New Report Highlights How the Pandemic Affected San Diego Seniors’ College Enrollment

San Diego high school graduates decreased their enrollment in four- and two-year colleges during the pandemic, according to a new report by San Diego Education Research Alliance at UC San Diego (SanDERA) and the San Diego County Office of Education. The report, the first of a series of reports on the impact of the pandemic on college enrollment of students graduating from high schools in San Diego County, looked at postsecondary enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

A sharp deviation from historical trends appears with the class of 2020. Overall, compared to the pre-pandemic class of 2019, where 67.7% of the cohort enrolled in a four-year or two-year college, only 64.5%, 64.4% and 66.4% of the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 enrolled in a postsecondary institution.

Four-year college enrollment rates in the fall after high school graduation dropped by 0.6 percentage points for the high school class of 2020. Enrollment in two-year colleges accounted for most of the drop in college enrollment, dropping by 2.6 percentage points for the class of 2020.

“While we did see some rebounding in four-year college enrollment after 2020, it’s important to remember that these aren’t just numbers, but represent students,” said Shannon Coulter, director of assessment, accountability and evaluation for SDCOE. “I think community colleges and community leaders need to think about how they re-engage students who graduated in 2020 and 2021.”

A few broader findings include:

• The 2020 cohort did not simply postpone their enrollment in four-year colleges by a year. When four-year college enrollment in the second year after high school graduation was examined, the class of 2020 lagged the enrollment rate of the class of 2018 by two percentage points, at 32% versus 34% for the classes of 2020 and 2018 respectively.
• Four-year college enrollment rates in the fall after high school graduation for the classes of 2021 and 2022 were higher than for the class of 2020, and matched or exceeded college enrollment rates from pre-pandemic graduating classes such as 2014-2018. 
• Unlike four-year college enrollment, where the pandemic appears to have lowered enrollment rates only the class of 2020, the pandemic appears to have lowered enrollment rates in two-year colleges for multiple high school classes. Although there was a slight negative trend in community college enrollment rates before fall 2020, the decline accelerated and continued for the classes of 2020 and 2021, before the class of 2022 exhibited a partial recovery in two-year college enrollment rates. 
• For two-year colleges, by almost all measures, it was the more disadvantaged groups whose enrollment rates fell more. For example, in the class of 2020, socioeconomically disadvantaged students' enrollment in two-year colleges dropped by 4.1 percentage points relative to the class of 2019, compared to a drop of only 2.0 percentage points for never disadvantaged students. 
• For four-year colleges, the drop in enrollment for the class of 2020 originated solely from high school graduates who had never been socioeconomically disadvantaged. 

Download and read the full report.