AU professors are currently uncertain of exactly how the economic crisis will affect enrollment for the 2009-2010 academic year.
"With parents' stock portfolios plummeting, it makes private schools look out of reach with their tuition," said Martha Starr, an economics professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The cost of college is putting more of a strain on parents now because home values are dropping and college endowments are shrinking, she said.
"Parents used to take out a home equity loan to help bridge the difference between the scholarship and the tuition, but now they're not able to do that and it's a problem," Starr said.
Casey Clark, a freshman in the School of International Service, said she thinks the financial situation will not stop people from choosing to apply to or attend AU, but will force them to legitimately desire a degree from AU before committing to such a large amount of debt.
"I think that [high school seniors'] decisions will weigh on scholarship money and financial aid more so than it has in the past," she said. "They'll end up with more debt than us."
More 2009 high school graduates will go to college than any other class in history, according to USA Today. Fifty-seven percent of these students are considering less prestigious schools for financial reasons.
"The other issue is there has to be a lot of crowding in the application to state schools, but they only have so many slots, plus state budgeting is strained," Starr said. "So where does this leave all the extra students? Hopefully at AU."
She said she hopes prospective students will continue to view AU as an opportunity to change or fix the way society works.
"Being here in Washington at the outset of a new era, AU will look really good among private schools to deciding seniors," Starr said.
Clark said that if she were a high school senior this year and did not have her current scholarship to AU, she would have applied to more state schools.
"Even if you do get into some of the more well known schools, you'll still have to finance them," she said.
Helen Boyer, a freshman in SIS, said obtaining financial aid will be much more challenging for the class of 2013 because of the economic situation.
"If I had foreseen the financial crisis, the school I chose to attend might have changed," she said.
Graduate schools are expecting just the opposite: an influx in applications and accepted students, said Allison Gosney, a senior in CAS who is majoring in economics.
"Right now a lot of people are applying for grad school to avoid the unemployment of the economic recession," she said. "Your biggest issue is once you finally do graduate, what happens then?
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