US college enrollment for first years drops 5%: report

First-year college enrollment in the United States has dropped by more than 5 percent this year, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. This decline comes despite overall undergraduate enrollment rising slightly, largely recovering from decreases seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drop in first-year enrollment contrasts sharply with last year’s increase. Enrollment among high school graduates also dropped by more than 6 percent.

Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, Doug Shapiro, described the findings as “startling,” particularly given that it’s the first decline since the pandemic's onset in 2020 when freshman enrollment plummeted nearly 10 percent.

“It is startling to see such a substantial drop in freshmen, the first decline since the start of the pandemic in 2020 when they plunged nearly 10%,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro added that continuing or returning students are driving overall undergraduate growth, particularly at community colleges, which is “at least some good news” for students and schools.

According to the New York Post, experts have attributed some of the decline to delays and complications in the rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) last year. 

“This really reconfirms the strong connection between FAFSA completion and enrollment,” explained Bill De Baun, senior director of the National College Attainment Network. 

The decline may also reflect broader challenges in public confidence in higher education. A Gallup poll released earlier this year found that only 36 percent of adults expressed a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in higher education, marking a 57 percent drop in less than a decade.