Employability of For-Profit Degrees (employees, collect, taxes, salary)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Life experience degrees are in another category than actual for-profit university degrees (ITT, UPhoenix, Everest, etc.). Those I'd be careful with because I think they are generally shunned en masse. At the school district I graduated from, they had a superintendent with a life experience Ph.D in education. When they found out, he came under fire and I think they eventually let him go.
Never said anything about a life experience degree. Those are like honorary degrees - just a piece of paper. I'm referring to receiving elective credit for professional licensing or certifications, and/or "testing out" of lower division courses using CLEP tests and professional experience.
Both methods of receiving credit are widely accepted.
From what I have observed over time experience trumps holding a college degree - (with some exceptions). I've known people who have received degrees from profit-run colleges (and/or diploma mills), the people and their work vary tremendously just as someone who never attended college at all. Overall, I really don't think it matters that much when someone already has relevant job experience, for entry-level jobs? - maybe a different story.
I guess from what college an applicant holds his/her degree from may matter some to some hiring managers but how much, who knows?
But it should be noted that everyone has to start somewhere, and a degree is usually the best way to start. It at least says you stuck with something, should be a well rounded individual and were held (and passed) a verifiable minimum standard of knowledge.
For people starting out/trying to get in a field, it is the only thing thing they may be able to get, because they have 0 experience. At least with a degree, they may have been exposed to some topics in the field, in theory.
The employability of a for-profit degree depends on other factors such as accompanying skill set and experience.
That said, I don't know that a B.A. from most any university gets you much farther than the door. People just do not realize how important internships, practicums, volunteer experience, anything that approximates real life experience, is.
There's nothing about a "for-profit" degree that is inherently unappealing. It's the fact that for-profit schools usually suck (They all don't. The Ivies are private schools).
A community college is far cheaper and their degrees are far more worthwhile than anything at a for-profit scam university. I really don't know why anyone would go to one. Even doing free courses online at UT (Youtube) would be better.
Community colleges maybe cheaper but there are a few things we need to remember.
One, we are talking for the most part low information customers when you consider the Everests, Phoenixes and that. (ITT and DeVry are different.)
Two, if the community colleges near you don't have the programs you want and these do, the cost difference can be key. Not all community colleges have every major. One near me doesn't even have a business program.
Three, community colleges do have scams too like all the remedial classes. Now yes, these schools aren't for-profit but do you really need to take beginning and intermediate algebra or remedial reading and writing?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJBest
Most for-profit universities (such as the University of Phoenix) don't provide college level learning. They tend to be credit-only institutions that only use classes to push students through. Most of the learning at a traditional high-quality institution comes from the out-of-classroom experience that involves interfacing with top researchers/professors in a specific field, working with PhD students, analyzing academic work and contributing to publications, debates, and conferences.
My findings is that many of the for-profits, are just an extension of high school where you participate in a classroom and that's it. And to limit the learning further, they only have 1 textbook, whereas a high quality traditional institution would have multiple textbooks from opposing authors and would require you to come up with your own conclusions via critical thinking and external research methods.
For-profits are not all bad, however. They are great, actually. The amount of advertising that University of Phoenix has done has greatly helped my portfolio as an investor in the early 2000s.
The for-profits have brought good gains. No doubt about it. There has been an increase in enrollment in for-profits along with other more "traditional colleges."
I've found community college is basically the same as for-profits particularly in 000, 100 and even 200 level courses to an extent. That is high school all over again, even with the attitudes towards the classes. Many just don't care. The difference here is perhaps for-profits will move students through.
I still stand that if you are student who is serious and is going for real skills like computer repairs, you should be fine. That is unless you need the quick degree for a promotion.
Three, community colleges do have scams too like all the remedial classes. Now yes, these schools aren't for-profit but do you really need to take beginning and intermediate algebra or remedial reading and writing?[/list]
Actually, many people do need another go round of reading, writing, or math in order to be successful in college courses.
It is a shame when you think of all the students who spend 12 years in school and yet haven't learned enough to be be successful in a community college course without additional coursework in reading, writing, and math.
Where do you all consider schools like Western Governors University fall in this paradigm?
Technically, they're non-profit. I'd say it's pretty legit. Not the highest rated school in the country, but I'm sure the degree would suffice in most scenarios. Quite honestly, I think the only ones that will care about where your degree is from are pretentious people in charge of hiring. I know someone with some sort of degree from one of those Art Institutes of ... (for-profit) and he worked at Google. What does that tell you?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
