By Selenne Sevilla / Staff Writer
By Selenne Sevilla / Staff Writer
Ever dream of higher education but reconsidered after knowing your chances to be enrolled?
Well, many students value their education, but as student enrollment increases many students are discouraged to apply.
The amount of students applying to community colleges increases every year. Community colleges are a gateway for those who may not have succeeded in high school or do not have the money to go to a big name college.
Community colleges have an open admissions policy.
Therefore it is not very hard to attend these colleges. However, now that more students are applying, fewer schools have the capacity and money to give these students their education.
As enrollment increases more budget cuts are being enforced, and classes and programs are becoming less available to the students. Students are affected by this because not many will have an opportunity to live the American Dream or even get close to living it. When classrooms are so full of students, very few students get a chance to actually communicate with their professors about their grades and their progress, so many students begin to fall behind or lose focus in the class.
Riverside City College student Manuel Chavez, states, “I believe over enrollment in colleges will affect me in ways that may alter my success to complete school such as classes being limited and quickly filled. And overall the campus will be overfilled with students making it complicated to be involved with the school.” Decades ago, college may not have been a choice for everyone but, as generations pass us by, competition to get enrolled into college continues to grow therefore making it increasingly difficult and stressful to students who struggle to get classes.
University of Michigan, National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, “Who Is College For? A Community Discussion Guide” researched that, “Based upon current census data and enrollment trends, greater than 2.3 million more students will attend college by 2015 and ECS estimates this number could reach 8 million new students if a greater proportion of high school graduates attend college. This gap could well affect how many people U.S. higher education can accommodate and, as a result, who will be able to attend college.”
In order for colleges to offer students a quality education demands for a higher grade point average will increase. And overall impaction requirements will be stricter. “The reality individuals face is one of limited capacity to serve all students equally well. The current system is not prepared to meet the growing demand. When spaces are limited, what are the most equitable ways to admit students?”
If access to college is limited students will feel obligated to settle for less, although they can achieve much more. Students will start deciding not to go to college even though many jobs require a college degree. Students need guidance and knowledge to be successful and complete school. “College is seen as an important path to economic success and civic leadership”. If colleges cannot accommodate students in classes this can and will affect the future of prospective students.
One may think that impaction requirements getting stricter are not a way to discourage students, but rather to encourage students to work harder and to believe that anything is possible.
But with so much competition going on, one is not always guaranteed. Students may also lose hope in themselves because standards are being set higher. Also students may become increasingly depressed and hopeless resulting in the suicides of many young people.
One may not be able to achieve such a grade point average because they are dealing with other life situations. Personally for me impaction effects my education because there will be a larger population and with a larger population my education may be at stake.
There are higher demands of applications submitted to colleges every year, so this makes the chances to getting into the college of my choice slimmer. Impaction also effects my decisions to further my education because I have encountered many other situations in my life that strain me from being able to give as much time to my education as I’d like in order to achieve a higher grade point average.