The higher education sector is navigating a serious demographic shift, with demographic forecasts estimating a 13 percent drop in traditional-age freshmen over the next 15 years. In response, campuses are waiving application fees, offering financial incentives for visits, and extending direct admission to unapplied candidates. Skidmore College, for example, is actively involving faculty by opening classrooms and labs directly to prospective recruits. Meanwhile, acceptance rates have steadily climbed to around 70 to 80 percent across the country.
Key points
Institutions are transforming recruitment by offering unprompted direct admissions and fi…: Institutions are transforming recruitment by offering unprompted direct admissions and financial aid incentives just to complete campus visits.
Long-term projections indicate the nationwide supply of college freshmen will drop by 13…: Long-term projections indicate the nationwide supply of college freshmen will drop by 13 percent over the next 15 years.
Over 40 percent of young adults incorrectly believe getting into college is harder today…: Over 40 percent of young adults incorrectly believe getting into college is harder today than it was for their parents' generation.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Overwhelming.
That's how 17-year-old high school senior Alex Zaret described the college admissions process, during a tour of the Skidmore College campus — the fourth school Zaret had visited, with another half-dozen to go.
"It is kind of a full-time job," Zaret's father, Owen, said.
He wasn't joking. With research to do, visits to make and applications and financial forms to fill out, "it's a lot, and it's a lot on top of two full-time-employed parents and a very engaged high school student," Owen Zaret said.
But even in the year or so that the family has been doing this, the Zarets have detected a subtle shift.
At first, the process seemed to be what Owen Zaret called an ivory tower approach. It signaled: "'You're lucky if you come here.' And now, I think, for a variety of reasons, that's changed. It's more like, 'We want you to be here.'"
Hurting for students, colleges are striving to transform an admissions process that has often…
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