How College Freshman Fall 2024 Enrollment Increased

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January 24, 2025 – In an article for U.S. News & World Report about how fall 2024 college freshman enrollment increased, Shannon Vasconcelos, senior director of college finance at Bright Horizons College Coach shares insights on the topic.

Four-year for-profit colleges experienced the largest freshman increase among all school types – 26.1%, according to the Clearinghouse data. The highest increase in enrollment at for-profits was among freshmen age 25 or older, 49.3%.

For-profit schools tend to offer many short-term credentialing programs, Vasconcelos says. "You see the most at for-profit schools as well as community colleges. And that's where we saw the biggest increases. I think that is part of it – (for-profits) offered the shorter-term programs that more students were looking for this year. Also, they have really, really good marketing departments."

Read the full article here.