Student Loan Blog : college enrollment numbers

Two-Year Schools Waiving Tuition For Laid-Off Workers

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:17:00 GMT

Typically, when the economy is down, enrollment is up at the nation’s community colleges. However, in the current economy, in which the unemployment rate is at a record high, Americans who find themselves recently unemployed can’t afford to further their education even at inexpensive local institutions.

In an effort to help, some community colleges in Pennsylvania are waiving tuition for local residents who were recently laid-off, reports Inside Higher Ed (“The Jobless Discount,” Dec. 5, 2008).

Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa., extends a waiver to local residents who have been laid off within a year of applying to the school. The waiver, which represents a potential savings of $962, is valid for one semester to qualified students for up to 13 credits.

The tuition waiver benefits both students and the institution, since RACC students will get financial assistance furthering their education in the hopes that they’ll continue their education and become paying students once they’re employed, said David Zimmerman, a career services officer at RACC.

“It’s good will, and it’s good PR,” Zimmerman said. “It helps the community and helps people get back into the work force.”

This year, participation in the tuition waiver program is higher than in previous years, Zimmerman said. He speculates the closing of two local business plants owned by the Hershey Company and Tyco Electronics Corporation may be contributing to the spike in interest.

Tuition Waivers May Cost Pa. School $100,000 in Lost Revenue

Northampton Community College, located in Bethlehem, Pa. announced that starting next semester it would begin waiving tuition for those who were recently laid off due to plant or local business closings.

Under the waiver, qualified students will be able to take a maximum of 12 credits at a reduced cost beginning in January 2009. Students would be required to pay $28 in fees per credit, for a total savings of $900. The number of students allowed to enroll under the waiver program would be limited to the number of empty seats available in each class section.

Northampton President Arthur Scott said offering a tuition waiver may cost his school more than $100,000, because the school isn’t adding sections or other resources to accommodate for students who take advantage of the waiver, meaning the waiver isn’t considered an institutional expense, but rather lost revenue.

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California State University System May Turn Away Up to 10,000 Qualified Students

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:21:00 GMT

At the same time that the nation’s largest college system, California State University, is experiencing soaring admissions — up 10 percent over last year — the college system has announced it may begin turning away qualified students due to a state budget shortfall that could reach $24 billion by 2010, The Los Angeles Times reports (“CSU May Cut Future Enrollment by 10,000,” Nov. 18, 2008).

In anticipation of a possible $66 million midyear budget reduction, the Cal State system will be moving up application deadlines and increasing the academic standards for admission to help weed out some students. Cal State University system chancellor, Charles Reed, has said the school system needs to pare back its 450,000 enrollment at 23 campuses by 10,000 students for the 2009–10 school year.

Since the university system has never had to limit enrollments before, university officials aren’t exactly sure which students — freshmen, sophomore transfer, international, or out-of-state — will be most affected by the rollbacks. But the enrollment-cut proposition has left some administrators thinking that California high school graduates will perhaps be the hardest hit.

If the school system cuts just 5,000 students, first-year admissions, which typically reach 50,000 students, would take a 10- percent cut.

“These are going to be kids who have done everything they’re supposed to do, and told year after year they’ll have this opportunity,” said Kathy Rapkin, chair of the counseling department at California’s Arcadia High School. “These kids are not going to get a place.”

Other Institutions May Be Affected by the State Budget Shortfall

Schools in the California State system are not the only institutions in the state that may be impacted by the $24 billion state budget shortfall. Administrators for the University of California system have said they may have to limit admissions to their most popular campuses and send students to the system’s less-populated campuses, UC Riverside and UC Merced. They have not issued statements regarding enrollment cuts.

Officials at California’s community colleges don’t anticipate having to reduce their enrollment numbers, but they may have to limit students’ access to certain classes.

Diane Woodruff, chancellor of the California Community Colleges System Office, said, of the 2.7 million students currently enrolled in California community colleges, some 250,000 students, or nearly 10 percent, could be driven away.

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Economy Takes Its Toll: Some Small Colleges to Shut Their Doors

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:59:00 GMT

Americans could see more college closures, particularly among small schools with shrinking enrollment numbers as the slowing economy continues to claim more victims across every sector, The Associated Press reports (“College Closings Rare, but Could Rise in Downturn,” Nov, 17, 2008).

While the American Council on Education reported that only four out of 4,400 colleges closed in all of 2007, this year alone, four schools have announced they will either shut down certain branch campuses or close entirely by next school year.

Tuition costs that far exceed what state schools charge, diminishing enrollment numbers, and mounting debt loads have made it increasingly difficult for some small colleges, most notably those with religious affiliations, to stay afloat in recent years.

And now the same effects from the mishaps that took down the mortgage industry have bled into the higher education sector. Some schools may be discovering, much like many American consumers and homeowners, that the allure of low-interest loans caused them to take on more debt than they should have. The median debt of private colleges has increased 50 percent in the last five years, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

But now, like homeowners with variable-rate mortgages, some schools have seen their once low debt payments skyrocket to unmanageable proportions.

“Instead of holding long-term debt at lower interest rates, they have gotten stuck with short-term obligations at higher rates — a scenario [colleges] knew existed on paper but never expected to happen,” writes Justin Pope of The Associated Press.

Faith-Based Schools Hardest Hit by Economic Decline

Cascade College, a small Christian school in Portland, Ore. with just 280 students, announced it will be shutting down after the current academic year as it continues to struggle with a $4 million debt load. as will Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, Minn. and Vennard College in University Park, Iowa. Vennard, with just 80 students, will close its doors two years shy of its 100-year anniversary.

Taylor University in Indiana, another Christian institution, will shut down the undergraduate program at its Fort Wayne branch.

Paul Corts, president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, said the financial crisis has become a “very serious” problem. “I think people are sensing that this is not short-term. It’s something that’s going to take a couple of years to play out.”

Enrollment at the council’s 102 member schools grew 71 percent between 1990 and 2004, and Corts said he doesn’t foresee that many of its schools will be closing.

He adds, however, that school closures may be difficult to predict because, “Nobody knows what the ultimate extent of this whole financial crisis is going to be.”

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