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Dive Brief:

• Undergraduate enrollment rose this fall for the second year in a row, up 3% compared to similar early data from fall 2023, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. 

• Enrollment jumped 1.9% in bachelor’s degree programs and 4.3% in those for associate degrees. While all credential types saw gains, the number of undergraduate certificate seekers increased the most, at 7.3%. 

• However, enrollment among first-year students shrank 5%, the first dip since the decline seen at the start of the pandemic. Declining enrollment among 18-year-olds — a proxy for students who attend college directly after high school — accounted for most of that drop, the clearinghouse said.

Dive Insight:

Fall 2023 marked the first time undergraduate enrollment had increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the clearinghouse.

This semester, enrollment largely fared well despite numerous headwinds, including the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision to ban race-conscious admissions and the botched rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2024-25 academic year. Yet the declines in first-year students warn of potential cracks in the K-12 student pipeline. 

“It is startling to see such a substantial drop in freshmen, the first decline since the start of the pandemic in 2020 when they plunged nearly 10%,” Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director, said in a statement. 

Overall, undergraduate growth is being driven by students who had previously begun their first year of college, researchers said. The clearinghouse includes in that group both dual-enrolled high school students and students who left college without completing a degree or certificate.

This past spring, the clearinghouse found an increase in reenrollment among students who previously left college without completing a credential. Researchers also recently found that persistence rates among first-time students had reached a decade high.

"Both of those trends appear to be continuing this fall," Shapiro said during a call with reporters on Tuesday.

Of the 42 states with sufficient data for analysis, only New Hampshire, West Virginia and Missouri experienced a downtick in students. And undergraduate enrollment grew at all types of institutions, though some made out better than others.