The University of Georgia expects a record 44,500 students this fall and the University of South Carolina welcomes 7,800 freshmen to its 40,000-student Columbia campus—and the press cheers both as milestones while American families take on debt they may never shake off.
Record enrollment is record revenue for university administrators. More bodies mean more tuition checks, more federal loan dollars flowing through the pipeline, and more justification for expanded budgets, new buildings, and bigger administrative payrolls. UGA opened a new 565-bed dormitory, a dining hall, a wellness center, and an entirely new School of Medicine this year, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. Somebody pays for all of that—and it isn't the administrators signing the contracts.
UGA received more than 51,400 freshman applications for roughly 6,200 seats, the Banner-Herald reported. That's demand that lets the university keep raising the price of admission. USC's Columbia campus draws students from 45 states, WIS10 reported, with families driving from Pennsylvania and elsewhere to move their kids into dorms. A mother told WIS10 she'd been stockpiling supplies since June. Nobody asked her what the total bill came to, or how much of it is financed through federal loans that can't be discharged in bankruptcy.
The local press covers move-in day like a feel-good feature. WIS10 quoted a university communications director calling it
