Why Does My Coordinator Keep Trying to Talk Me Out of Going to a For-Profit College?

They advertise on daytime and late night TV.  Everybody’s seen commercial for DeVry, Remington, and University of Phoenix. But what are for-profit colleges? For profit colleges are businesses. The product they sell is education. Their goal is to provide an education, but also to generate a profit for their shareholders.

There are two types of for-profit schools:

1. Schools that provide what most people would associate with a community college or a state university: associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in business, criminal justice, nursing, or education.  Some offer an entire degree online; others have physical locations.
2. Schools that provide education and training in technical fields, such as nursing, cosmetology, or air conditioning repair. These schools offer certificates similar to community colleges, vocational schools, and career centers.

For profit schools have been criticized for low graduation rates and high tuition costs.  And students that go there need to take out a lot of loans to pay that tuition.

Why do people enroll at for-profits?

1. They have really great looking commercials.
2. Recruiters engage in high-pressure tactics.
3. The schools offer evening, weekend, and online classes.
4. Many programs promise that you can graduate with an associate’s degree in 16 months or less. Meaning you can get your degree and land a new job faster than at another school.
5. They don’t have any entrance requirements. You don’t even need to take the SAT, much less do well on it.

Well that sounds great! So why is my ETV coordinator so against them?

We find that most ETV students do not graduate as quickly as promised. Many need an extra semester or two. And every semester spent at a for-profit school really adds up.

Some students don’t graduate at all. Wasting all their hard work, time, and money. Then they have to pay on student loans.

There are big drawbacks to for-profit schools. What are they?

1. For-profit colleges cost more than other schools. A four-year degree at Remington College can cost almost 90,000. A four-year degree at a state school is more than half that. Students at for-profits account for nearly half of all student loan defaults but only about 12 percent of post- secondary students.
2. Lack of services. Public colleges offer a lot of services that for-profit schools typically don’t – services like a student health center, tutoring centers, counseling center, or libraries aren’t usually found at for-profit colleges
3. Credits don’t transfer. If you start taking classes at a for-profit college and decide to transfer to a different school, they might not accept your credits anywhere else. So, you’ll end up paying to take same the classes all over again.
4. The program might not be accredited. Some schools are not accredited by the appropriate government agencies. This means that you’ll have a harder time finding a job when you graduate. You won’t be able to take any industry certification exams for your career either.
5. You might have a harder time finding a job. Research suggests that for-profit students still see worse outcomes than their peers at public or nonprofit private schools. One study found that certificate-seeking students at for-profit schools are less likely to be employed after graduation than their counterparts at other kinds of schools. And when they do find jobs, their earnings are lower
6. Stigma over the degree. Employers don’t value a degree from a for-profit school as much as from a public college
7. Sometimes they close. Suddenly. In 2016, ITT Tech closed 127 campuses across the country. In 2015 Corinthian Colleges closed all their schools. Students at Heritage College found out

   

   their school closed when they arrived on campus to find a note on the doors. These closures left students with partially completed degrees and nowhere to finish them. Plus, they still had to pay on their student loans. When a school closes, you may not be able to transfer your classes to another school. And you will have a hard time getting copies of this like transcripts, or if they close after you graduate, a copy of your diploma.

Before you enroll in a for-profit school ask:

1. What is the total program cost? Some schools will only tell you the cost per credit hour, or the cost per course, letting you do the math yourself. Make them tell you the complete cost of the program up front.
2. What is the average debt load of a graduate? This lets you know how much debt the average graduate of this program ends up with in the end. The Financial Aid office should be able to tell you this.
3. Does my community college offer a similar program? More and more community colleges are offering classes at night, on weekends, and online.
4. Can I do this somewhere else? If you heart is set on an online degree program, look at your other options. Look at more than the community college in your area, there may be another school in your state that offers a similar program