First-Time Adult Enrollment Dropped This Fall. Should Colleges Be Worried?
Johanna Alonso
May 6, 2026
Nearly 16 percent fewer adults started college for the first time this fall compared to the previous year. Some say the change represents rightsizing after an enrollment boom, but others say it’s a reversal worth keeping an eye on.
n the economic upheaval that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, adult students flocked to higher education in droves. Every fall from 2021 to 2024, the number of first-time students over the age of 25 grew—including a substantial jump in fall 2024, when new students older than 25 grew 18.7 percent over the previous year, according to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data.
But this past fall, that trend reversed. The number of first-time learners over the age of 25 dropped by 15.5 percent from fall 2024 to fall 2025. And though some experts see that decrease as a rightsizing of the post-COVID enrollment boom, others say it’s a trend worth paying attention to, especially at a time when institutions are increasingly relying on adult enrollment to
