The troubled economy and declining stock market have caused layoffs, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
They also dictated the college choice of Ella Kinzie.
After the Evanston Township High School senior and her family lost half of their investments in the stock market, Kinzie found that attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign would be her cheapest option. For many high school seniors like Kinzie, college decisions will come down to money, especially amid the current economic conditions.
“Ultimately, my decision had to do with the recession,” Kinzie said. “I’m pretty sure there are very few people nowadays that have to decide where they’re going and not think about the money.”
A March 29 article posted on The New York Times’ college admissions blog reported an increase in applications at some public schools such as the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I think the reason is probably pretty straightforward,” said Michael Mills, Northwestern’s associate provost for university enrollment. “They are very cheap alternatives to private institutions, and they’re pretty good quality.”
The majority of schools Kinzie applied to are public, such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa and the University of Vermont.
“I didn’t have a top choice, so it kind of just made sense to go U of I because the whole money issue put it over the rest of them,” she said.
This year, NU experienced a smaller jump in applicants after three years of large increases. Mills said this was inevitable.
“First of all, we’re thankful to be up at all because for a long period we were worried we might be down because of the recession,” he said. “The percentage increase that we were experiencing was hard to sustain, and you can’t do that every year.”
ETHS College Career Coordinator Jill Meyer said the school’s seniors normally apply to a wide range of colleges all across the nation.
Meyer said the trend stayed consistent this year. She added that because the financial crisis did not heighten until midway through the college application process, next year may see an increase of students applying to public institutions.
“I don’t necessarily think (students) applied to different places but based on where they get in, they may decide to stay in-state rather than accepting an offer from a more expensive institution,” she said.
Mills said to attract students, private institutions must do a better job explaining the amount of aid they can offer and continue to demonstrate the value of attending a school such as NU.
“That’s the kind of stuff you have to prove to people – that you’re worth your cost,” Mills said.
Despite her family’s financial situation, Kinzie said she is appreciative that she won’t have to take out student loans. Still, she expressed concern over her choice.
“I’m clearly going to have fun,” she said. “I just don’t want it to be nothing afterward.”
