Jelani Pritchard
Professor Werry
20 Oct. 2014
For-Profit Schools
In
"Why Do You Think They're Called For-Profit Colleges," a 2010 article
published in The Chronicle of Higher
Education, Kevin Carey argues that although For-Profit colleges have major
flaws in their system, the higher level education is here to stay. It is
claimed that For-Profit school systems are a huge fraud and have victimized
college students. These For-Profit schools have been accused with a flawed
recruiting process, leaving students with huge amounts of debt, or even leaving
them unemployed with a degree in their hand. For-Profit schools such as University
of Phoenix, Kaplan College, Corinthian College, Grand Canyon University, etc
are now ran like a business with the main goal of gaining profit instead of
giving students quality education for the price they paid for. With For-Profit
schools having 90% of the revenue coming from federal government assistance,
rewarded Pell Grants and loans taken out from students are used to pay off
their tuition is. Many of the students have taken out loans from the government
with the kind help of the school itself. Schools target young adults who have
the strong desire to receive a higher education, even with the possibility that
they are not suited to receive it. College acceptant rates at For-Profit
universities are almost at 100% with the schools not even bothering to ask for
students' high school transcripts. Many of the students that are enrolled come
from a low-income family, but that does not stop them from targeting them for
loans. For-Profits are out to look for themselves, even with faulty recruiting
tactics. Never the less to say, even with problems with the creditability or
quality of education they provide, the treatment of students, and the profit
first mentality, For-Profits are here to stay. Carey believes that the schools
are here now and that the fact of the matter is that there needs to be
acceptance of it. For-Profit does indeed give students another option to
receive a higher level of education and also does give them a more specific
career path to fulfill. For-Profit schools play a big role in the technology
and organizational innovation. They are here to help fix failures left by
traditional public or private college/universities, which baits students into
consider in enrolling in a For-Profit institution. In this paper I will analyze
Carey's text by either illustrating, extending, or complicating his claims by
bringing in several outside sources that will support my analysis.
Excerpts from a government accountability
report on For-Profit universities, published in the full article, "For-Profit
Colleges: Undercover Testing Finds Colleges
Encouraged Fraud and Engaged in Deceptive and Questionable Marketing Practices,"
obtains several pieces of evidence that complicates Carey's claim of us not
having the credibility to determine if the quality of education given by
For-Profit schools are less than traditional institutions. It is argued that
finding employment after graduation of a college is in the sole responsibility
of the individual, but several For-Profit schools deceived possible
recruitments in order to gain their interest. In an undercover
study/experiment, an applicant was told deceiving or questionable information
on about employment and prospective salaries after graduation by 5 different
For-Profit schools. One small for-profit school that specializes in beauty told
the applicant that barbers can earn up to $150,000 to $250,000 a year, while
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 10% of Barbers make more than
$43,000 a year. Another For-Profit school deceived an undercover representative
by telling them that instead of obtaining a criminal justice degree, they
should consider a medical assisting certificate that would only take 9 months
to complete at the college, earning up to $68,000 a year. With data found by
the BLS, 90% of all people working in this field make less than $40,000 a year,
contradicting the deceiving information told.
Carey does make a point of For-Profit schools not being responsible for
finding employment for individuals after their graduation or obtainment of
degree. But the schools do indeed make several guarantees or false information
to possible future For-Profit students in the recruiting process. Allowing
individuals to question the quality or credibility of the degree they earned at
the For-Profit institution they attended.
No comments:
Post a Comment