For-Profit Postsecondary Schools: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators?

A February 2012 report by the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment, The For-Profit Postsecondary School Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators?, uses the 2004 to 2009 Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal survey to assess a recent cohort of first-time undergraduates who attended for-profits relative to comparable students who attended community colleges or other public or private non-profit institutions. The report depicts the value of for-profits to certain students, and indicates that for-profit schools do better in terms of first-year retention and the completion of shorter certificate and degree programs. However, the data also show that first-time postsecondary students at for-profits wind up with higher debt burdens, experience greater unemployment after leaving school, have modestly lower earnings six years after starting college and end up with higher student loan default rates than do observationally-similar students from public and non-profit institutions.

The report is available at http://capseecenter.org/for-profit-nimble-critters/.