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Study: For-Profit Colleges Offer Weak Job Prospects, Pay
A new study has revealed that graduates of for-profit colleges find it harder to get work — and should expect lower pay when they do.
A new study by the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE) has found that students who attend for-profit colleges are less likely to be employed and have lower earnings six years after enrolling than similar students who attend public and not-for-profit colleges.
The study, which used data from the 2004 to 2009 Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal survey, also found that these students carry heavier debt burdens and are more likely to default on their student loans.
For-profit colleges have experienced a boost in enrollment in recent years, currently educating 13 percent of all college attendees – an increase of about 8 percent in ten years. And this analysis has found that for-profit colleges serve a larger fraction of students who tend to struggle in college: minority, older, and independent students who are disproportionately single parents, have lower family incomes and are twice as likely to have a GED.
“The analysis indicated that students who attend for-profit schools are more likely to persist through their first year and to earn certificates and associate degrees than their counterparts at community colleges.
“However, despite these higher completion rates, for-profit students are more likely to experience long term unemployment and report less satisfaction with their education in the six years after they enroll.”
The study found that for-profit graduates also recorded higher rates of loan defaults. The researchers found that almost 25 percent of for-profit students default on their loans within three years.
“This rate is 10.5 percent higher than that of similar students who attend public or non-profit institutions and accounts for almost half of all student loan defaults.”
While 26 percent of all federal student aid goes to for-profit tuition, making up three quarters of the sector’s revenue, the analysis suggested that the poor employment and earning outcomes of for-profit students may explain their high rates of loan defaults.
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Comments
Those penalties the DOE keeps theatening to impose on for-profits? Can’t come soon enough. Seriously, nothing but a scam. Sally Struthers can stuff her air-conditioning and refrigiration repair up her…
Ooops, did I just date myself?
If the govermnment is going to penalize schools for their rates of loan default, they should penalize all schools and not single out for-profits. A lot of for-profits are the only means of secondary education for people because they offer flexible and online classes. I saw the statistics on these schools before but correlation doesn’t equal causation.
@ Joe – NEWSFLASH: the government DOES penalize ALL schools equally for rates of loan defaults. Any school who goes over 35% of defaults in a three year period faces penalties. It’s just that almost ALL of the schools penalized are those fraud-infested for-profits.
They are ALL scams, it’s true, they prey on unknowing, unsophisticated students who badly want to improve their lives. The thing is that the for-profits do not deliver an even acceptable education. The degrees of how substandard may vary by individual school, but they are ALL in business just to rake in PROFITS not to provide a good educational experience.
I have worked at several for-profits and I could tell stories that would make you cry regarding the lengths these predatory schools will go to to get and keep Federal money rolling into their accounts. It should be a crime and the billionaire CEOs of these schools should be put UNDER THE JAIL.
Considering they have higher graduation rates than conventional community colleges even though they serve basically the same demographic, could it be possible (just possible) that the reason that for-profit college graduates have worse job prospects and higher rates of loan defaults is because too many employers are buying into your prejudiced view that for-profit colleges don’t produce quality employees? That the education these students receive are a scam? And maybe that prejudice doesn’t have anything to do with the actual quality of the education they receive?
Joe,
Perhaps for-profit colleges have higher graduation rates than community colleges because the students who enroll in them are, as a group, more serious about their education than those who enroll in CCs. For-profits are typically expensive, meaning those who enroll are investing a lot of resources in their education–they’re serious about furthering their lives and careers. Many CC students, on the other hand, are taking advantage of the relatively affordable classes offered at CCs to simply explore different subjects, try a bit of this and a bit of that, and “figure things out.” For-profits tend to attract a certain kind of student–highly motivated, among other things. CCs certainly have plenty of driven, highly motivated students, but their low barriers to entry also make them a magnet for part-timers and others who are “just curious” about this whole higher education thing.
If this is the caliber of students for-profits attract, than that makes my point even stronger. I think the for-profit school graduates are victims of unfounded bias and not sub-par education.
who is surprised that ” for profit” and education don’t belong together
For an example of such biased opinion, see tiredteacher comment above.
Clearly there’s a risk of over-generalizing for-profits as delivering poor-quality education, but the concerns are legitimate. For one, for-profits are–by definition–providing education solely for the money. This can lead them to take steps that help the bottom line but significantly hurt the quality of instruction. For example, for-profits often rely heavily on adjunct/part-time instructors with little teaching experience. As someone who’s taught for a living, I can say with total confidence that teaching is as much a “profession” as doctoring or lawyering; it takes years of experience to get truly good at it, and most adjunct/part-time instructors don’t have that experience. There’s a big difference between “doing” and “teaching.” That’s not a knock on teaching, just a fact. Do non-profit colleges use part-time teachers? Of course, but not to the extent that for-profits do.
Kevin, I think a more valid comparison would be how often do non-profits use non-tenured, or non-tenure track teachers for actual instruction. After all, most tenured professors dedicate less time to their teaching duties than research, from which the school gets both funds and prestige. Actual instruction seems to be strictly secondary. Recalling my own education, I think it wasn’t until the last year and a half of my major that I had classes that weren’t mostly taught by adjuncts, lecturers or assistant professors who were all amply assisted by graduate students. I’m not prepared to admit that non-profits are comfortable ahead when it comes to teaching talent.
I totally agree that too many adjuncts, part-timers, and grad students are teaching at non-profits as well, and that many full time professors, especially at major research universities, focus more on research than on teaching, to the detriment of students. I went to a well-regard R1 school, and the quality of classroom instruction was mediocre at best overall. This is a problem at non-profits and for-profits alike. However, I still maintain that for-profits are that much more willing to “phone it in” re: teaching quality, because their stated mission and purpose is making money, not educating or advancing knowledge. They’ll do whatever they have to do to turn a profit. In many cases, that means hiring inexperienced teachers on part-time, non-benefits bases. Instructional quality is an issue at all schools, but the realities of business make it that much more of a concern at for-profits.
[...] See, Study: For-Profit Colleges Offer Weak Job Prospects, Pay http://www.educationnews.org/higher-education/study-for-profit-colleges-offer-weak-job-prospects-pay... [...]
joe referencing my opinions as biased, pot kettle black
for profit by its very nature implies the primary concern of the institution is turning a profit. Education is not a product, children (even young adults like in college) are not a product. you can not address education like a business it will invariably lead to failure.
or like in this case, ripping off the students
Kevin, I think we might have a chance to find out soon enough. Have you seen this article?
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/durbin-calls-for-careful-review-of-university-of-phoenix/
It looks like Joe and Kevin are the only ones that can discuss things. There are members of my family (me included) that work both at state schools and for profit schools. They both have their strengths and for profit schools are getting better and yes….more ethical in their business practices as public scutiny increases. Judging by the current landscape it seems like the for-profit sector will be in a better position to offer a quality product at a lower cost as most of them are not state funded and therefore can survive state bankruptcy and sweeping cost cutting.
[...] recent study on for-profit colleges concluded that graduates from these programs “find it harder to get [...]
[...] by the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE). As reported in Education News, almost 25% of for-profit students default within 3 years, which is 10.5% higher than students from [...]
[...] by agencies with no standards, they spit these students back out with unsustainable debt, and just as few job prospects as they had before. While what many for-profits do is usually legal, except that fraud on financial documents part, [...]