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The crackdown is long overdue, but there’s an important consequence: fewer nontraditional students will be able to go to college. Sure, but why would we want t

The crackdown is long overdue, but there’s an important consequence: fewer nontraditional students will be able to go to college. Sure, but why would we want to encourage anyone to attend "colleges" like Corinthians and University of Phoenix, if the effects are on average as harmful as described in the article? Not sure if this is just the author trying to shoehorn in some "debate" at the end of the article but it feels like it, given the details of the rest of the piece.

jccalhoun 11y ago
The whole article has a weird tone when it comes to its descriptions about for-profit colleges. It starts with "Not too long ago, for-profit colleges looked like the future of education." When was that? People that knew anything about for-profit colleges have known they were mostly ripoffs for years. What people might have thought is that online colleges were the future. Those aren't dependent on the for-profit model at all. Lots of real colleges offer online courses - and quite often for less money than for-profit ones. Those will still be around for nontraditional students even if all for-profit colleges were eliminated.
- johnward 11y ago
  > People that knew anything about for-profit colleges have known they were mostly ripoffs for years. The problem is many people, like myself and parents, didn't know this. I'm doing fine though but I would not recommend it to anyone.
- geomark 11y ago
  "...they were mostly ripoffs..." Maybe my experience is not the norm. I've heard a lot of bad things about schools like Phoenix and DeVry. But I went to DeVry (quite a few years ago) and got a 2-year tech diploma. They also offered a 4 year accredited BSEE at the school I attended (Arizona). It was failry challenging, a lot of people dropped out, but literally eveyone who graduated had a job offer waiting for them, several if you had decent grades. I had three offers from which to choose. It launched a nice career for me, including getting an employer to sponsor me to complete my BSEE. Things must have changed, because it was pretty solid at that time.
  - resolaibohp 11y ago
    What a lot of people seem to forget is that there are some for profit schools that are regionally accredited. This includes DeVry. Unfortunately all of the for profit school hate lumps them all together which makes people biased towards any for profit degree regardless of accreditation.

jccalhoun 11y ago

The whole article has a weird tone when it comes to its descriptions about for-profit colleges. It starts with "Not too long ago, for-profit colleges looked like the future of education." When was that? People that knew anything about for-profit colleges have known they were mostly ripoffs for years. What people might have thought is that online colleges were the future. Those aren't dependent on the for-profit model at all. Lots of real colleges offer online courses - and quite often for less money than for-profit ones. Those will still be around for nontraditional students even if all for-profit colleges were eliminated.

johnward 11y ago
> People that knew anything about for-profit colleges have known they were mostly ripoffs for years. The problem is many people, like myself and parents, didn't know this. I'm doing fine though but I would not recommend it to anyone.
geomark 11y ago
"...they were mostly ripoffs..." Maybe my experience is not the norm. I've heard a lot of bad things about schools like Phoenix and DeVry. But I went to DeVry (quite a few years ago) and got a 2-year tech diploma. They also offered a 4 year accredited BSEE at the school I attended (Arizona). It was failry challenging, a lot of people dropped out, but literally eveyone who graduated had a job offer waiting for them, several if you had decent grades. I had three offers from which to choose. It launched a nice career for me, including getting an employer to sponsor me to complete my BSEE. Things must have changed, because it was pretty solid at that time.
- resolaibohp 11y ago
  What a lot of people seem to forget is that there are some for profit schools that are regionally accredited. This includes DeVry. Unfortunately all of the for profit school hate lumps them all together which makes people biased towards any for profit degree regardless of accreditation.