Higher-Ed Hustle: a Miami Herald investigation into for-profit colleges
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L47KyF-o844Higher-Ed Hustle: a Miami Herald investigation into for-profit colleges
via @MrMikeVasquez
Students are a prized commodity at Florida’s for-profit colleges. Just two dozen can generate a million dollars in tuition by the time they are done.
In their zeal to fill classrooms, some schools do whatever it takes. That can mean deploying strippers as recruiters — according to a federal government complaint against Miami-based FastTrain — lying about job placement rates and using high-pressure, boiler-room sales tactics, including a psychological technique called the “pain funnel,” that can reduce a recruit to tears.
The sales force can also be warm and comforting.
“The guy was so slick, and I almost felt like he was my friend,” said Rose Grier, who claims she was tricked into taking on debt. “By the time the whole thing was done, I was like calling him by his first name, and we were laughing.”
Across the United States, for-profit colleges have been the target of dozens of government lawsuits and investigations aimed at curbing abuses. The typical complaint is that students — generally “adult learners” — get manipulated by schools that market aggressively and offer the illusory promise of a well-paying new career.
Everything about the sign-up process is quick and easy: The school fills out all the financial paperwork, then collects the loan proceeds directly. For-profit colleges offer convenient schedules and instant admission.
At budget-strapped community colleges, high-demand programs like nursing are at capacity. At Miami Dade College, only 41 percent of nursing applicants are accepted.
But at some for-profit schools, former students have complained they got a poor-quality education, with few or no job prospects. They’re left with tens of thousands of dollars in debt and no way to pay it back.
More here.
Read the full investigation here.
Posted by Patricia Mazzei on Monday, Apr. 27, 2015 at 7:49 AM
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2015/04/higher-ed-hustle-a-miami-herald-investigation-into-for-profit-colleges.html
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Its ? like this that needs to be attacked with brute force. These ? places are not accredited, and have tuition higher than some private universities. I do put blame on the people going as well though.
