Think proprietary and community colleges. Of the almost 700 schools that had over 5,000 FAFSA filings in the first quarter, these twenty-five schools all experienced over 50% growth in FAFSA filings on a year-over-year basis:
| School | State | Type | 1Q 2009 | 1Q 2010 | Change |
| EVEREST UNIVERSITY - ORLANDO SOUTH | FL | Prop. | 1,663 | 5,037 | 203% |
| LONE STAR COLLEGE SYSTEM | TX | Public | 4,022 | 11,946 | 197% |
| ARGOSY UNIVERSITY | IL | Prop. | 11,172 | 23,974 | 115% |
| NASHVILLE STATE TECH CMNTY COLLEGE | TN | Public | 3,049 | 5,423 | 78% |
| CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE | OH | Public | 8,015 | 13,719 | 71% |
| WRIGHT COLLEGE | IL | Public | 3,275 | 5,462 | 67% |
| DAYTONA STATE COLLEGE | FL | Public | 4,653 | 7,702 | 66% |
| PHOENIX COLLEGE | AZ | Public | 3,132 | 5,182 | 65% |
| HAROLD WASHINGTON COLLEGE | IL | Public | 3,961 | 6,531 | 65% |
| CYPRESS COLLEGE | CA | Public | 5,083 | 8,266 | 63% |
| ASHFORD UNIVERSITY | IA | Prop. | 11,888 | 19,246 | 62% |
| COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF DENVER | CO | Public | 3,307 | 5,223 | 58% |
| COSUMNES RIVER COLLEGE | CA | Public | 5,359 | 8,445 | 58% |
| BELLEVUE COMMUNITY COLLEGE | WA | Public | 3,657 | 5,727 | 57% |
| FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY | FL | Prop. | 5,507 | 8,585 | 56% |
| GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY | AZ | Prop. | 11,183 | 17,345 | 55% |
| OZARKS TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | MO | Public | 4,575 | 7,091 | 55% |
| COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA | NV | Public | 7,848 | 12,026 | 53% |
| FRONT RANGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE | CO | Public | 4,877 | 7,430 | 52% |
| CLARK COLLEGE | WA | Public | 4,749 | 7,202 | 52% |
| SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE | UT | Public | 4,260 | 6,456 | 52% |
| SOUTH UNIVERSITY | GA | Prop. | 5,032 | 7,607 | 51% |
| METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE | NE | Public | 4,199 | 6,340 | 51% |
| ARMSTRONG ATLANTIC STATE UNIVERSITY | GA | Public | 3,702 | 5,584 | 51% |
| COLORADO TECH UNIV - ON LINE | CO | Prop. | 4,979 | 7,505 | 51% |
Almost all of the institutions listed are community colleges or proprietary institutions reflecting a trend towards more mid-career, non-traditional students flocking back to school to pick up new skills or to refine existing ones. It is not only mid-career students popping up on college campuses in record numbers though. A recent Dept. of Labor report found record numbers of recent high school graduates also going off to college (from Wall Street Journal):
As for the reasons why, think recession:
Cecilia Rouse, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and an economics and public-affairs professor on leave from Princeton University, said that "if you weren't going to college, you wouldn't be working."
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Recall my earlier post which found that in the first quarter of 2010, FAFSA filings rose by 17.5%. I went back and took a broader view and analyzed the FAFSA filing trends over the past three years (comparing figures for first five quarters of a six quarter cycle) and found that the 2009-10 academic year has seen almost a 20% increase. Note how overall filings have accelerated in the past two years as the economy decelerated starting in late 2007. The growth in FAFSAs filed by independent students have outpaced dependent students by a factor of more than 2X in 2009-10 with almost 60% of filings now coming from that student segment.
| YTD Thru 5 quarters | Dependent | Independent | TOTAL |
| 2009-10 | 7,859,098 | 11,085,034 | 18,944,132 |
| 2008-09 | 7,042,727 | 8,776,827 | 15,819,554 |
| 2007-08 | 6,493,858 | 7,683,995 | 14,177,853 |
| 2006-07 | 6,310,106 | 7,344,557 | 13,654,663 |
| Year-over-Year Change | |||
| 2009-10 | 11.6% | 26.3% | 19.8% |
| 2008-09 | 8.5% | 14.2% | 11.6% |
| 2007-08 | 2.9% | 4.6% | 3.8% |
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