Don’t believe the hype about college mayhem

It’s been a long, hot summer for America’s universities. Columbia, accused by the The President administration of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, settled with the federal government for a whopping $200 million, while Harvard is struggling to defend itself against allegations that it unduly favored some students based on ethnicity, in violation of the prohibition to consider race in college applications. Similar cases abound, making it seem as if our institutions of higher education are little more than heated ideological battlegrounds, offering students an uncertain future and therefore, considering the ever-rising price of tuition, a risky bet.

Apologies, then, for spoiling a perfectly good bout of alarmism. I’m afraid I have a bit of good news: The kids are all right.

First, more of them will be heading over to the quad in the next few weeks than at any other time in recent memory. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center[DA1] , freshman enrollment rose by 5.5% in fall 2024 and total enrollment rose 4.5%, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

What explains this optimism and commitment to higher education, even as so much of the news coming from colleges these days is grim? Simple: Contrary to what some pundits would have us believe, young Americans aren’t heated partisans looking for an unending string of political kerfuffles, nor are they spoiled brats who feel entitled to life’s fineries. They are, in fact, hardworking, tough minded, and practical.

I know this because my company, Scion owns and operates apartment housing for college students—more than 94,000 apartments in 82 colleges and universities across 35 states—which means we have about a decade’s worth of hard data about college students and the choices they make, providing far more valuable insights than talk radio hyperbole or politically motivated op-eds.

WHAT THE DATA SHOWS

What, then, does the data tell us about our young?

Let’s start with the most fundamental question, namely what is it that college students actually value? To hear many in the mainstream press tell it, the members of Generation Z are a gaggle of divas in training, chasing, as one recent headline breathlessly put it, “amenities, aesthetics, and their own mini universe.” Unless an apartment building comes with its own organic vegetable garden or a soy latte station, it won’t pass muster with the young and the restless.

The numbers, thankfully, tell a very different story. Everywhere you look, college students across the country from all socioeconomic backgrounds are a much more sober and serious-minded bunch. Our data shows that their ideal property is a rental going for somewhere around $850 to $925 a month, typically at or slightly above the average local rent. Proximity to their school is valued; extravagant amenities are not. That is, with a few caveats: As our numbers [DA2] show, 14.8% of the decision to choose one residential accommodation over another is predicated on access to study rooms and fitness centers, two perks that are emblematic of a focused, healthy lifestyle. Safety, too, is a major concern, with students prioritizing buildings that take safety and security seriously.

Swing suites, rock climbing walls, and other lavish treats account for about 3% of the decision, proving that young Americans, so often maligned as failing to—as the slang term goes—”adult,” are actually much more adept at making sensible, well-rounded decisions than we give them credit for.

The same insight emerges when we analyze our most active and in-demand student rental markets. Sure, there are a few glittery campuses in Cambridge, Massachusetts or New Haven, Connecticut that still attract much more than their share of coverage and attention, but American students are overall uninterested in this hullaballoo. For the most part, they still see college as precisely the platform it was always designed to be: a place to gain an education that will catapult them to a better, more lucrative future. This makes universities like Texas A&M, that offer students a good and practical education at a reasonable price, much more attractive than you’d think if you simply read the mainstream press and shared its obsession with the Ivies.  

RETHINK THE APPROACH

I’m sharing these statistics not only as a general cultural panacea, but also as an invitation to rethink our approach to a growing and often misunderstood marketplace. This year, college enrollment in the U.S. across undergraduate and graduate levels surpassed pre-pandemic rates for the first time, rising by 4.5%, or 817,000 students. All signs suggest that the number will continue to grow.

Which leaves us with a critical question: Will we continue to treat young American adults as a generation oscillating between ideological inflammations and self-involved consumption? Or will we recognize them as what they actually are, a much more astute, responsible, and practical bunch than we graybeards sometimes like to admit?

The answer is crucial for anyone interested in marketing anything to Generation Z, from a college degree to an apartment. We have the technology we need to help us offer products and services based on real, actionable insights, and cater to a new generation of Americans coming into its own. And we can easily fix a lot of what’s ailing college students. But that would require focusing on housing, not hype, and on products instead of prejudices. It’s time we listened to the data and welcomed a new cadre of eager men and women into the fold as equal partners in the never-ending and miraculous project that is growing the American economy.

Rob Bronstein is the CEO of The Scion Group.

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