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The Steady Drip of Positive Enrollment News?
Are FAFSA fiasco-related recruiting and admissions activities actually improving the enrollment picture? Something is happening that wasn't expected.
Phil Hill
September 18, 2024
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I do not want to ignore the tremendous pain - for students, parents, and financial aid support staff - that has come from the ongoing FAFSA fiasco. And from an institutional level, there are multiple reports of colleges or universities seeing ~20% reductions in Fall 2024 enrollments and several shutting down.
However . . . I cannot ignore multiple reports coming in showing not just stable enrollments at a school here or there, but record enrollments (or at least the highest since 2020) across statewide systems. Despite the FAFSA fiasco.
Wisconsin
Consider the Universities of Wisconsin reporting from earlier this week.
Enrollment at the Universities of Wisconsin (UWs) this fall increased by more than 1,000 students overall, including higher enrollments at eight universities, according to preliminary estimates based on first-day student counts.
The increase comes despite severe challenges caused by the disruptive roll out of a new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) financial aid form and a lack of funding for the Wisconsin Tuition Promise, said Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman. Branch campus closures also likely had an impact, he said.
“The fact that overall enrollment is up at the UWs despite the federal FAFSA fiasco is proof positive that Wisconsinites know that education unlocks opportunities,” Rothman said.
The overall enrollment estimate of 163,589 is the highest since 2020.
The news release then implies that enrollment growth would have been higher than 0.7% if not for FAFSA.