Students are desperate to get into college. So why is enrollment dropping? – CBS News

• The number of students enrolled in U.S. colleges fell 1.3% this fall — that’s 231,000 students.
• The U.S. now has 17.9 million enrolled college students. the first time in a decade enrollment has dipped below 18 million.
• The hardest-hit are private four-year colleges, where enrollment declined 2.1% from a year earlier.

College applications are typically due in early January, a deadline that raises the blood pressure of students and parents alike amid tougher-than-ever acceptance rates at top schools. But behind those low acceptance rates is a trend that’s also raising the blood pressure of college administrators: declining enrollment.

The number of enrolled college students slipped 1.3% this fall compared with a year earlier, representing a loss of 231,000 students, according to a survey released Monday from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit educational research group. For the first time in a decade, the number of college students slipped below 18 million, dipping to 17.9 million students, it said.

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