And what can be done to improve the numbers?

Tim Copeland, a senior consultant in SunGard's Enrollment Management Consulting Practice suggests that colleges should implement an enrollment lifecycle plan.  He suggests, a longitudinal approach that follows a person as a recruit, enrollee, alumnus, continuing learner and even partner.

A clear brand should be articulated for the institution. In an attempt to produce the largest numbers, there is a temptation to be all things to all people.  However, the chance of a good match increases if the choice is distinctive and the customer understands and wants that difference.  Amherst presents itself as the classic liberal arts undergraduate college.  Bainbridge is the social-entrepreneurship graduate school.  Such articulation may be more difficult for a regional public university or community college – but it's not impossible.

Assessments are useable among enrolled students, but there are few easy opportunities for assessment during the recruitment and admissions cycle.  Nonetheless, brand tenets and culture can be communicated via websites, view books and student blogs, enabling some applicants to apply some self-evaluation for 'good fit' purposes.

Schools are increasing their focus on the freshman experience, and indeed they should.  A new study by Strong American Schools indicates that freshman get off to a rocky start.  Some 43 per cent of community college students must take remedial coursework; 29 percent at public four-year colleges.  That runs up the tuition bill and dampens enthusiasm.

Initiatives being employed to enhance the freshman experience include common summer reading, learning communities, service learning, additional advising, intense faculty interaction, mentoring by upper classmen and exposure to higher level major courses. 

Gamer and author Marc Prensky and futurist Ed Barlow call for radical changes in the way Millennials should be taught.  “We bore them,” Prensky says.  He and others feel an insistence on the lecture method must give way to more experiential learning: interactive simulations, multi-media, co-curricular and group projects.  Both Prensky and Barlow insist that what a person can do will surpass in importance what one knows.

While learning is paramount, students are thinking about careers.  Earlier integration of career services and internships bolsters their appreciation of the relevance of their college attendance.