My former college shut down! Yay!

[Joeman200]

I agree with you that 18 year olds are naive and impressionable, but I think that's an issue with our culture. You don't go out and buy a house or a sports car once you turn 18 (you're naive and impressionable)... you think about it and you save up for it. Yet today kids just run out into college... As a young man myself, I took a "gap year" to figure out what I wanted to do. I found degreeforum

[jsd]

I took a "gap year" to figure out what I wanted to do. I found degreeforum

I took like 10.

[Synicaal]

BIG Price Tags Means BIG Rewards/Worth right!! Today the kids think the more expensive something is the more valuable it is. So a 28k Associates or a 4k Associates. The kids are saying well the 28k HAS got to be much better then the 4k. That is where these For Profits are getting kids to enroll and get this large amount of debt. They think the more they spend on education the better it is.

[teacher2]

BIG Price Tags Means BIG Rewards/Worth right!! Today the kids think the more expensive something is the more valuable it is. So a 28k Associates or a 4k Associates. The kids are saying well the 28k HAS got to be much better then the 4k. That is where these For Profits are getting kids to enroll and get this large amount of debt. They think the more they spend on education the better it is.

Its sad but true for alot of folks ! I second Joeman's post. I live in a rural area where the closest town is a college town. A lot of the kids there are neck deep in debt which I did not understand until I set out to get a degree so I could teach and WOW!!!! I thought to myself "I am not about to get over my head in debt and four years down the road and maybe with a piece of paper. The problem comes when I try to tell these kids about alternative credit route and most of them look at me as if I am cheating the system!

[Outis]

BIG Price Tags Means BIG Rewards/Worth right!! Today the kids think the more expensive something is the more valuable it is. So a 28k Associates or a 4k Associates. The kids are saying well the 28k HAS got to be much better then the 4k. That is where these For Profits are getting kids to enroll and get this large amount of debt. They think the more they spend on education the better it is.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but which day (as opposed to today) did kids (legal adults in this context) ever not think that "more expensive something is the more valuable it is"?? BTW, the overwhelming demographic of for-profit enrollments are not 18-23 "kids", but straight up adults; often parents.

[sanantone]

Maybe I'm too cynical, but which day (as opposed to today) did kids (legal adults in this context) ever not think that "more expensive something is the more valuable it is"?? BTW, the overwhelming demographic of for-profit enrollments are not 18-23 "kids", but straight up adults; often parents.

This is true. For-profit college students do tend to be older. Most of my CJ students were under 24, but the average age at our school was 28. The for-profit, vo-tech schools play commercials targeting single mothers and out-of-work men. In the overpriced medical assistant programs, you'll see a lot of women in their mid-twenties to early thirties.

At the for-profits that offer 4-year and masters degrees, they target working adults. Even though there are hundreds or even thousands of state schools offering online programs, a lot of adults are still under the impression that for-profits are the only option for online programs because they advertise the most.

[jadae@wgu.edu]

A few big price tags are worth it, but they are not very common. The big price tags that are worth it are usually 1 of 3 things. 1. They come with very strong relationships to large businesses. 2. They have state-of-the-art science/tech research, or 3. Name value. This is more in line with legal and the like, for hiring hierarchy.

Anything less isn't worth the high price tag. I may have missed a tangent in there, but that's the general idea (that a big price tag should come with a big pay off -- not an implied one, which has become common practice).

[miah]

I think some of ya'll are being harsh. 18 year olds don't always have the moral support of family, community, high school, or friends, that could help them navigate and understand the academic world. So its very quite possible to be "taken" while still naive and impressionable to want to "do good".

I agree! Can we say FIRST GENERATION college students. 

PLUS.... These were people TRYING to BETTER themselves and their families! 

How can you blame people who don't know what their options are? 

How can you blame people that were LIED to by the admission staff? 

The college was being PREDATORY!

---

BIG Price Tags Means BIG Rewards/Worth right!! Today the kids think the more expensive something is the more valuable it is. So a 28k Associates or a 4k Associates. The kids are saying well the 28k HAS got to be much better then the 4k. That is where these For Profits are getting kids to enroll and get this large amount of debt. They think the more they spend on education the better it is.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but which day (as opposed to today) did kids (legal adults in this context) ever not think that "more expensive something is the more valuable it is"?? BTW, the overwhelming demographic of for-profit enrollments are not 18-23 "kids", but straight up adults; often parents.

Can we say FIRST GENERATION college students. 

PLUS.... These were people TRYING to BETTER themselves and their families! 

How can you blame people who don't know what their options are? 

How can you blame people that were LIED to by the admission staff? 

The college was being PREDATORY!

[a2jc4life]

It's true that people should educate themselves, but it's also true that we don't know what we don't know and we may not even realize we need to LOOK for the answer to certain questions until after the fact. I attended a nationally accredited school. Knowing what I know now, that probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but I didn't realize national and regional accreditation were two different things. The DOE treats them the same, so it never even occurred to me the national accreditation organization wasn't just another "region" designed for online institutions which, by nature, operate outside of geographic boundaries. I don't consider myself stupid or (in general) naive; I just didn't know enough about this to even know I needed more information.

(Costs are a whole different ballgame, unless a lot of the expense is being hidden somehow. Tuition and fees can be compared, and anyone with basic consumer awareness should be able to figure that out.)

[cardiacclep]

Glad to see a trend that these predatory places are getting shut down. It is terrible to see some programs and you know that they the people in them are not only wasting time but getting saddled with loans that cannot be defaulted. Just terrible. That's why I love this forum of people helping people navigate the murky waters of higher ed.