The Shrinking Student Pool: A Perfect Storm for Higher Education The latest projections from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education paint a stark picture: by 2041, the US will produce about 13% fewer high school graduates than it did at its peak in 2025.
This decline has already begun to take hold, with colleges competing harder for students and struggling to predict enrollment numbers. The data on declining enrollment is striking.
Students applying through the Common App have increased their average number of applications by nearly 3% since last year.