Education: The Student Shortage

For graduating high school seniors, the once-traditional spring/summer struggle to get into college—any college —appears to have gone the way of the draft and campus demonstrations. With fall sessions at some schools only weeks away, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors reported last week that there are still about 500,000 openings for freshmen and transfer students at colleges and universities across the country. The figures mark the second straight year of declining college enrollments. California alone has at least 40,000 vacancies. Even in New England, some 25,000 places are going begging, although the area's Ivy League and other prestigious...