Are Big For-Profit Colleges Dying?

[eLearner]

I think the media has done a good job of demonizing for-profit colleges. First they tried to demonize online learning altogether, that failed, and then they moved into phase two, attacking for-profits. Your tax status doesn't automatically mean you're a good school or bad school since both for-profits and non-profits have their share of good and bad. Ashford University, for example, could switch to any status it wants, it will still be a crummy operation.

Unfortunately, the public is mostly brain-dead and can't think for themselves, so whatever mass media tells them is what they go with. "For-profits are bad, run!" Then they go to a non-profit, get a substandard education and a wild debt and wonder what the hell just happened?

The media doesn't need to do anything. The stats speak for themselves. When 2-year for-profits are compared to community colleges (these two types of colleges have similar student bodies), for-profit graduates have worse employment outcomes. It just doesn't make sense to spend more for a worse outcome. It doesn't even make sense to spend more for the same outcome.

The general public isn't reading stats. They see an exposé on 20/20 on a couple of bad for-profit schools, and suddenly they conclude that all for-profits are bad and a scam. That's essentially what's happened, because the average person is not aware of things like what alexf.1990 pointed out. 

Some 2-year for-profits simply offer programs the local community college doesn't, so that can be part of the draw at times.

While for-profit schools may carry higher tuition rates in aggregate, the misconception the public has is that all non-profits are cheaper based on that, and it's simply untrue. It's also untrue that non-profit = better education. Employment outcomes may be better through non-profits, but that's probably a result of a combination of misconceptions held by employers being applied to the whole based on some of the bad programs, coupled with a less-connected alumni base and fewer overall connections given that many for-profit schools do most of their teaching online.