current cultural trends like DEI and so forth. I assume there are also some non-Catholic institutions of this sort. One that came to mind, and which I checked, is Hillsdale College. I found a quite informative article at their site that discusses the whole matter of college enrollment:

Hillsdale enrollment defies national trendsHillsdale enrollment defies national trends

Here is an excerpt from that article that’s very relevant to the Catholic Colleges article:

According to Forbes, in the fall of 2019, the total amount of new students that attended a form of postsecondary education decreased by 1.3%, or 231,000 students, as compared to the previous year. Last fall’s enrollments nationwide dipped below 18 million, which is a decline of more than 2 million students since college enrollment peaked in 2011.

So far, Hillsdale College has not suffered any declines in enrollment. Hillsdale’s ability to maintain its average class numbers is largely a result of the college’s values, curriculum, affordability, and post-graduation employment rates.

…

Miller said part of the national decline is due to a decreasing population. Many expect this decline to reach a low point in 2026, which will be 18 years after the financial crisis of 2008, during which there was a significant decrease in children born.

“This is something that is scaring many colleges,” Miller said. “In the next few years, many small private schools will have to shut their doors.”

Miller attributed Hillsdale’s continually high enrollment levels to the commitment to its values.

“If the whole pie is shrinking, every college is trying to appeal to everyone,” Miller said. “But Hillsdale is doubling down on its mission. People are drawn to Hillsdale and the values that it has held for 175 years.”

So the big point in the article on Catholic colleges is that they’re bucking the national trend and are actually thriving. No doubt for the same reasons that Hillsdale continues to thrive. This article points to a big decline in the Covid period, quoting AP:

Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, with declines even after returning to in-person classes, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s a big drop by any measure, so when you see a certain class of colleges actually expanding their enrollment significantly that’s something to make you ask questions:

Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina saw its largest incoming class ever (1,654 students) for the 2023-2024 school year, a 10% increase from last year’s enrollment numbers.

Meanwhile, in Kansas, Benedictine College boasted a record undergraduate class of 2,213 students, marking a 121% growth for the college over the past two decades.

The Catholic University of America, located in Washington, D.C., saw its highest number of applications and deposits in the last five years, the Newman Guide release said. The Franciscan University of Steubenville welcomed 772 new freshmen, its largest class since its founding, and the North Dakota-based University of Mary had its largest freshman class (559) in its history.

The Cardinal Newman Society is an outfit that promotes Catholic education, and it offers a guide to colleges with a strong Catholic identity as well as good academics.

“We keep hearing people refer to a ‘Newman movement’ because these faithful Catholic colleges just keep growing and setting the example of how to attract families today,” said Patrick Reilly, founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“These colleges are traditional and counter-cultural at a time when most of American education is corrupted and on a path of self-destruction,” Reilly continued. “In addition, the ‘Newman movement’ includes faithful Catholic educators who long for and search for the environment these Catholic colleges provide.”

There’s a Wikipedia page for the Newman Guide that provides handy links to the Wikipedia pages for most of these schools. Full disclosure, our three sons all went to University of Dallas.

This is a small sample size, but it is a sign that there are people out there trying to do the best for their kids, forging ties that may last for a lifetime.