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[quote=Anonymous]What’s Behind the Shift?

[b]Size is a structural disadvantage in the attention economy. A school with 2,000 undergraduates produces fewer alumni, generates less media coverage, fields fewer Division I sports teams, and has a smaller social media footprint than a school with 15,000. [/b]In a world where institutional visibility is increasingly driven by online presence and viral moments, small schools face a permanent headwind. This is not a reflection of educational quality—but in the admissions marketplace, visibility matters.

Career anxiety favors universities. Today’s applicants and their families are more career-focused than perhaps any previous generation. [b]The appeal of a research university—with its pre-professional programs, business and engineering schools, urban internship pipelines, and corporate recruiting presence—resonates with students who see college primarily as a pathway to employment.[/b] The liberal arts pitch—that broad intellectual exploration produces adaptable, creative thinkers who succeed in any field—is harder to make in a 30-second elevator conversation, even though there is substantial evidence supporting it.

[b]Location increasingly matters. Among the LACs losing yield, a disproportionate number are in small towns or rural areas: [/b]Oberlin (Ohio), Kenyon (Gambier, Ohio), Grinnell (Iowa), Reed (Portland, which is mid-size), Dickinson (Carlisle, Pennsylvania). The thriving LACs are either in or very near desirable locations (Claremont McKenna near Los Angeles, Barnard in New York City) or have invested so heavily in campus life that the location becomes secondary (Colby, Middlebury). For a generation of students raised on urban culture and anxious about geographic isolation, a small-town setting is a harder sell than it was twenty years ago.

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