Enrollment at for-profit colleges rose significantly in fall 2024, especially among freshmen, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Four-year, for-profit colleges experienced the largest overall enrollment increase among all school types — 7.5%, according to new Clearinghouse data.
“The fact that college enrollment has rebounded from the COVID drop is encouraging news,” Donna Stelling Gurnett, president of the Association of Private Colleges, which represents a group of proprietary and nonprofit colleges in New York, wrote in an email.
“The approximately 750,000 undergraduates attending for-profit colleges nationwide is a fraction of the 16 million total undergraduate students in the U.S. It doesn’t take a lot of students to make the percentage increase look big. Additionally, public and nonprofit institutions experienced less volatility over the years since the COVID pandemic.”
The highest increase in enrollment at for-profits was among freshmen age 25 or older, about 49%, per Clearinghouse data.
Those in that age group “are looking for jobs and they probably think that much of the advertising is geared toward helping students to become job ready,” says Colleen Paparella, founder of DC College Counseling, a college admissions counseling firm. “That would be my guess, that they’re focused on getting a job and they believe that this is the best way to get there.”
[READ: How College Freshman Fall 2024 Enrollment Increased]
Many for-profit colleges — which are funded by investors and can be subsidiaries of a larger corporation — offer online education options, often provide niche or job-specific programs, and typically attract adult learners who are drawn to their flexibility and convenience.
However, not all for-profit colleges are equal, so consider the following factors before enrolling at one.
Think About Your Academic and Career Goals
When evaluating any type of college, “students should consider the college’s retention and graduation rates, financial aid and net price, do the programs and majors offered fit with the student’s post-college plans, are they accredited, and other metrics,” Gurnett says.
Assess your goals and look for data that supports those goals, Paparella says, adding that you “can ask the school for information about that.”
For-profit colleges, for instance, can help students looking to learn a particular software or specific credential for an employer. There’s been a growing emphasis in recent years on career schools, such as for skilled trades or health care, says Jason Altmire, president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities, a member-based national trade association that represents private postsecondary career schools and advocates for the for-profit higher education sector.
“For so long, it had been about emphasizing the traditional four-year liberal arts education,” he says. “And now I think there’s a greater appreciation because of the high demand in the workforce for these professions for students to take a look at career-oriented schools.”
However, prospective students should do a “very thorough and careful vetting of what they are looking to accomplish,” says Stephanie Walker, vice president for enrollment management at Cedar Crest College, a nonprofit women’s college in Pennsylvania. “And then work with either their employer or their support systems to make sure that this is, in fact, the right decision for them at this time.”
Be Cautious of Aggressive Marketing Strategies
There’s a lot more marketing going on at for-profits compared to nonprofit institutions, says Laura Northart, college counselor and co-founder of Virginia-based Loudoun College Counseling.
“It’s kind of unfortunate because there are so many things to consider,” she says. “But if you don’t know what to consider, you’re just hearing directly from these institutions and you think this sounds like such a great idea, when in reality, I think they’re steering a lot of families in the wrong direction.”
[Read: How Online Classes Work: 6 Frequently Asked Questions]
Some marketing tactics of for-profit colleges can be very aggressive. If there’s focus on a particular audience — like veterans and access to GI Bill benefits — that tends to be a red flag, Walker says.
At the end of the day, “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” Paparella says. “There’s no shortcut to getting an education.”
Understand the Full Cost of Attendance
The average price of tuition and fees for first-time, full-time undergraduate students at degree-granting, four-year, for-profit colleges was $16,030 in 2023-2024, according to the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing 2024 report.
That’s more than tuition and fees at public two-year in-district and public in-state four-year colleges, which respectively cost $3,950 and $11,310 on average, and less than the average $41,740 at private nonprofit four-year colleges in the same year.
There can be many extra fees associated with attending a for-profit institution, Paparella says. “The tuition and fees that are advertised often do not reflect the full cost of attendance. A lot of the time students end up thinking they’re going to be paying one thing and it ends up being considerably more.”
Nonprofit colleges also have fees that can add up, including ones related to courses, technology and the first-year experience.
When it comes to paying for college in general, don’t be “completely blinded by the fear of the sticker price,” Walker says.
“The numbers can get big and scary,” she says. “However, private institutions have oftentimes more aid to give because there are institutional funds aside from federal and state funds. So I recommend that students apply to a broad range of institutions: community colleges, publics, privates and then get financial aid packets from all of them. Really sit, compare and contrast not just costs but also … what’s the value of the education that they’re getting?”
Determine Whether the Institution Is Accredited
Check the accreditation status, which can determine whether the institution is eligible to participate in federal financial aid programs. This information is often available on a school’s or accreditor’s website.
“Accreditation shows that the institution has been evaluated, that its outcomes have measured that students are successful,” Altmire says. “When you’re looking at a career school, a for-profit school, you want to make sure that a respected accreditor has taken a look at that institution and has judged it worthy of accreditation.”
Some for-profits use national accreditations instead of regional, Walker says. Regionally accredited institutions — mostly nonprofits — are more widely-recognized and typically have a more selective admissions process. It’s also important to note that course credits at nationally accredited institutions — which are commonly career and technical schools — may not be recognized at regionally accredited institutions.
[READ: Going Back to College as an Adult: What to Consider.]
An accreditation “also might be focused on a specific degree rather than institutional accreditation, so we always ask students to do the research” and typically recommend that they choose schools overseen by regional accreditors “rather than these smaller accreditors,” she says.
Walker also recommends “that when the student is thinking about their long-term plans, if they’re looking for a degree that’s going to require them to have a certification exam, check with the entity that gives the exam to see if this particular institution will meet those requirements.”
Research Student Outcomes
Some research, including by the National Center for Education Statistics, indicates that bachelor’s-degree students at private for-profit schools tend to have much lower six-year completion rates than their peers at public and private nonprofit colleges.
“Often the data will compare the entirety of the for-profit sector,” Altmire says. “We think it should be an apples-to-apples comparison. … When you mix in the online component of that, too, online schools have challenges. And generally speaking, four-year, for-profit schools are distance-learning settings. So when you think of the University of Phoenix, Strayer and DeVry and those types of schools, they serve a unique mix of students and they have unique challenges based upon the educational setting. And that’s the case in any distance-education setting.”
He adds that when you’re looking at the graduation rate of a for-profit online program, for instance, you should compare that graduation rate “to another school’s online program. Not Penn State as a whole, not Arizona State as a whole, but specifically the global campus of those universities — the online component.”
Marketing at for-profits may highlight transfer rates or job-attainment statistics, so it’s important to verify that information, Walker says. She also recommends talking with faculty members, current students and alumni.
It’s also worth looking into whether a for-profit school devotes significant financial resources to academic support and social experiences for students, which can affect educational quality and graduation rates, experts note.
Choosing the right postsecondary option is a “deeply personal decision which can have a profoundly positive impact on an individual,” Gurnett says. “Comparing metrics is a good way to strip away rhetoric and focus on actual numbers and outcomes. A student needs to find a college that offers the right combination of academic programs and supports to ensure success regardless of how it was incorporated years ago.”
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Factors to Weigh Before Enrolling at a For-Profit College originally appeared on usnews.com
