Any decrease in the pool of high school graduates, especially in Pennsylvania, will increase the tuition for in-state students and force the university to do more out-of-state recruiting, Kendig added.

The university is focusing on recruiting students by dedicating more resources to the effort, Vice Provost and Dean for Enrollment Management John Romano said.

Faculty around the state and current students interacting with prospective students are becoming much more important in the recruiting process, he added.

Gordon De Jong, professor of sociology and demography, said the changing demographics will most directly affect elementary and secondary education.

Commonwealth Campuses in areas where the trend is most significant will most likely experience a declining number of applications, he said.

"It will be different for McKeesport, Schuylkill, and University Park," De Jong said. "But for University Park, it is unlikely to be that much affected because it draws applicants from a much wider area."

Kendig said that as Pennsylvania's population begins to age, Penn State will be forced to change some of its recruitment methods.

"It is only a matter of adapting our priorities and strategies for success," he added.

While the number of traditional college-aged people is decreasing, the last several decades have shown larger percentages of the college-aged population seeking post-secondary education, James Gearity, bureau of postsecondary education director at the Pennsylvania Department of Education said.

He added that an increasing number of older, working adults are returning to college to obtain additional skills for their careers.

"We expect that both those trends will continue, and that college enrollment will at the very least stay steady, even grow," Gearity said. "However, this does not mean enrollment at all colleges will grow."

He said it is expected that community colleges will be increasingly popular both for working adults because of the flexibility and for college students because of lower tuition.

"But universities with a national, even international, reputation -- and that would certainly include Penn State -- will continue to experience more student demand than they can accommodate, so their degrees will remain prestigious," Gearity added.