The Salespeople at My Former Employer Lied to Prospective Students

[sanantone]

Thanks. I already knew some of this stuff, but I got to put real faces to the stories. Most of my students came from low-income families with no college attendees to guide them. Some of them tried to enroll at the community colleges, but they don't provide nearly the same amount of handholding as for-profit colleges. They didn't know where to fill out an application (it's the Texas Common Application which is offered online and there is no application fee at the local CCs), they didn't know how to get financial aid, they didn't know what testing was required of them, and they didn't know how to choose programs or courses. They could have found out all of this stuff by going to the websites. I don't know why they didn't bother to even compare the tuition rates. They saw a school advertise on t.v., they called the school, and the salespeople bugged the hell out of them until they enrolled. For-profit colleges make the enrollment process painless. They set up your degree plan and help you secure financial aid in a matter of days. I did have one student who tried attending one of the CCs, but she failed so many courses and dropped out. She's still failing courses at this school for not turning in her work on time, but they give you a chance to correct your grade instead of making you take the course all over again.

Their lives are filled with poor choices. That sounds harsh, but it's true. Many of them are on welfare and have had multiple children before the age of 21, but they didn't come from the best environments. Almost all of them have close family members in prison.