In the season seven wrap-up of FutureU, Jeff Selingo and Michael tackle a lightning round of topics, from online education to campus protests to college athletics.
The conversation kicked off by noting the 2.5% college enrollment increase this spring. That sounds like good news, but given the bump was largely driven by dual-enrolled high school students, that suggests colleges’ financial challenges will persist. The episode concludes with the continuing challenges colleges will face as they begin paying their athletes. Selingo and Horn point out another topic that will persist into next season: restoring FAFSA completion after this year’s disastrous rollout of a new form.
Jeff Selingo: “So what I would do if I were [the Department of Education], I’d go into those states and those zip codes and do FAFSA completion days. Essentially, the week the form gets out, ask all of their star power that they have in Hollywood and elsewhere with influencers to do public service announcements in social media. I think you need to flood the zone, particularly in the fall when the form comes out, to say how critically important this is.”