Personal loans for for-profit school expenses may be a waste

Private, for-profit schools aren’t all created equal, and scholars should be persistent about any they may be considering. School often has to be funded with some unsecured loans of some sort. Private for-profit schools have higher loan default rates and clash with the authorities regularly. Some schools are great institutions and well worth considering. However, prospective scholars should check any out thoroughly before matriculating.

Indictment for Trump

CNN states the New York Lawyer General is investigating five companies which were for-profit universities. The small, for-profit university Donald Trump started a few years back, the former Trump University, is one of the schools involved. After the New York Department of Education said that this was not a real school, it was renamed the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. The four some other industries are, according to the New York Times, the Career Education Corporation, Corinthian Colleges, Bridgepoint Education and Lincoln Educational Services. The corporations and schools are being investigated although there aren’t yet any charges filed.

School and state fight

Many for-profit universities have been getting the shaft from state and federal governments lately. Former scholars are not very happy about this. Donald Trump is currently being sued in California by students of the now Trump Entrepreneur Initiative because they say they were misled. Reuters states that Corinthian’s colleges in California, Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts are also under investigation. The Boston Globe states the Massachusetts Attorney General will investigate the Apollo group as well which is known as the Kaplan Career Institute, operated by the Washington Post company, and University of Phoenix. The stability of smaller private colleges is generally not strong either. They are quite unstable really. Students in Spokane, Washington were left with thousands in personel loans and no degree when Alpine College shut down.

Difficult to afford and extremely hard to pay for

Students have trouble deciding which school to go to. Typically, cost is a significant thing to consider. For-profit, private colleges could be incredibly costly. Reuters states that 15.2 percent of students who went to a for-profit university defaulted on student loans within a year in 2009, which is twice the 7.3 percent of students who defaulted after going to a public school. The rate was much lower for private, not-for-profit schools. That rate was only at 4.3 percent. Also, for-profit school scholars make up half of loan defaults. That’s a pretty high rate. Several people have accused for-profit universities of fraudulent advertising and of not preparing students well enough for the job industry, thus making it harder for them to meet their loan obligations. Schools may not be able to get federal loans for students if they have a default rate over 35 percent if the Department of Education gets its way.

Citations

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/05/20/news/companies/trump_university/index.htm

New York Times

nytimes.com/2011/05/20/nyregion/trumps-for-profit-school-said-to-be-under-investigation.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/05/20/education-forprofit-idUSN2028820820110520

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/05/20/us-education-idUSTRE74J55O20110520

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/43130397″>MSNBC

Boston Globe

http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-17/business/29552871_1_college-access-success-college-students-schools”