College enrollment is nosediving everywhere.  In college towns, that affects overall prosperity, as retail businesses and restaurants see less revenue coming in.  Obviously, the covid-19  pandemic has started this downward spiral.  It’s not just because so many people are unemployed, and college is less affordable.  It’s also because the main appeal of higher learning isn’t all about academics.  Why did you go to college?

When I graduated high school at age 17,  I lived a mile from campus, and could walk to class every day. Coming from a small Catholic girls school, most of my 17 classmates entered the workforce as secretaries, factory workers, and other occupations that didn’t require a college degree.  But I didn’t want to go on with my same old life.  I wanted to re invent myself. Meet new people.  Go to parties. Get involved in clubs and  activities.  Socialize with students from all over the state, the country, and a few foreign students. If  college had  meant enrolling in online learning, I’m sure it wouldn’t have had the same appeal.  In order  to broaden my experiences, I would probably have moved to some exciting new place like California.

Another reason many women went on to university  was to get what was laughingly called an MRS. degree.  They really didn’t want to have a career.  But they did want to meet an educated man who could provide them with the ideal life at that time, as a stay at home wife and mother, with a house in the suburbs, a car, and two or three children.  That’s all changed. Many people do meet “the love of their life” in college.  But now, most female  graduates  move on to careers in accounting, engineering, and other formerly male dominated occupations.  They may decide to marry around the age of 30, or not at all.

Still, the major appeal of college life  has more to do with the social aspects. Getting away from home   Making friends with new, like minded people. The partying, the activities, clubs, sporting events.  When you take away all of that, college loses it’s appeal to those less academically talented.  Maybe that’s a good thing, in the end.  There are plenty of careers that don’t require a college degree.

Why did you go to college? .