R.I.P., gainful employment rule

It’s a sad day for educators who want to hold for-profit colleges accountable for program quality, student debt repayment, and student employment outcomes.

This week, Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education, officially repealed the Obama administration’s 2014 gainful employment rule. The rule has required providers of career and certificate programs (many operated by for-profit institutions) to prove their graduates could find gainful employment. If graduates’ employment rates fell below certain standards, the institutions risked losing access to federal student loan funding, the lifeblood of the for-profit sector. For the past two years, the Trump administration has refused to carry out the rule, even though it has the force of law (Kvaal & Duncan, 2019). Now the rule is repealed, effective immediately.

DeVos and others have offered several arguments for the repeal of the rule, including freedom of choice, lack of fairness, and higher education purposes and outcomes. I offer some thoughts based on responses of educators, economists, and my own experience as a former teacher at a for-profit career college and a graduate of a for-profit university.

Students should be “free to choose”

DeVos and others have claimed that students should be “free to choose” their higher education institutions (Kvaal & Duncan, 2019). DeVos has used this argument when discussing schoolchildren and school choice. “Our country needs students to be freed to pursue the education that will unlock their potential and unleash their creativity” (DeVos, Cruz, & Byrne, 2019, para. 21). However, the gainful employment rule applies to higher education institutions, specifically those that offer vocational programs.

Students who are contemplating enrolling in a college or university are presumably adults with autonomy to choose. Maybe they don’t receive or can’t find accurate guidance on differences between for-profit and nonprofit institutions, but the information is available. Nobody held a gun to my head when I enrolled in a for-profit university. I didn’t do my homework.

Thus, this argument is specious.

For-profits face an “unfair playing field”

DeVos and others have claimed the gainful employment rule “discriminates against the for-profit colleges that offer many career programs because it does not apply to all colleges” (Kvaal & Duncan, 2019, para. 3). Some have said the rule unfairly targets the for-profits, thereby creating an “uneven playing field” (Vedder, 2019, para. 4).

Critics have pointed out the absurdity of this argument. “It’s a bizarre complaint, like saying that it is unfair that there are different traffic laws for trucks than for cars. For-profit schools are structured differently, in ways that make them more hazardous” (Cao & Shireman, 2019, para. 2). Having taught at a for-profit college and earned an advanced degree at a for-profit university, I have firsthand knowledge that for-profit education is different from nonprofit education in some fundamental and disappointing ways. (See my previous contribution on the topic here.)

In place of the gainful employment rule, the Department of Education has created the “College Scorecard” to give students information on each program’s debt and earning prospects (Green, 2019). However, wading through reams of data on program outcomes is not easy. The gainful employment rule required all providers of career education (for-profit and nonprofit) to disclose program outcomes on their websites. Had that data been available to me in 2005, I might have made a different choice about applying to a for-profit university. Students need guidance. Unfortunately, nontraditional students often rely on the advice of someone they perceive as an expert, “frequently the school recruiter” (Cao & Shireman, 2019, para 40).

Some proponents of eliminating the gainful employment rule have claimed that nonprofits have their share of bad apples too (Vedder, 2019, para. 5). Further, the gainful employment rule did not account for other programs with poor employment rates and high debt, such as “some liberal arts degrees” (Green, 2019, para. 15).

However, comparing for-profits to nonprofits without drilling down to compare institutions at the program level is not helpful. In other words, comparing bad employment outcomes at “public universities” to bad employment outcomes at career colleges perpetuates misinformation.

It’s laughable to imagine comparing the my for-profit career college employer to the for-profit university I attended for my doctorate. It’s equally ridiculous to compare either one to the public universities I attended for my undergraduate degrees. We may have complaints about any institution, but when comparing institutions, we should try to compare apples to apples. It’s not about “fairness”; it’s about accuracy.

This argument is based on a faulty comparison.

There’s more to higher education than just employment

Some supporters of rescinding the gainful employment rule have claimed higher education is about more than getting job skills; good schools teach “virtue, civic responsibility, and other things” (Vedder, 2019, para. 3). The argument is that the gainful employment rule failed to account for “factors other than the quality of an education that could affect students’ earning potential” (Green, 2019, para. 15). Therefore, trying to regulate employment outcomes with the gainful employment rule misses the ostensible point and purpose of higher education, which is more than just students getting jobs and paying back their loans. Moreover, critics claim, the higher earnings of college graduates are not entirely attributable to college education; some students would have earned more without the college degree (Vedder, 2019, para. 2).

I agree, higher education is about more than just employment and loan payback outcomes. I also agree that some students will succeed and thrive no matter what type of institution they attend. However, again, comparing career and technical colleges that provide job skills (whether they are for-profits and nonprofits) with, say, research universities (whether they are for-profits and nonprofits) is a faulty basis for deciding for-profit institutions don’t require scrutiny.

The evidence seems clear. Of all the colleges that have closed since 2013, 95.5% of them were for-profit institutions (Newton, 2018, para. 9). Further, the majority of students who defaulted on their student loans three to five years after graduation went to for-profit colleges (Newton, 2018, para. 9).

In fact, students entering associates degree programs derived large, statistically significant benefits from obtaining certificates or degrees from public and nonprofit institutions but did not gain such benefits from for-profit institutions (Lang & Weinstein, 2012).

The federal government should have no role

DeVos and others have claimed the federal government should not be regulating universities at all (Vedder, 2019). The job of regulating higher education should be left to the states. However, the federal government funds the for-profit sector in the form of student loans, and these loans come from taxpayers. The purpose of the gainful employment rule was to hold accountable the institutions that receive 90 percent of their funding from taxpayer dollars. It’s good governance to ensure taxpayer funds are spent wisely and that bad actors are invited to improve their programs.

Just because the current administration has decided to rescind the gainful employment rule does not absolve schools of their legal obligation to provide students a worthwhile education that leads to gainful employment (Scott, 2019). However, without this rule, for-profit colleges with questionable program quality are free to charge high tuition for “worthless credentials that leave students with insurmountable debt” (Scott, 2019, para. 3).

By repealing the rule, the U.S. Department of Education can no longer use its most potent accountability measure—the loss of federal aid (Green, 2019). The collapses of ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges left thousands of students unable to pay back their loans, leaving taxpayers on the hook (NPR, 2018).

One part of the gainful employment rule already been implemented has identified hundreds of failing programs, many of which closed after they failed to meet the new standards (Green, 2019). In the Education Department’s first assessment of debt-to-earnings ratios for college graduates, “about 98 percent of programs that failed to meet standards for earning power were for-profits” (Green, 2019, para. 15).

To say the federal government should have no role seems lacking in basic stewardship.

The gainful employment rule was intended to put for-profits out of business

Finally, some have claimed the aim of the gainful employment rule was to put the for-profits out of business because of a misguided belief that “people should not profit off of learning” (Vedder, 2019, para. 4). Whether you believe education management companies are capable of providing academic quality—or not—this claim is quickly debunked with a quick review of the gainful employment rule itself. The purpose of the rule was not to put for-profit institutions out of business; it was to protect students from predatory recruiting practices, poor employment outcomes, and loss of taxpayer dollars.

Critics of the rule have suggested that all higher education institutions be held accountable for their academic and employment outcomes. In fact, the gainful employment rule was aimed at institutions with the worst outcomes: colleges that offered vocational programs. The rule applied to both for-profit and nonprofit providers.

I would call this argument once of those red herrings that we resort to occasionally in discussions about things we find uncomfortable.

Closing thought

If we could be sure that academic and employment outcomes were similar across all vocational programs, then we would have the luxury of comparing institutions by results instead of profit-making status. However, as long as the worst outcomes can be attributed to the for-profits, rules are needed to protect students and taxpayers. Unfortunately, that rule was just repealed, and with it all the protections it offered. R.I.P., gainful employment rule.

=======================

Sources

Cao, Y., & Shireman, R. (2019, July 1). Betsy DeVos’s shameful repeal of the gainful employment rule. The Century Foundation. Retrieved from https://tcf.org/content/commentary/betsy-devoss-shameful-repeal-gainful-employment-rule/?agreed=1

DeVos, B., Cruz, T., & Byrne, B. (2019, February 28). America’s students deserve freedom to choose their education options: DeVos, Cruz, Byrne (Opinion piece). USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/28/trump-school-choice-students-education-options-scholarships-tax-credits-column/3002868002/

Green, E. (2019, June 28). DeVos repeals Obama-era rule cracking down on for-profit colleges. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/betsy-devos-for-profit-colleges.html

Lang, K., & Weinstein, R. (2012, June). Evaluating student outcomes at for-profit colleges (NBER Working Paper No. 18201). Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w18201

Newton, D. (2018, December 9). 20,000 more reasons to never go to a for-profit school. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/12/09/20000-more-reasons-to-never-go-to-a-for-profit-school/#390daff230e5

NPR. (2018, December 14). Defeated in court, Education Dept. to cancel $150 million of student loan debt. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2018/12/14/676755770/the-education-department-is-canceling-150-million-of-student-loan-debt

Scott, B. (2019, July 2). Scott statement on final gainful employment rule (Press release). Retrieved from https://bobbyscott.house.gov/media-center/press-releases

Vedder, R. (2019, July 1). Betsy DeVos is right about gainful employment. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardvedder/2019/07/01/betsy-devos-is-right-about-gainful-employment/#2420a6d27315

March 15, 2019

Friends don’t let friends enroll at for-profit colleges

Multiple times since the 1970s, legislators have tried to block the illegal and unethical behavior of some for-profit higher education institutions, especially those that provide vocational education. Each time, consumers get out the pitchforks, lawmakers pass laws, the culprits promise to shape up, and then people forget about it. However, loopholes and lax oversight seem to motivate owners of for-profit colleges to revert to their bad behavior. What is driving the machine that keeps burdening vocational students with loans half can’t repay? I think it is greed.

Feeling gaslighted by for-profit higher education

I come by my opinions of for-profit higher education honestly. I earned my doctorate at an online for-profit university, where I studied academic quality in vocational colleges for my dissertation topic. While I was working on my degree, I taught at a for-profit vocational college (hence, my inspiration for studying academic quality in vocational colleges—in other words, I had a bone to pick).

Before I started teaching at one, I didn’t know much about for-profit colleges—we used to call these technical colleges. I assumed technical colleges targeted students who wanted career advancement, new skills, maybe a certificate in phone system repair, automotive arts, or cosmetology. Technical college was a different type of education from the public universities I knew. Not bad, just different.

Then I was hired as an adjunct to teach marketing to four students in an associates of science (AAS) marketing program for a small private for-profit career college. The four students were the only students in the entire marketing program! A few terms later, the administrator needed me to teach MS Word. Next thing I know, I’m teaching marketing, management, communications, all the MS Office programs (even Access, which was completely foreign to me), keyboarding, 10-key math, and a bizarre medical software program I had never heard of, let alone used. I did my best to stay one chapter ahead of the class, trying to teach them what they were there to learn. It seems remarkable to me the gig lasted almost ten years, considering what I observed and did while I was employed there.

To add to my difficulties, classrooms at the career college were shabby and rundown. Materials, computers, and software programs were out-of-date and poorly maintained. Teachers were a dime a dozen, bodies to be plugged into class schedules with no regard for accreditation guidelines, let alone teacher expertise. Students were vulnerable marks to be enrolled and forgotten.

By the time the vocational school closed the campus and laid us all off in 2013, I was heartily sick of for-profit higher education. I quickly finished my dissertation and moved on . . . or so I thought.

They’re back

Like mice in the attic, the for-profit higher colleges are once again rustling around in the news. On Tuesday, Robert Shireman (2019) from the Century Foundation testified to a Congressional oversight committee about the ongoing dangers of for-profit higher education institutions that focus on profits at the expense of academic quality.

Why should we care? For-profits enroll mostly nontraditional students, and these student populations tend to be vulnerable. At the career college, most of our vocational students would not have succeeded at a public community college, let alone at a four-year university. Some had tried and failed. Some had learning disabilities. Some were former or current drug addicts. Most were low-income single mothers in their 30s and 40s who supported their kids on the student loan money left over after the college skimmed tuition off the top.

Students who enroll at for-profit institutions borrow a disproportionate amount of student loan money, compared to students who attend public and private nonprofit institutions. By law, up to 90% of a for-profit higher education institution’s revenue can come from student loans (The 90-10 rule, n.d.). For-profit borrowers default at twice the rate of public two-year borrowers. In fact, 52% of students who attend for-profit colleges default on their student loans after 12 years, compared to 26% of students who attend other types of institutions (Scott-Clayton, 2018). Why does that matter? Student loans are tax-payer funded. That means our taxes are helping line the pockets of for-profit college owners and shareholders.

The incentive to do the wrong thing

Lining owners’ pockets wouldn’t be so bad as long as they also gave students good academic quality that translated into careers, better jobs, promotions, higher paychecks, or preparation for higher education. We all want students to succeed, no matter what kind of school they attend. It’s good for society. But providing academic quality costs money—think up-to-date books and computer systems, think reasonable class schedules, think toilets that don’t overflow, AC that works, rugs that aren’t frayed, and teachers who are qualified to teach and allowed to teach their expertise.

For-profit colleges have enticed students into enrolling with fraudulent promises and deceptive advertising (US GAO, 2010). If students graduate, they often cannot be placed in the jobs the admissions reps promised them, and thus they cannot earn the healthy incomes they would need to pay back their student loans. Even if they don’t graduate, their student loans will likely follow them for at least twenty-five years—it is difficult to discharge student loans by declaring bankruptcy (US DOE Federal Student Aid, n.d.). Thus, victims of corporate greed and their own naiveté, students might be worse off than if they had never enrolled.

Some students can get relief in the form of loan forgiveness, depending on the type of loan and field of study, although if the Trump administration has its way, that program will be eliminated for 2020 (Friedman, 2019).

Even after my experiences teaching and learning in for-profit higher education, I have wanted to believe that for-profit colleges and universities can be good. For a while, I believed for-profit higher education was like fire—good or bad depending on how we use it: Fire can keep the house warm or burn it down. In the wrong hands, yes, some students can get hurt, but those are the exceptions, right?

Since 2016, one hundred for-profit colleges and universities have closed or merged with some other entity, compared to about twenty public institutions in the same period (Busta, 2019). That’s just since 2016! Two of the biggest closures—ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian Colleges—abandoned thousands of students who now seek redress from the Department of Education (NPR, 2018).

Converting to nonprofit status

These headlines aren’t new: Like the namesake in a game of Whack-a-Mole, the issue of for-profit higher education seems to reappear every few years. The corporate greed of for-profit colleges doesn’t seem to evaporate, even when consumers catch on to the scam. “The public has gotten smarter as a result of the big scandals at for-profit schools: enrollment at for-profits has dropped substantially from its peak in 2010” (Shireman, 2018).

Human greed is relentless. When lawmakers and the Obama administration put up roadblocks, the strategists at the for-profit colleges and universities addressed their for-profit status head on. Now many are apparently converting their institutions to nonprofit status.

“Unfortunately, the conversion to nonprofit status is susceptible to abuse by covert for-profits—schools that obtain the nonprofit label yet continue operating like for-profit institutions—leaving consumers and taxpayers more vulnerable than ever” (Shireman, 2018, for-profit colleges hiding in a regulatory blind spot).

I am not surprised. Apparently, it isn’t that easy for a for-profit institution to change its spots. Converting to a nonprofit requires owners to shift away from their single-minded quest for profits toward providing actual education, something they seem unable or unwilling to do.

Their strategy has nothing to do with delivering academic quality; they seem driven purely by greed. What other motive could compel them to undertake what must be a massive amount of paperwork to avoid laws that would limit their profitability?

Good people working in a bad system

Just because for-profit college owners might be corrupt doesn’t preclude students receiving quality education. I met a lot of teachers at the career college. With few exceptions, the teachers cared deeply about helping students succeed.

As vocational education instructors, we did the best we could with what we had. Whether we had one student in a class or thirty, whether we used textbooks ten years out of date, whether we still taught Office 2003 in an Office 2010 world, whether the AC was working, we showed up and did our best. We didn’t make more or less money according to enrollment; however, our jobs did depend on student evaluations and student enrollment. Receiving too many negative student comments could get us terminated. Unhappy students were vocal:

“Her tests were impossible!” (I did comprehensive reviews before every test).
“She gave us too much work” (The syllabus set the lessons; the school designed the syllabus).
“She graded too hard” (I admit, I did, at first. Later, bludgeoned by student complaints, my standards declined to an embarrassing low).

I knew I wasn’t the only instructor dissatisfied with conditions at the career college. I chose to study academic quality as my dissertation topic. I asked ten faculty members to define academic quality as they understood it, based on their experiences teaching in for-profit on-ground vocational programs.

To my surprise, few of the faculty members had anything truly harsh to say about the owners or shareholders of the for-profit institutions for which they worked. Despite my reassurances that their responses would be kept completely anonymous and confidential, when they did mention profit as a potential issue, they were polite, circumspect, and even apologetic for bringing it up. Here are some excerpts, lightly edited for readability, of their opinions on problems with for-profit vocational education.

“The customers in the profit world are definitely the students . . . another set of customers are the businesses. They are looking to hire from that student pool. Because again, we are delivering them a product. Students are a commodity that will hold up and stand the test of time.”
“I feel like the mission of the owners, the shareholders, they’re more in line with profit, versus um, seeing students succeed to get jobs in their field.”
“The for-profit schools were poised to capture huge market share when the economy failed but I’m not sure they did it right. Some schools were lying about what [students] could make . . . that really ended up getting media attention, so the good schools that were doing things on the up and up, it made them all look bad.”
“For-profit schools should not cost twice what a public school does for the same education. And I will say, that is one place I struggled in teaching [here]. I knew those medical assisting students could have gone to [local public community college], but they didn’t have faith in themselves, that they could do community college. They felt they had to go vocational. They could have gotten the same education for half the price.”
“A few years ago, [the owners] said they had to be making at least a 15% profit. Well, I understand business, and I understand profit. But if we focus on the wrong thing, we’re not focusing on our customers. If we have a great product [students/degrees], [profits will] happen. I’m not an administrator, but to me they look at it backwards.”
“Well, in some respects, I guess we’ve set ourselves up, because in the past we have concentrated on getting the numbers in the door and not caring about anything else.”
“I think one of the downfalls of being a for-profit is that we don’t always regulate the types of students we bring in. So we have students who want to go to school, but we . . . drive them into the wrong area. I teach criminal justice and a lot of times we get students with criminal records . . . we can’t place them. Period. Which affects our placement for the program, which impacts the teachers, because if we don’t place students, the teachers get let go and the program gets shut down.”
“Owners are more concerned about, you know, the business of being [in business], especially in a for-profit. They have a lot of business things to consider, which I understand, because I was in business myself and I know that you have to run the business like a business. But on the other hand, what is their philosophy of education, I mean they have to have that deep down inside, that’s what they need to be, they have to realize why did they start this educational institution anyway?”

I am positive the owners at the college where I worked and at the university I attended did not start out intending to defraud students. I’m sure they launched with a desire to help people who sought career skills and advanced degrees. Success prompted them to add more courses, more branches, more teachers, more students, until enrolling students who qualified for Title IV student loan funds became the holy grail.

Removing the profit motive from higher education

The more I learn about for-profit education, from vocational to graduate school, the more I suspect the profit motive cannot coexist successfully with the education motive.

School leaders should focus on earning a profit or they should focus on providing quality education. I used to think schools could do both but now I don’t think so.

There’s nothing wrong with seeking to make profits; lots of great companies are profit-seeking entities. But education isn’t a product, and students aren’t customers—at least, not in the way GE makes and sells toasters.

For-profit higher education companies are in business to make money. They do that by providing education—education just happens to be their “product.” When all decisions are about the bottom line, selling more units is the path to higher revenue, and the incentive to cut costs is strong.

From a profit-making perspective, I understand the drive to enroll more students (sell more seats) even if the new students have no intention of learning anything, let alone graduating and finding jobs. Putting butts in seats uncorks a tidal wave of student loan money. The quality of butts is not a concern.

After WWII, some creative entrepreneurs recognized the sweet spot, the unmet demand for quick, flexible education options for nontraditional students who needed a shift, an upgrade, a new career, a new life. For-profit colleges’ best target audiences are military personnel, single moms, people of color, students with learning disabilities . . . anyone who for whatever reason could not or would not make it at a traditional public community college or state university. These vulnerable populations are easily swayed by promises of great jobs, great incomes, great lives—in short, the American dream.

Now that there are so many more options for working adults to earn reputable degrees from public and private nonprofit institutions, I’m guessing the trend of declining enrollments will continue at the for-profits. When their educational “product” costs twice as much as the public nonprofits offering, they won’t be able to compete.

Knowing what I know now

Greed is a sticky emotion that defies classification. Is greed good or is greed bad? Greed has probably motivated many of humanity’s great achievements, not to mention our survival instincts. However, I fear greed will be our downfall. I’d like to say it’s not for me to judge—I’d like to step away from the entire uncomfortable situation. But saying nothing doesn’t seem like an acceptable choice. Our common welfare has to come first. If we don’t protect each other and do our best for those who need help, then what are we doing?

Knowing what I know now, I would definitely not choose to attend a for-profit university. I cannot go back in time to take a different path, but I can suggest to you that if you are considering applying to a college or university, take time to learn about its history and business model. Then make your choice and do your best.

Sources

Busta, H. (2019, March 5). How many colleges and universities have closed since 2016? Retrieved from https://www.educationdive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/

Cohen, P. (2017, February 20). For-profit schools, an Obama target, see new day under Trump. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/business/for-profit-education-trump-devos.html

Friedman, Z. (2019, March 12). Trump proposes to end student loan forgiveness program. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/03/12/trump-proposes-to-end-student-loan-forgiveness-program/#23d6688e415e

Harris, A. (2018, August 29). The lifelong cost of getting a for-profit education. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/08/for-profit-college-students-are-saddled-with-debt-they-cant-pay-back/568834/

Scott-Clayton, J. (2018, January 11). The looming student loan default crisis is worse than we thought. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-looming-student-loan-default-crisis-is-worse-than-we-thought/

Shireman, R. (2018, August 23). The covert for-profit: How college owners escape oversight through a regulatory blind spot. Available from https://tcf.org/content/report/covert-for-profit/

Shireman, R. (2019, March 12). Restoring Congressional oversight of for-profit colleges (Testimony to the Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies at the U.S. House of Representatives). Available from https://tcf.org/content
/commentary/restoring-congressional-oversight-profit-colleges/

The 90-10 rule (n.d.). Wikipedia. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90-10_rule

US GAO. (United States Government Accountability Office). (2010, August 3). For-profit colleges: Undercover testing finds colleges encouraged fraud and engaged in deceptive and questionable marketing practices [Testimony of GAO before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions]. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/htext/d10948t.html

US DOE Federal Student Aid. (Department of Education, Federal Student Aid). (n.d.). In some cases, you can have your federal student loan discharged after declaring bankruptcy. Retrieved from https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/bankruptcy

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Books and resources

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January 19, 2017

10 questions I wish I’d asked before I started my Ph.D. program

If I could get into a Wayback machine, I would set the controls for mid-2005, when I was pondering the idea of enrolling in graduate school. I remember the moment when I stood looking over my boss’s shoulder while he did a computer search for Ph.D. programs. He found a fully online Ph.D. program in marketing at a for-profit (fully accredited) online university. At that moment, if I could, I would have bopped myself upside the head and yelled, “What the heck do you think you are doing?” But I wasn’t there to stop myself from taking the bait. Without doing my homework, I applied and enrolled. Thus, I fell into the black hole of a fully online for-profit Ph.D. program.

In 2005, online education wasn’t exactly new, but earning a doctorate completely online was. Big traditional brick-and-mortar universities hadn’t yet tapped into the huge market of nontraditional learners slavering for degrees, I among them. The for-profits were there to meet the demand.

If I had been in my right mind, I would have asked the following questions:

1. Is this school reputable?

Back in 2005, I didn’t know anything about the panorama of higher education. That some schools were organized to earn a profit meant nothing to me. My previous learning experiences were at state universities. Had I done my homework, I would have quickly learned about the controversial nature of for-profit higher education. Oddly enough, if I had waited a couple years, I would have had many more choices of flexible schedule higher education options, even at local state universities. I urge you to read about the types of accreditation so you know the standards that schools must meet. Become informed so you can make informed decisions about your education. Read online reviews of the schools you are considering and talk directly to alumni if you can. I did not do this.

2. Is this program reputable?

I knew I had to choose an accredited institution, but I didn’t understand that programs can be accredited too. For example, business programs can be accredited through either AACSB or ACBSP. They sound almost the same, don’t they? It’s all alphabet soup if you aren’t informed. According to the for-profit universities, both accreditations seem great. Check into it further before you decide. You will find that there is a big difference between the two. Specifically, if you plan on teaching, find out which accreditation the institution you want to hire you prefers, before you enroll. I did not do this; I didn’t know I needed to until I filled out some applications for teaching jobs that required candidates to have attended AACSB-accredited schools. Those of us who attended ACBSP-accredited schools need not apply.

3. Will I need to incur huge student loan debt to get this degree?

Before I enrolled, I was determined I would not borrow any money to attend any university. I proudly paid cash as I went, one course at a time, but I had no clue how long it would take or ultimately cost, because tuition went up annually, sometimes by a lot. Thanks to relatively recent federal legislation, colleges and universities are required to post consumer information on their websites about the costs and outcomes of their programs. Unfortunately, if the programs are small, the schools get a pass. Read reviews on the schools you are considering. It will open your eyes to the real costs and outcomes. However, take it all with a grain of salt: most reviews are written by unhappy customers. The for-profits hire persistent recruiters (salespeople) who will promise you a lot to entice/persuade/motivate/coerce you to apply. If you feel like you are being pressured to enroll, you are. Don’t sign until you are sure you have made the best choice for you.

4. Will getting this degree make me more valuable to my employer?

I thought having a Ph.D. in Marketing would make me more valuable to my career college employer. Not long after I enrolled, the administrators at the career college cut the Marketing program. If your employer has promised you a promotion and tuition reimbursement, get it in writing. Consider the stability and growth of the organization for which you work. Look around and see how many other Ph.D.s have trod the path you intend to tread. If you are blazing a new trail, keep your eyes open. You might end up realizing that the only one who benefits from getting a Ph.D. is you—and possibly not financially… more along the lines of self-actualization.

5. Will this program challenge me?

Some of my online courses challenged me. However, assignments at my alma mater differed greatly in length, depth, and rigor. Some courses seemed full of make-work assignments. Some textbooks were excellent, others were mediocre. Most books were abysmally out of date (for example, e-commerce and pretty much anything to do with marketing and market research). The courses that challenged me were the dissertation courses, where I learned if I had the skills and persistence to become a scholar.

6. Will I get enough interaction and support from mentors and classmates?

At my online for-profit university, the level and quality of interaction with mentors varied greatly. A few mentors seemed fully present (virtually speaking), caring, and accessible. Most gave a bare minimum of feedback and encouragement—in their defense, I’m sure they mentored dozens of dissertators; I was just another faceless name in their email inbox. Only one was MIA, but her absence had serious repercussions on my timeline and pocketbook. As I progressed into my dissertation courses and textbooks were left behind, I felt keenly the lack of feedback and support, especially from fellow dissertators. Despite being an introvert, I missed talking things through with others.

7. Will I get value from earning this degree?

Define value any way you want. Will getting this Ph.D. make you rich? Happy? Smart? A better writer? Employable? Whatever it is, be clear on the benefits you expect from earning this degree. You might not get exactly what you imagined. Just saying.

8. How will members of my work community perceive the value of my degree?

Before you enroll at a for-profit higher education institution, ask around your workplace to get opinions of the school. Talk to people who hire people like you. Find out what they have to say about the reputation of the school and the caliber of its graduates. You may find out there are many alumni from for-profit institutions gradually infiltrating the workforce and paving the way for those of us who come after. Then again, you might find out that the for-profit university you were considering isn’t even on the lowest rung of the higher education ladder.

9. Do I need this degree to progress in my field?

If you need the terminal degree to teach or gain some exalted position in your organization, I guess your choice is clear. But if you are toying with the idea of attending a Ph.D. program because you think it might be cool or fun or because it would finally get your folks off your back, I urge you to rethink your goals. The Internet is rife with stories of disgruntled and disillusioned post docs who advise people like you in eloquent and bitter words to stop, stop, go do something else. Academe is not paradise. I wish I had read their stories before I embarked on my journey. I didn’t need a Ph.D. to teach at a rinky-dink career college. That means the whole eight-year, $50,000 debacle was unnecessary.

10. Do I need this degree to be happy?

I kept going because I’m not a quitter. When I start something, these days, I usually finish it, or have a darn good reason to abandon it. Eight years is a long time; I had many opportunities to reflect on my definitions of happiness and success. I don’t regret earning my doctoral degree, but if I could go back in time to mid-2005, I would have a heart-to-heart with myself. I would ask one more question: If money and time were no object, what would you like to do with the rest of your life? If earning a Ph.D. is part of the answer, then flail on, Dissertator. If not, well, it’s never too soon to start doing what you love.

Disclaimer

It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn my dissertation topic was academic quality in for-profit vocational programs. I have some reservations about the commitment to education espoused by for-profit institutions whose first objective is to earn a return on the investment of shareholders—in other words, to make a profit. The profit motive and a commitment to providing quality education may be able to coexist in one organization—most likely in the classroom.

However, the ten faculty members I interviewed said quality often took a backseat as administrators and owners focused on wringing every last drop of profit from students, teachers, staff, books, computers, facilities, and systems. When generating profit is the goal and the product strategy to achieve that goal consists of providing education, you can’t excel at doing both. One has to give, and I fear students and faculty bear the cost.

If you are working on your dissertation proposal, I suppose it’s too late to back out now. You might as well keep going. The finish line is closer than the starting line. If you find yourself getting mired in methodology, unable to get your proposal approved, take a look at my book 28 ½ Reasons Why You Can’t Get Your Dissertation Proposal Approved. Maybe I can help.

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