Colleges selected quicker and clearer aid offers, parent engagement, and campus visits as the top three levers for securing their incoming classes.
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As the fall semester fast approaches, just half of small colleges are confident in their ability to meet their enrollment goals this year, according to a survey of 134 higher education enrollment leaders Niche conducted this July.
Although 61 percent of respondents told Niche they anticipated hitting those goals this fall, that number was significantly lower—50 percent—for colleges with less than 2,000 students. Leaders at smaller institutions were also more likely than their peers to say that their confidence in their ability to hit their enrollment goals had declined since earlier in the admissions cycle.
Niche’s State of Higher Education Pulse Survey, provided exclusively to Inside Higher Ed, follows a February survey that asked enrollment leaders to predict how fall 2026 enrollment would play out. The latest update highlights where enrollment stands ahead of the start of the new academic year. The report emphasizes the unique struggles of small institutions, which made up almost half of the survey sample, to differentiate themselves from other institutions and meet their enrollment goals. In recent years, several small colleges have closed raising questions about what those who remain open need to do to stay afloat.
