The Roe Effect, combined with way-too-high college tuition and fees for a lousy education, the resulting student debt, and underemployment of recent college grads is going to lead to many more colleges closing in the coming years.

A waning number of high school graduates from the Midwest is sparking a college hunt for freshman applicants, with the decline being felt as far away as Harvard and Emory universities.

The drop is the leading edge of a demographic change that is likely to ease competition for slots at selective schools and is already prompting concern among Midwestern colleges.

“You can’t create 18-year-olds in a lab,” said Brian Prescott, director of policy research at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in Boulder, Colorado. “Enrollment managers are facing an awful lot of pressure that they can’t do much about.”

Denison University, in Granville, and the College of Wooster, both project about a 13 percent drop from within the state. Ohio residents make up about a quarter of Denison’s student body and about a third at Wooster. Denison and Ohio Wesleyan University have boosted travel outside the state to attract prospective students, especially in California and the Southwest.

Dwindling Midwest High School Grads Spur College Hunt

From April 2013: Colleges Struggling to Stay Afloat

Too many high school students are told they must go to college when many of them would be much better off getting trained in a 1 to 3 year program learning a trade or earning a certificate in a practical skill, like welding. See
– mikeroweWORKS Foundation
– Don’t Go to College Next Year
– Don’t Send Your Kids to College
– Edububble
– Phi Beta Cons