Demand for college educated people has gone up, so expect to see more and more kids trying to go to college. It use to be that secetaries, sales people, cops and firemen didnt need college educations, that isnt true anymore. But dont read TOO much into those numbers of applicants. The way kids are hedging their bets is to increase applications. When I applied to schools at the end of the last millinium, I applied to 8 and that was considered roughly normal if not alittle high. Now, 12-15 maybe even 20 applications are sent out commonly, just in case. SDSU is pickup up on this bounce.
UCSB had just such a pick up in the late 1990’s. The new admissions director boasted about how they were gonna make it the next UCLA. Decided to only accept kids with GPA’s above 4.0 and high SAT’s (back when that was unusual). They only got ~65% of the kids they thought they would, and were forced to go around to the local high schools and tell kids to challenge the rejection or reapply, as they had a “good chance” to get in. I met the counciler, I know it happened.
As for college costs keeping kids out I dont think that will happen. Loans are still guarenteed by the Gov and 17 year old kids dont really think about 40-100k loans to repay. Besides, everyone knows that kids who graduated from college make like 90k a year starting and have all associated costs of life paid for them by a gratful employeer who will make them VP in 3 years. Especially with that nice communications degree mixed with a minor in underwater basket weaving.
