bookmark

The Unheralded Mettle of For-Profit College Students


Description

The students framed their enrollment in a for-profit as having stemmed from a desire to gain confidence, reach their potential, take charge of their lives, and shed social labels associated with a lack of a college degree. ----- What leads more than 7 percent of the nation’s college students to enroll at for-profit institutions? Much of the discussion of higher education’ proprietary sector assumes that its member schools enroll students who are academically marginal and lack other options. That’s far too simplistic, a new study concludes. The study’s authors are two scholars from the University of Pittsburgh: Linda DeAngelo, an assistant professor of higher education, and Molly M. McClelland, a doctoral student in administrative and policy studies there. They based their analysis on extensive interviews with 19 students who had attended two-year, for-profit colleges before enrolling in a private, four-year, urban college. The students ranged in age from 20 to 60 and were diverse in terms of their race, ethnicity, gender, and major. Contrary to common stereotypes, the two researchers say, their subjects generally saw their experience with a for-profit college as positive, and said little that traced their decision to enroll in it to poor academic performance in high school. Generally, they framed their enrollment in a for-profit as having stemmed from a desire to gain confidence, reach their potential, take charge of their lives, and shed social labels associated with a lack of a college degree. In keeping with standard research protocol, the researchers name neither their subjects nor the private college where the study took place. They caution that their study’s results might have been skewed by its focus on students who were successful enough to move on to a four-year institution. The researchers also stress that their findings should not be perceived as an endorsement of the for-profit sector, which continues to have low graduation rates and includes colleges that leave students heavily indebted and faci

Preview

Tags

Users

  • @prophe

Comments and Reviews