Reddit mentions of After Admission: From College Access to College Success

Great question!

Ok, so my general advice for anyone seeking to go to college is to go to a private non-profit or public school. The evidence is pretty strong that, on average, this is the better route.

BUT I really do think it's going too far to say all for-profit institutions are scams. In fact, there are even some advantages to them:

• They tend to have higher completion rates than community colleges. One reason is that they have a lot of incentive to retain students because they really want your tuition $$ (usually paid by federal financial aid); they're far more dependent on that tuition for revenue than publics. But that means that if you're the kind of student who might slip through the cracks, I.e. who just might not get around to enrolling in classes for the next semester and then never come back, for-profits might offer some advantage to you.
  
  
• they can be somewhat faster and more responsive in adapting to changing labor markets
  
  
• access. Usually I point to the really high marketing costs at for-profits as a negative, but you could also spin it in some ways into a positive. In particular, for-profits are really good at reaching out to low-income, minority, parents with kids, and otherwise disadvantaged communities where a lot of people feel like college isn't for them and saying "hey you! Yes, you! YOU can go to college and deserve to go to college!" and that can be a very positive message in the public interest.
  
  So, yeah. I wouldn't go to a for-profit college personally, nor send my kid to one, but I don't think it's fair to call them scams. If you visit a for-profit college and talk to the faculty and advisors, they are generally sincere and totally committed to student success.
  
  
  
  Ps. If you're interested in further reading, check out James Rosenbaum's work on this topic. https://www.amazon.com/After-Admission-College-Access-Success/dp/0871547554