For Profit Colleges & Universities

Here is the issue: I am against for-profit colleges. Part of me wants to dedicate a significant amount of attention to shutting them down in my lifetime, while the other part knows they are not all bad. In general, the schools have low graduation rates. They prey on people who can secure financial aid, which means that they have a very high percentage of low-income students taking on lots of debt. I learned recently that for-profits aggressively recruit veterans and their military tuition assistance (read about that here). They do not usually put resources into ensuring quality content delivery, nor do they pay any attention to retention or outcomes unless they are forced to by a new law. But, there are exceptions.

Some for-profit universities do not operate this way so it does not make sense to apply blanket legislation or regulations to the whole industry. Some for-profit institutions provide high quality education in flexible formats to non-traditional college students. The educational models and theories that allow for that are valuable. If postsecondary institutions could use those models with some kind of accountability, it would be fine.  

How do we even begin to implement mechanisms for measuring accountability? Not-for-profit institutions, particularly private schools who have become accustomed to a relatively high degree of political autonomy,  have resisted some of the major legislative pushes toward accountability, such as graduation rate requirements. Some non-profit institutions would be in trouble if graduation rates determined whether an institution can or should exists. This business of trying to untangle nuance in arguments about the validity of for-profit institutions quickly becomes very tricky.

In one of my classes, Contemporary Issues in Higher Education, I am working on a short documentary about the for-profit education sector in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The biggest challenge for me is going to be staying objective in light of my opinions on for-profit higher education.

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 I wanted to include this post I read on an anonymous online forum just to give you some background on the kinds of practices that I disagree with. DISCLAIMER: this person is very upset and their language usage reflects that.

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I work for a for-profit education company. There are a few things I have to get off my chest. . . .  the industry is a complete joke and I'm sickened by what we do .  .  .  First, we accept anybody. A student is merely a conduit in which student loan money flows from the federal government, to us. We could give two sh**s if we think a student will succeed. A student is a revenue unit (and is referred to as such). We'd let everybody in if we could. Unfortunately for us, we can't.

Why? Well, the federal government only allows us to generate 90% of our revenue from their loans. Last I checked, we're at 89.something. We are "private, for-profit" and nearly 100% government subsidized through their loan program. Think about that. Almost 90% of our revenue comes directly from the government and we can keep as much profit out of that as we want with zero obligation. Oh, there’s this thing called gainful employment floating around that’s a feeble attempt to regulate us, but everybody’s pretty sure most of the regulations will be stripped away or watered down to the point of uselessness.
While we’re on the subject of loans, let’s talk about how our students get them. In short, we handle everything. All we need is their name and their consent. We process all the paperwork on their behalf. It's probably our most important function. It's how we stay in business.

Here’s a fun tidbit: We encourage students to take out the maximum loan amount allowed even though they don't need it all to cover their tuition. Why? Because it’s "free money" for the student, that’s why. Let’s just say we charge $25,000 a semester (we actually charge more if you can believe it) and when we talk to the student we'll advise them to take out $30,000 so the student can use the extra $5000 towards whatever they want; perhaps a computer for their online courses or a car to commute to our brick and mortar facility, whatever. We also point out that they don't have to pay this loan back for, like, years so who gives a s***? By that time they’ll have landed a sweet job because of the awesome education their going to get from us.

This might be a really good time to mention our one rule when hiring: If a candidate submits a resume and lists an online for-profit education school as their education (ours included), it is immediately thrown out. Let's just say we know our product.
Our product. My god. I've seen the courses we offer online and they're beyond a joke. I wish I could be more specific, but I'd probably give myself away. I've seen passing grades given for essays that wouldn't have gotten past my 6th grade english teacher. I s*** you not. Don't get me started on the technical degrees.

If all that isn't bad enough, here's the best scam we pull. As a “benefit to our students”, we've established a "Foundation”. We solicit donations for the foundation that go towards student tuition in the form of "scholarships". This is akin to a company like Best Buy taking donations for a self-administered Best Buy Foundation and then giving that money to Best Buy customers and forcing them to use it at Best Buy. We use scholarships as a means to launder our foundation money to our bottom line. The scholarships we hand out usually go to the students who we think we can squeeze a little more out of, probably because they've hit their maximum lifetime limit of how much they can receive in government financial aid. Our scholarships make up the difference so we can get whatever government cash they're still entitled to.

The Throwing of the Toast

So, tomorrow I am going to the home football game against Yale. Kurt, the self-proclaimed cruise director of our cohort and the graduate assistant at Penn's Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Program, organized this event so that people in the Higher Education Master's Program could meet the exec. doc folks. I am really excited to go to the game tomorrow for a few reasons.

• A) I am a little stressed and will jump on any chance to not do work/school stuff right now even though I should
• B) my undergraduate institution did not have a football team so this is the first time I will be at a college football game for a school I actually go to (or a college football game at all for that matter). 
• C) The undergraduate work study person in Admissions and Emily, also from Admissions, told me that there is a tradition of throwing actual pieces of toast on the football game after the third quarter is over in response to lyrics to a sports song and the fact that the stadium banned alcohol in the 1970's.
• D) I am very excited to meet the people from exec. doc. and maybe learn a little bit about their career trajectories.

Well, I have my one and only midterm on Tuesday and need to get to this Higher Education Finance studying! I will leave you with a video of the 'throwing of the toast'. 

P.S. The look on Lindsey's face when she learned about the throwing of the toast was priceless!

AND I spend far too much time at Admissions! : )

If This Were Just About Getting A Job

I had a revelation yesterday when meeting with my advisor, Pamela Felder. We were talking about which courses I would be taking next semester and somehow we got on the topic of jobs (Pamela is also the professional Development teacher, so you see how this could easily happen). We discussed how in this one year program, it is difficult for some students not to be overly focused on the practical: how to network, how to get a  job. For me, though I know the whole job search process looms over all our futures, things have never been that way. Pamela and I started discussing this and in our conversation, I just stopped at one point and said, ""if this were just about a job, I wouldn't need a master's degree." The job application process does not worry me. I know that after this I can get a job. Even before this I could. Admissions, the area I am most interested in, does not require a master's degree. I have experience too. I could have walked out of my undergraduate degree and into a decent job working as an admissions counselor. Allotting this time to learning and growing as a professional is not about the difference between having a job or not, it is about having the job I want.

Dr. Felder agreed. This whole process is about gaining a knowledge base around higher education. Learning about governance, access, higher education finance, college choice and campus culture helps me to understand my career path. What kind of institution will I work for? Will it be a small, selective private school or a large state school? Studying here and going on a visit to the Community College of Philadelphia has even opened my eyes to the possibility of working in the community college setting. Where will it be? What exactly do I feel comfortable doing and what are the areas in which I stand to gain competency? These are the kinds of questions that I think about rather than whether or not I will find work at all.

It is my belief that people thrive in situations in which they were meant to be, kind of like soul mates for jobs. Mushy, I know. But that's me. This year, I am soaking in all that I can in terms of information, connections and skills so that when I do start looking for that job, I know precisely what is going to help me thrive.

By the way, I got that mentorship! Starting this November, I will be assisting a low income high school student in the Kensington area of Philadelphia with their college application process! I will keep you updated!

Week of Papers

I think that I had an assignment due in 4 of 5 classes this week and that a lot of others in the cohort had the same. Everyone, including me, looked wiped out! The good in all this is that we learned a lot this week and that I think it is fair to say we are officially back in the swing of this school thing. In addition to school work and my assistantship, I have been looking into college access volunteer opportunities.

Last week, the perfect opportunity came to me via the Higher Education Program listserv! An organization in Philadelphia called "one little DID" is looking for mentors to walk young Philadelphians through their college application process. I like that one little DID uses a one-on-one model and that they orient mentorship around the college application process. They also don't just help high achieving students, they help anyone who wants to go to college. I am very excited about the possibility of volunteering with one little DID. Later today, I will find out if i got the position. Wish me luck!

A bunch of people in the cohort are going to the NASPA regional conferences today, some to the one in Baltimore and others to the one at PACE in NYC. I was interested in going, but decided against it because it is still pretty early in the year and we had a ton of work to do for classes this week. As the year progresses, I will probably be more inclined to go off and network. First, I had better learn how to do it!

Recently, I have had some really valuable conversations with people in the cohort. One student in the program here is a full time admissions representative at John Hopkins and  a part time student. Another student came to Penn GSE from having been a high school college counselor. Their experiences are helping inform my approach to college admissions. I am learning so much from them.

This week, Matt Hartley's class was about boards of trustees. We learned about the intricacies of board responsibilities and about some of the basic differences between public and private boards. It is impressive how Matt can take things that sound so boring and really bring them to life.  I never thought I would be interested in academic governance, but he has showed how vital an understanding of governance is to any academic administrator.

GSE Web Chat

Hey Everybody!

I wanted to let you know that we are chatting this Tuesday, October 4th from 8-9 pm (EST). Web Chats are a great way to talk to current students about their experiences here at Penn GSE, especially if you are unable to visit campus. RSVP here for our first Web Chat of the year!

Full Disclosure

As part of  Shaun Harper's class, Contemporary Issues in Higher Education, we have been asked to write an introduction to ourselves through the answers to questions about our college preparedness, college experience, the experience of our peers and the reasons for our success. We are also supposed to relate these things to a film we watched in class, Declining By Degrees. Anyway, I started writing mine, and a couple pages in I felt that I should be sharing this information with you minus the relate it to the film part. So, before I change it to include film analysis, I wanted to share with you this deeply personal account of my high school and college experience.

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My high school, Mt. Diablo High in Concord, California, was what the district referred to as an “under-performing high school”.  About 65% of students graduated in four years and almost nobody went to college. But, when I was there, the school was adding “California Partnership Academies,” schools within the school that helped gave students more attention, a cohort based unit of students, and vocational training. I joined the Digital Safari Academy (DSA).  Instead of having traditional classes and homework, we worked on computers all day. Our assignments were long-term, large-scale group projects evaluated by a committee from our community. Students were recognized not only for their skill in writing or speaking, but for their creativity, design and work ethic. We also had poker nights and went on several four day camping trips, which helped create a very purposeful tight knit community. Going this non-traditional route through high school probably had a very positive effect on my overall preparedness for college because it forced me to think in new ways about what “getting an education” entails.

            When it came time to apply for college, I was pleased and yet terrified all at the same time. One side of me knew that I was ready; I had done very well in high school through the DSA and through cross country and track. The other side wondered if I would be less desirable because I went to an “under-performing” school. And, there was one other thing. I had absolutely no money to my name. My parents, both highly educated individuals, had severe money issues and it was becoming clear that I was going to be on my own financially. For that reason, I applied mostly to schools in California. Though I was admitted everywhere, only one school provided me with enough financial support for it to even be a possibility. That school was the University of California, Santa Cruz. Above and beyond the financial support, Santa Cruz convinced me that I would have access to college professors, and they had a “residential college system” of living and learning communities that reminded me of the DSA. So, even though I was wary of how I could ever afford to go to college, I went!

The transition from high school to college was difficult. The first day I arrived at the dorms, it was awkward to be with my parents. I felt let down because they wanted to be a part of move in, but would not be helping me after I moved in. After they left, I started to think about my first bill; it was 3,000 dollars! I had worked in the Summer at a store and saved up the money, but I couldn’t help but let my mind wander toward the second bill. How was I going to get the money to pay for this?  I cried that day, and it still pains me to remember how stressful it was. I felt lost, out of place. Then, I snapped out of it, got a job and worked thirty two hours a week to pay for my dorm and food.  It was rough. Though everyone on my floor in the residential hall was friendly, they always told me that they never saw me around. I was the only one on a floor of about forty who worked that many hours.

The learning excited me. My courses were so stimulating and enjoyable; and, in some ways were a welcome distraction from my financial woes. Even with almost full-time working hours, I enjoyed doing my homework assignments between classes and late at night. It taught me discipline and made me very good at managing my time. When I did have time, study groups with friends were really nice. After working my job for a while, I was making more than enough money to pay my monthly school bill. There was still a time crunch, but I was doing very well in courses and making a lot of new friends.

The second year in college, I had to cut back on working hours and wanted to do something on campus so that I would not have to spend so much time on the bus. I quit waiting tables, moved into a less expensive dorm and then took teaching assistant jobs on campus.  Through those positions, I landed a job at the Office of Admissions and at the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP, a retention program for low income, first generation, students from under-performing high schools or students from otherwise under-represented groups). In EOP, I found a rich community of people within the university who had grown up the way I did, and who I felt were more like me than the university community at a large. It was a blessing to be able to spend time with people who knew where I was coming from and to hear about other people for whom college was not taken for granted. At the Admissions Office, I found a passion: higher education. I often facilitated field trips for student who had never set foot on a college campus before or who had never seen the ocean. I was the first point of contact for them at my university; I was someone who could tell them, “college is possible. It is hard, but it is possible.” That was also a blessing.

During the end of the second and beginning of my third year in college, I became intensely intellectual. I made wonderful connections with my economics and history professors. In the history major, I took on a senior thesis because I wanted to do original research. I wanted to find a way to combine my interests in history, economics and education and had noticed that James D. Anderson’s The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 did not go in depth when it came to the Deep South. I ended up writing about how enslaved African Americans in Mississippi found ways to acquire literacy and ultimately used their secret networks of literacy to help establish the public education system in Mississippi. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and I ended receiving a lot of recognition for my work. There is no way that three years before having written this thesis I could have imagined myself writing it, completing college or studying for a master of education degree at the University of Pennsylvania. It is unbelievable. I am grateful that my college experience started the way it did and that it allowed me to grow so tremendously because it reaffirmed my belief that a college education is never to be taken for granted.
There was one other student at Santa Cruz from my high school graduating class and the DSA, Robert*. Having one other person there from my hometown and high school was nice, but we did not go out of our way to see one another and the campus was large. Robert had told me at some point that he was having trouble staying awake in his large math classes. I was not worried about Robert. I knew that we had made it there and we would be ok. Then, I stopped seeing Robert around. Santa Cruz is a 2000 acre campus with 17,000 students, so I did not question the fact that I had not seen him. Near the end of our second year, I realized he was not telling me something. He had been kicked out of the school for poor academic performance, but had still been living near campus and not telling people that he was kicked out. When he told me, I was shocked! I felt so terrible for him. How had someone who had come from Mt. Diablo just like me have made it that far just to get kicked out? It hurt a lot.

At the time, it was hard to say what differentiated Robert’s experience from my own.  Now, I think it is clear. Robert did not make campus connections. He had not found EOP or a passion at Santa Cruz. He found large classes that put him to sleep. I only found those connections through necessity and probably only enjoyed my large classes as much as I did because they were a welcome distraction. Robert and I were not very different at all. We were actually very similar. What happened to Robert could have just as easily happened to me. Sometimes, I question how much responsibility a learning institution has to retain versus how much responsibility the student has to be determined, but I know it could not have been a lack of motivation alone; I knew a lot of unmotivated students who coasted by. At a large, public university, at any university for that matter, there are people who are unmotivated who make it through. Robert’s experience resonated with me when we watched Declining by Degrees because the film also grapples with this question of institutional versus individual responsibility.

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On graduation day, I was more excited and full of joy than I had ever been before. I graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz but that meant nothing to me. What meant everything to me was that I was graduating at all. I have six brothers, all of whom have struggled with educational pursuits, and they were all there to see me. They were so proud. I was the first of us to graduate from college; I was there on the stage communicating to them that it is possible. My brothers were so proud. I could see in their faces that this meant a lot to them. Here I was, graduating college. I will never forget that day. After the commencement ceremony, we played basketball in my backyard for the rest of the day. I wore my hat and dress the whole time!

Oh, and there is something you should know about Robert: he didn’t give up either. Robert enrolled in the local community college, earned credits, wrote a letter to the university and was re-admitted for the Fall 2011 term with his financial aid fully reinstated. He will graduate next June.


*name changed

Work Life Balance & Umbrella(s)?

“People on the East Coast own multiple umbrellas. What is with this phenomenon?" - me. 

Lindsey, my fellow GA, is originally from Colorado, but she lived in Boston for 7 years before coming here, so she already knows. She has a small umbrella that she carries in her bag every day and at least one other more substantial one that she brings for heavier rain  (I don't think I have seen that one yet). Some East Coast people probably have different ones for different outfits. I have never heard of this owning multiple umbrellas thing, but I may just have to get with it. I only have one umbrella. It is big and I bought it right here at the book store. Apparently there are different kinds of umbrellas for different levels of rain. Who knew?
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Anyone that knows me knows that I have a minor work-life balance problem. Long after the clock strikes 5, I can be seen scrolling through and responding to work emails. While I am aware that if you don't draw a line between work and home you can end up working literally all the time, I also want to be reliable and prompt. But, I have to step back and remember that there is life outside of work. This year, I have committed to making the work-life balance a major priority. If you think about it, being able to let work go at the end of the day is an important step in professional development. As Lindsey said at the end of a long day here, "no one ever died in admissions." It's true. So, I am working on trying to remember that as I go through this year.
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I have to say this: There are A LOT of assigned readings for my courses. It is difficult to find the time to do all the reading. This weekend, I will not be doing anything but reading and doing a couple of written assignments for next week's classes. I need to get organized about this. My work and school day runs roughly from 9-5 every day except Thursday. I could read after school and work and take the weekends off or relax after school and work all weekend. It is hard to decide. At my undergraduate instituition, I took classes and worked about 27 hours a week, but found a rythm that worked for me. That is what I need now. I underestimated how difficult it would be to find a rhythm, but I know I will soon.
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When I write these blog entries, I cannot help but think about Carrie Bradshaw. I must disclose that this is in part due to the fact that I have been watching Sex and the City every night for a couple months; I downloaded the whole series and am almost done with Season 6 now.
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I have to reiterate how wonderful Matt Hartley's class on Academic Governance is! Before the course met, I was probably the least excited about this course. It was the one where I thought to myself, " I don't know that it will be interesting, but I probably need to understand the stuff." Well, rest assured. Matt is one of the most engaging people I have ever met in my life. he teaches using case studies that make all of the students think about what it would be like to actually be in the governance dilemma we are learning about. If you get a chance to take a course with Matt Hartley, do it.
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Planning. Planning. Planning. The On campus Information Session is coming up, and so are a lot of campus visits. Lindsey and I are working hard to make sure that all prospective students get the chance to learn a lot about Penn GSE. It is going to be such a fantastic year meeting with all of you!