Enrollment is on the rise in U.S. colleges

Knight Ridder Newspapers (krt)Students enrolled in college hit a record high of 15 million last fall, and that number is expected to increase 10 percent in the next decade, according to a national study released Wednesday. But in Michigan, a struggling economy may be causing some students to rethink their college plans, say officials at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Across the country, applications have been increasing for the last four years at the nearly 600 colleges that were surveyed for the study by the National Association of College Admission Counseling, based in Alexandria, Va. Preliminary data at U-M show applications for this fall are down 18 percent overall and down 23 percent among minorities. At MSU, applications to date are down 15 percent for both groups. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June striking down U-M’s point-based system that gave minorities a boost may be partly responsible for the lower numbers, school officials say. U-M has changed its application to require multiple essays, teacher recommendations and other data, making more work for students. At MSU, students are now encouraged to write an essay. It will become mandatory in the fall of 2005. MSU is also becoming more competitive, discouraging some students from applying, said MSU admissions director Pam Horne. But an unemployment rate in Michigan of 7.2 percent, compared with 5.7 percent nationally, and a fear of layoffs may also be factors. “There is a lot of concern about cost,” Horne said. “Tuition went up about 10 percent last fall at MSU, and the economy has not bounced back in Michigan like the rest of the nation. More students and families are considering community colleges for the first two years and then transferring to MSU.” Parents who invested their college savings in the stock market are also not seeing the growth they expected, she said. Tuition, room and board at MSU for the 2003-04 academic year for in-state undergraduate students is about $11,000. At U-M, where in-state undergraduate tuition, room and board is about $14,600, admissions director Ted Spencer said he is hearing stories from parents who are nervous about committing to send their children to U-M because of the soft economy. “We are hearing parents talking about sending their students to less-expensive school and seeing how things work out economically,” Spencer said. “Even people with white-collar jobs are feeling threatened. There is anxiety out there in the marketplace.” At Wayne State University, where many students commute to campus and can live at home, applications for the fall are up 30 percent overall and 47 percent for minorities, according to Jack Kay, WSU associate provost for assessment and retention. The opening of two residence halls and stepped-up recruiting programs at area high schools and in the Latino community have helped boost the numbers, according to Kay. , Detroit Free Press. Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.