How colleges are reconnecting with students who left before earning degrees
Across the country, more than 43 million Americans have stopped out of college. That means they have some credits but no degree. At the same time, many colleges are anxious about future enrollment numbers. One place trying to find prospective students? Get those millions of so-called stop-out learners back into school. As Kirk Carapezza of member station GBH reports, institutions have been partnering with a national organization to do just that.
KIRK CARAPEZZA, BYLINE: In 2022, Meredith Ruland enrolled at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a public liberal arts school, hoping to earn her bachelor’s. To pay her tuition and bills, Ruland worked nearly nonstop as a receptionist, a preschool aide, a pet sitter, at Trader Joe’s.
MEREDITH RULAND: Longtime part-time student is what I coin myself. I’ve done full-time semesters but kind of here and there. I’ve taken a lot of breaks for working.
CARAPEZZA: The 28-year-old has also taken breaks because of her disability.
RULAND: So I have a connective tissue disorder, which has been quite the adventure the last 10 years.
CARAPEZZA: In 2024, juggling work, her health and a full course load, she stopped out. Then last summer, she got a call.
RULAND: I didn’t know it was a real call. I thought it was like a solicitor, and I usually prank them. So I answered, and I was actually listening.
CARAPEZZA: It was a college coach from ReUp Education, a national organization that supports colleges and states with reenrollment efforts. The coach already knew about Ruland’s schooling and her credits, and they convinced her to reenroll.
RULAND: Just having somebody to be, like, listening and supportive and helping me get from point A to B to C or answering all my questions, I think that actually made a huge difference for me.
CARAPEZZA: The number of stop-out students has been growing in the U.S. That’s according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. At the same time, the population of graduating high school seniors is projected to shrink 18 years after the Great Recession, when U.S. birth rates plummeted. Reenrolling stop-out students could help solve an existential threat to higher education.
JONATHAN GOWIN: If institutions don’t get this right, reengaging the some-college no-degree population, then we will lose our institutions.
CARAPEZZA: Jonathan Gowin is an engagement director at Complete College America, an advocacy group that’s trying to close the college completion gap.
GOWIN: Our institutions were not built for nontraditional learners. They were built for traditional students on the pathway heading to college after high school.
CARAPEZZA: And the needs of those groups are very different.
TERAH CREWS: We’re going to meet learners – potential learners in this case – wherever they are.
CARAPEZZA: Terah Crews is the CEO of ReUp Education. Her organization has partnered with 150 institutions across 33 states, from North Carolina to Massachusetts to Illinois, to help bring adult students back. Crews says most schools have limited resources, and adult students usually need dozens of calls, emails or texts before reenrolling. And they also need help figuring out their schedules, credits and finances.
CREWS: Someone who’s got a full-time job or multiple part-time job and kids, they don’t immediately enroll in a couple weeks. They actually have to organize and intentionally design their life, and they have to think through it. This is the second biggest investment you will make in your life if you’re lucky enough to own a home.
CARAPEZZA: For Meredith Ruland in New Jersey, ReUp helped her figure out how to balance work and school.
RULAND: The No. 1 thing I really struggled with throughout the last 10 years was actually finding somebody who really supported and cared about my education.
CARAPEZZA: Today, Ruland is still working at Trader Joe’s, but she’s now on track to graduate this spring with a degree in environmental studies.
For NPR News, I’m Kirk Carapezza in Boston.
DETROW: Kirk Carapezza hosts GBH’s podcast College Uncovered. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
