For Profit Schools Want You!
One of my favorite Army cadences was “My recruiter told a lie/Join the Airborne learn to fly.” When the recruit in the song got to airborne school he quickly learned that the Airborne jump out of planes, they don’t fly them. Clearly, that new paratrooper didn’t do enough research and had a shady recruiter. Transitioning Veterans can make a similar mistake when deciding on a college. This is the first article in a series of articles in which we will explore how to find the best school. This post will explore why for profit institutions, like the University of Phoenix or the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, are aggressively targeting veterans.
Simply put, YOU ARE A $ SIGN! Not only do you bring hard earned education benefits to these institutions, but you also increase for profit schools’ ability to access more federal funding. Recently, even Holly Petraeus wrote an article about it. This is because of federal funding guidelines written in the Higher Education Act. These guidelines state that, at most, 90% of a schools’ revenue can come from the federal government, while 10% must come from other sources. Benefit money is exactly like federal aid, except that it doesn’t count towards the 90% maximum. So what does that mean? Check out the chart:
For every dollar you give them, they can access even more federal aid while staying within the 90/10 guidelines. BOTTOM LINE: YOU BRING YOUR MONEY AND SERVE AS A FEDERAL AID BOOSTER. Why is federal aid so desired? Because it is risk free. The for profit institution is guaranteed to get it back.
This is not to say anything negative about all for profit schools, many are great. DeVry and the Regency Beauty Institute, among others, do a great job for students. Rather, we want you to understand the motivation of a for profit recruiter and to be extra cautious in signing up for questionable programs.
We have a lot more to say about for profit schools, so check back to see our thoughts on topics such as what questions to ask your for profit school and warning signs that the for profit school you are considering may not be the best choice for you.
