The trend was helped along by the onset of Covid and the ensuing reaction that the country had to the virus. As CNBC reports, colleges that were already struggling heading into the pandemic found that lockdowns were the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". 

Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review, told CNBC: "There are two significant issues affecting higher education right now, specifically, through the admission and enrollment offices." 

He continued: "Number one, it is the admission cliff, and that is the impending decline [in the number of prospective students]. We'll be graduating our lowest high school classes by population in 2025. And most enrollment professionals have been wringing their hands about this date of 2025, but many schools have seen those enrollment declines already."