“It’s unsustainable!” That’s how we talk about the price of higher education. But we rarely use these words to refer to the application environment—perhaps we should.
The chart below shows the current application trend for traditional-aged, undergraduate students and their enrolling institutions. Is this trend equally unsustainable?
In this 15-year time span, the number of applications per enrollment has nearly doubled for private institutions and increased significantly for publics. The number of admissions an institution has to make to gain one enrollment has followed the same trend.
What does this mean? To put it bluntly, both students and institutions are investing more money, more time, and more energy to end up with essentially the same result.
Is this broad array of choice truly providing more options for more students, or does it just create more work for everyone? Whatever the case may be, it’s an application frenzy for all. We should be asking ourselves whether this greater investment of resources is worth the effort.
More importantly: Are we diverting precious resources away from the educational experience, the fundamental point of education, and into college choice? How can higher education help students navigate choice in a more purposeful way? Can we bend or flatten these trends to make the choice environment more manageable for all involved?