This year represents an interesting inflection point with respect to demographic trends, as the college-aged population in the United States has been relatively stagnant for the past decade or so. But recent Congressional Budget Office projections show that the cohort of 16–24-year-olds is expected to increase over the next several years, representing a boon for college enrollment.
Even during the past decade, in the face of less favorable population dynamics, some schools — generally the largest public four-year institutions across the country — have grown enrollment by 1 percent to 2 percent annually. These schools have also become more competitive, with new applications exceeding enrollment growth. This enrollment growth has been a direct result of these universities commanding a higher market share of overall enrollment, at the expense of smaller private schools, for-profit colleges and the like.
With demographic trends shifting to more neutral or even positi
