The number of undergraduate students is expected to drop 3.2 percent in the 2021-22 academic year after plunging 3.4 percent during the 2020-21 pandemic year, according to preliminary data released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center on Oct. 26, 2021. That adds up to 6.5 percent fewer undergraduate students now than there were in the fall of 2019 before the pandemic. Young adults from low-income families appear to be lured away from school by rising wages and the need to support their families through hard times, Shapiro explained. Institutions that serve the wealthiest Americans, by contrast, are experiencing the opposite phenomenon: a post-pandemic bulge in students.
https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-many-young-adults-choose-work-over-college-report-shows/
