In the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 43 percent of students who intended to go to college last year never enrolled come September. That was up from 26 percent before the pandemic. It’s a phenomenon education experts call “summer melt.” Students graduate with the best of intentions to go to college, even committing to a school, but then life happens: jobs, family, and fear all get in the way. And the problem has likely gotten worse since the start of the pandemic; a tight job market also could lure additional students away from higher ed.
