Each year, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center compiles a report on Americans with some college but no credentials (SCNC). Below are five of the most interesting statistics from its 2025 report.[1] 41.3 million: The size of America’s SCNC population, with 37.6 million under the age of 65. 2 Years in a Row: For two...Read More

A lot has changed at the Ed. Dept this year. Some for the better, some perhaps, for the worse. However, one change in particular is most certainly being viewed as a positive by short-term career-based schools: Changes in Pell Grants. You see, this past summer, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) which...Read More

Although well down from the peak in 2010, college enrollments seem to have finally turned the corner; with undergrad enrollments now creeping up, dare we say rising up, from 2021-2022 lows. This fall, in fact, some institutions have reported good-to-excellent enrollment growth year-over-year.[1] With a number of them even breaking freshmen enrollment records. “Fall 2025...Read More

It’s Halloween season. And ghosts are beginning to appear everywhere… including ghost students. No, not college co-eds dressed up in their scariest outfits for a night out with friends, but scammers who enroll in college just to defraud your institution (and the student loan system) out of millions. Yes, millions. It’s a problem that’s been...Read More

1,421%. That’s the increase in Gen Z enrollments in trade school programs over the past eight years. If you operate a trade school (or career-based college), these numbers, while indeed staggering, may come as no surprise… Gen Z is the toolbelt generation, after all, and has been enrolling in trade programs at historic levels. However,...Read More

Ask any high school student (or adult for that matter) if there’s a shortage of skilled tradespeople, and they’ll say yes, there is. And they’re right. As evidenced by the incredible “booming jobs market for skilled tradespersons”, noted by Forbes[1], and the rising pay for people who have those skills… there has indeed become a...Read More

Back in March, we, Conversion Media Group wrote you a piece titled, “What does the Education Department layoffs mean for higher Ed?” In it, we said, “For the past two or so months now, DOGE (or the department of government efficiency) has been trimming some fat from the federal government. “It’s been Elon Musk’s goal...Read More

Jim Delligatti was doing what everyone else was doing… and he was getting the pants beat off him as a result. You see, back in 1967, Delligatti, a Pittsburgh-based McDonald’s franchise owner had to stick to the corporate script. Make small hamburgers, sell small hamburgers. But he was losing customers to a sandwich shop down...Read More

College enrollment numbers for Fall 2025 have been good. Early estimates show 19.57 million undergrads are ready to hit the books: up about 290,000 students from the Fall of 2024. Now, new data from the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) show Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the high school class of 2025...Read More

For years, traditional higher education (colleges/universities) have enjoyed a massive “early investment” advantage over trade and career-based schools. Namely, the 529 savings plan. These plans, created decades ago by Section 529 of the IRS code, are “tax-advantaged” savings accounts that allow parents to contribute money to their kids’ college funds, beginning on the day of...Read More