Is It Wise To Get A Student To Attend a For-Profit College?

graduation cap and cash roll, closeup

It was only maybe ten years ago that everyone touted the benefits of higher education. Well, it seemed that way, at least, but now this may not be the case.

For one, technology makes information more accessible. Now, information is not, necessarily education—because education is structured and regulated—but access to information and a desire to learn is all a student needs to learn.

That said, the university system in America is supposed to be designed to help students, as they leave high school and begin to truly prepare for the working world. Of course, high school graduates can be deterred by higher education because it is expensive. Obviously, student loans make attending college a little easier, but in order for them to make any sense at all, you have to be able to get work in your chosen field of study and earn a significant income.

Now, most colleges and universities in the United States are not-for-profit. That is not to say that schools don’t make money, but the system is designed to provide a means for students to pay a reasonable sum of money for experienced and knowledgeable professors and instructors.

There are, however, for-profit schools that sell themselves, often, as a fast-track to a career. Supposedly, the [extra] money you might invest in a for-profit school should help you start working sooner in your field of study.

Unfortunately, a new study says that for-profit schools do not stand up to the scrutiny they have faced. The 2015 Brookings study—conducted by economists Stephanie Riegg Cellini and Nicholas Turner—used the Department of Educatino and IRS data covering 1.4 million students to find that students of for-profit schools did not fare better in terms of earnings.

As a matter of fact, the study showed that 47 percent of student loan holders who exited a for-profit school, in 2009, defaulted on those loans within just 5 years. Maybe even more importantly, 74 percent of for-profit loan borrowers who exited in 2012 were found to actually owe more on their federal loans only two years later.

So, basically, the study warns that students—and especially loan-holders—should weigh their attendance at for-profit schools heavily. The Obama Administration has even gone so far as to develop new loan repayment rules—particularly for those with loans who attended a for-profit school—to help alleviate this issue. It is a plan which