Why do people attend "for profit" universities?

[sanantone]

Why aren't companies like UoP, Argosy, Capella, etc. losing students with the recent number of public not for profit universities that offer online programs. I just don't get it.

I was looking at a friend's profile on Facebook. He received a Masters from Argosy. I didn't know anything about Argosy and I've been on the hunt for Grad Schools so I decided to go check it out. Tuition: as high as 995 per credit hour!

I have a cousin who could have gone to a community college to get her AA because our community college was only 66/credit hour but she chose UoP. She could have benefited from the fact that the community college lets you transfer your AA as a block to any of the 16 colleges that make up UNC System.

I see so many friends on facebook attending these for profit universities and I just don't understand it. Why are people so willing to just throw money away and end up with tens of tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.

How can we get the word out that there are MUCH better options.

UoP has lost about half of its enrollment numbers. They went from having almost 500k students to having 200k and something students in a few years. The main reason why most for-profit college students ended up choosing those schools is simple: advertisement. Many people don't bother to check to see if their local colleges offer online, weekend, and/or evening courses. Their assumption is that traditional colleges are not going to be flexible enough for them. They end up seeing UoP or similar advertising on t.v., a billboard, or online and think those types of schools are their only option. I'm used to hearing for-profits students say that so and so school was their only option. When I spout off this large list of non-profit colleges with online programs, they are dumbfounded.

Another big reason is that for-profits make the admissions process easy. Everything is streamlined. Their salespeople are really good at getting prospective students to commit quickly. As Publius2k4 said in his Capella thread, you're not even given time to think. If you don't enroll right away, they will repeatedly call, email, and mail you solicitations. I inquired about Kaplan College once and they mailed me brochures for like 2 years. I've noticed that some non-profits are resorting to these sales tactics. Back to the admissions process, for-profit schools will hold your hand through the whole admissions, financial aid, and course registration process. APUS will even order your transcripts for you. For those who do not have family members with college backgrounds, the admissions and financial aid process can seem daunting. These students tend to also not know anything about national accreditation vs. regional accreditation vs. unaccredited, programmatic accreditation, what's considered a reasonable tuition rate, and for-profit vs. non-profit.

One last big reason is that 99% of for-profit colleges have bare minimum admissions standards. They also don't require placement tests, therefore, there are no remedial courses. It's either sink or swim. Some people become frustrated with community colleges because they are made to take a semester or more of remedial courses after scoring poorly on a placement test. UoP has indirectly admitted that many of its students are not ready for college-level work by setting up a special curriculum for those without at least 15 transfer credits, IIRC. This was their new plan to increase retention after for-profit colleges started facing increased scrutiny from the media and federal government. The bad part is that these courses aren't in addition to whats in the regular program; they are in replacement of those courses. These courses have strange names, so they are sometimes difficult to transfer. While I had no problems with TESC and COSC recognizing my writing courses from Western International University as English Comp courses, two community college systems in Texas would not accept them. WIU is owned by the same company that owns UoP.

Concerning for-profit grad schools, the GPA requirements are usually not that high and a graduate admissions test is rarely required. You might not even need letters of recommendation. There are non-profits that might even be cheaper with really low admissions requirements, but some people just don't take the time to search for them.

In rare cases, the for-profit college might actually be cheaper or offer the only option. There are a lot of schools accredited by DETC that don't offer financial aid, but they are exceptionally cheap and offer payment plans. Their goal is to not leave their students in debt. I noticed that brick and mortar for-profits accredited by ACCSC and ACICS tend to offer day and night classes and other things like laptops and daycare included in the tuition, although, their tuition rates are usually ridiculous.