Last year, I argued that the decline in college enrollment throughout the 2010s was a correction, not a crisis. This is because almost all of the decline occurred at low-quality colleges—those with poor graduation rates and loan repayment outcomes—which students would probably be better off avoiding. Between 2010 and 2023, the number of students seeking degrees at the worst tranche of colleges dro...
The strongest version of this narrative highlights a market-driven correction in higher education, where students initially avoided low-quality institutions due to poor outcomes, only for enrollment to rebound in recent years. This suggests that while consumer choice can drive accountability, it may not be sufficient without regulatory oversight. The analysis deserves credit for using updated data to test its initial assumptions and for clearly defining the metrics used to classify institutional...