More Than 1 Million Fewer Students are in College

An NPR story on how 1 million fewer students are in college today than when the pandemic hit and what they perceive are the repercussions.

I take the story with a grain of salt as the story seems a plea to those missing million students to not economically risk their future by not attending college. Nowhere in the article does it mention one of the major reasons many high school graduates are turning their back on the college experience - they are afraid of being saddled with six figures of student debt! That's a very real fear that I've heard from a number of people who are skipping college.

Also high school kids who know how to code have much different options than kids in the past, kids who become welders or join some other trade are often much better off financially than their college-going counterparts, and finally four-years of on-the-job training is often better than a liberal arts degree and no experience. None of these things were mentioned in the article.

College enrollment is probably going to be on the decline for some time.