Colorado College has underenrolled its freshman class for the third straight year despite admitting more students than usual. The college accepted 26% of its 7,853 first-year applicants
and enrolled 490 students, 20 short of its goal for the class of 2030, according to Assistant Vice President and Dean of Admission Karen Kristof.
Fewer students means less money for the college, especially since CC is largely tuition-dependent, according to Kristof. “With fewer enrolling first-year students and lower retention of current students, budgets are tighter,” she said.
Fewer freshmen who did enroll are paying full tuition. 65% of the incoming class received need-based aid, an 8% increase from 2025, according to Kristof.
Underenrollment is a nationwide problem. Experts have long warned of a “demographic cliff”– a drop in college applications caused by lower birth rates during the 2008 recession. Babies born during the recession are turning 18 and college enrollment across the country is projected to drop by 14% by 2041, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
What is more unique to CC is the rise in its acceptance rate. It has gone up nearly 11 percentage points since 2022 and the college’s yield, or the percentage of accepted students who enroll, has declined by 17 points, from 42% to 25% in the same time period.
To evaluate whether other liberal arts colleges had experienced similarly large changes in their admission rates, The Catalyst used data from the US Department of Education’s IPEDs database to compare CC’s performance with its self-designated peer group, a collection of 15 selective liberal arts colleges which CC uses to benchmark itself (see Fig. 1). The data, which runs from 2018-19 to 2025-26 (the last year available) shows that CC has experienced a greater decline in admissions performance than most peers.
Figure 1, Courtesy of Cameron Lara
While most of CC’s peer schools have kept their admit rates consistent or cut them significantly since 2018, CC’s admit rate rose about seven percentage points (counting the most recent 26-27 cycle, it has risen 11 percentage points).
While most colleges in the group experienced some decline in their yield (see Fig. 2), as might be expected given the broader pressures facing higher education, CC’s yield rate declined more than every other school in the group except Pitzer College.
Figure 2, Courtesy of Cameron Lara
With acceptance rates at all-time lows at many top-tier institutions across the country, these numbers suggest that CC is being hit harder by the current higher education climate and having greater difficulty convincing admitted students to attend CC (see Fig. 3).
Figure 3, Courtesy of Cameron Lara
Kristof says that there are several factors beyond the demographic cliff that explain the drop in admissions and enrollment. She also told The Catalyst that families are turned off by the almost $100,000 per year price tag and more students are turning down CC in favor of larger institutions in different parts of the country, like the Southeast, for example.
“This generation of applicants are going to large regional public [colleges] because they have a social scene that small private liberal arts colleges don’t,” Whitaker said.
Public faith in higher education has crumbled in recent years. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center study, 70% of Americans think that college education is headed in the wrong direction, up from 56% in 2020. All of this comes as the Trump Administration has devoted significant time to attacking and defunding institutions of higher education.
Kristof says the Office of Admissions is working to make CC more visible, expand their work with admitted students who are yet to commit and make better use of data and software systems to increase application numbers and yield. President Whitaker has also made returning the acceptance rate to under 20% a part of CC’s “Claim Our Space” strategic plan.
But for now, the continued drop in enrollment means that there’s less money to go around for academic departments, athletics and student life this year.
The Catalyst plans to continue following this story as it develops. Have something to say about admissions? Email v_bianco2023@coloradocollege.edu.