The Salespeople at My Former Employer Lied to Prospective Students

[TMW2010]

As you know, I was in the same boat, but the school for which I worked was actually regionally accredited. I fought hard as an instructor to give the students the education they deserved for their money, but as always, the school was focused on the bottom line, $. I will say that I think that the experience did wonders for my own teaching ability as far as my outlook; I've become very student-centric and rather resourceful in my teaching, if I do say so myself. The way some of these places treat the students is an incredible disservice to them, and you're right; the students don't know better. They hear 'college' and they think that all schools are the same. They don't know/don't care about the differences in accreditation, or don't have the basic skills needed to find out and untangle the mess. Some are easily led by the idea of being able to achieve the American Dream of getting a college degree and a good job right out of the gate, and think that's basically all they have to do. Some are harassed by admissions until they break and sign up, where they're then harassed by the faculty to ensure they continue to at least get attendance so they aren't dropped - not because the school wants them to succeed, but because the school doesn't want to lose the numbers. Faculty are forced to cajole students who declare an intention to withdraw from school to ensure they finish out the course (attendance-wise) so they can start the cycle all over again. Some are just enrolled to get a stipend/disbursement from their FA (which, at the cost-per-credit at some of these schools ends up not being much at all) and play the attendance game until they get kicked out for violations of SAP (Satisfactory Academic Process) policy. I was always amused that admissions seemed to target women who were 7 months pregnant, knowing that they'd get through 1-2 classes, and probably not return after the birth of their child. That made retention efforts just so much fun..

I'm hoping I'm done with the for-profit industry. But, since it's my only official college-level teaching experience, I'm having a hard time breaking into the non-profit sector. So, I'm currently in the process of getting my state teaching certificate and looking at doing some time in 6-12 teaching (Psychology/Sociology, and if needed, computer courses). I figure it's a win-win, because a lot of the schools in my area are looking for a couple years of k-12 experience for teaching college courses in education, so hopefully that combined with my completed doctoral degree will get my foot in the door for teaching at a state school. Who knows, I may even switch to administrative capacity, and become one of the evil drains on state funding.