Why students are choosing to stay close to home for college
One-third of college-bound students are staying closer to home and choosing more affordable options, according to 2 surveys (America’s Promise Alliance and Strada Education Network). One-quarter of them plan to go to 2-year community colleges instead of 4-year institutions. Others completely dropped college plans or some opted to take gap years.
This is not surprising considering the roller coaster of emotions students have faced during the pandemic. The government, school administrators, and the CDC controlled virtually every aspect of their academic and social lives for over a year. With the Delta variant looming as the new school year approaches, many students want to be near family and what is familiar to them.
I remember touring the Ivy League colleges with my daughter Nicole just 10 days before 9-11. She was enamored by Brown, Yale, and Harvard. We explored campuses, checked out dorms, and bought the sweatshirts. But after the World Trade Center fell, she decided that she wanted to stay on the West Coast, and was thrilled that she got into Stanford – which is just a 50-minute drive home.
Not sure if or when colleges will bounce back. Students should consider where they would like to work and live post college. They’ll be conducting research, interning with local firms, and networking in the regions that they’ll be living in over the next 4 years. If they want to return close to home after college, going across the country for college may be setting themselves up for some difficult decisions when they get job offers off campus in their college towns.
Economic security is also weighing heavily on parents and students as they carefully review financial aid and scholarship offers. The cost of a bachelor’s degree varies by hundreds of thousands of dollars in today’s market, and for many students, the return on their investment is not good. College tuition continuously increases; it has skyrocketed 1375% since 1978 when I was in college. Forty percent of undergraduate college students drop out before graduation, and third of college freshmen drop out before their sophomore year.
Students are making sobering decisions about staying close to home, choosing colleges that offer the best financial aid packages, and determining if college is really their best option.