Dive Brief:

• Demographic forces mean colleges are on the hunt for that increasingly rare beast: a high school graduate from the Midwest.
• A smaller class of 2012 was the first decline in high school graduates, and the trend is expected to worsen in 2025 when the impact of declining birth rates from the 2007 recession begins to be felt.
• The repercussions are felt far beyond the Midwest: Harvard said its 2.1% drop in applications was led by a 5.8% drop in Midwestern applicants, while Dartmouth said a 14% decline in total applications was in part from a 20% drop.

Dive Insight:

Expect to see more stories about falling enrollment as this trend continues. Brian Prescott of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education puts the problem succinctly to Bloomberg: "You can’t create 18-year-olds in a lab. Enrollment managers are facing an awful lot of pressure that they can’t do much about."