Blog Post 9: Visual

The Privatization of Higher Education

Literature Review # 5

(1)    

(2)    U.S. Senate. HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE.  For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success (1-181). Washington: Government Printing Office, July. 2012

(3)     The US Senate's HELP committee researched the deceptive tactics that for-profits used during their enrollment process. Their results show that for-profits will go to extreme lengths to recruit students, including targeting the most vulnerable parts of the population.

(4)    The US HELP committee is a portion of the Senate. It handles manners concerning the health, education, and work force of the nation.

(5)   Pain Funnel - sales tactic used by for-profit recruiters that elicits pain in students, causing them to make decisions without much thought

      Objections - doubts or concerns students may have about enrollment. Recruiters used scripts or aggressive language to overcome student objections.

(6)    "After a recruiter located a prospective student’s pain point, the “pain funnel” presented a number

of questions that the recruiter can ask that are progressively more hurtful" (HELP 62).

Students are mentally backed into a corner with the pain funnel method. Then, recruiters would offer the solutions to all of the students' problems in the form of a for-profit degree.

"For instance, Vatterott’s internal “Student Profiles,” part of a manual to train recruiters, detailed the demographic subgroups that the company targets for enrollment: 'Welfare Mom w/Kids. Pregnant Ladies. Recent Divorce. Low Self-Esteem. Low Income Jobs. Experienced a Recent Death. Physically/Mentally Abused. Recent Incarceration. Drug Rehabilitation. Dead-End Jobs-No Future'"(HELP 58).

Low-income and minority populations are targeted by these companies, and recruiters are trained to find and take advantage of students who fit the description.

"An internal Concorde email indicates that company employees had visited 'welfare offices' and 'unemployment offices,' although recruiters were later told to stop visiting these offices because it may be a violation of accreditation standards" (HELP 58).

In their attempt to exploit low-income neighborhoods and find prospective students, some recruiters have been known to show up at social service organization offering for-profit education as solutions to vulnerable people.

(7)     This study explicitly shows the methods used by for-profit college in their efforts to take advantage of the low-income communities. Students are pushed to the edge, emotionally, and then offered a solution in for-profit education. If students do not comply, they are met with more aggressive methods of recruitment. 

Literature Review #4

(1)     

(2)   U.S. Congress. Government Accountability Office. FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES: Undercover Testing Finds Colleges Encouraged Fraud and Engaged in Deceptive and Questionable Marketing Practices. (1-27) Washington: Government Printing Office, Aug. 2010.

(3)     The GAO conducts a study in which their agents visit 15 for-profit colleges in an effort to uncover the enrollment process of for-profit schooling.The study finds that for-profits use deceptive tactics to enroll students and also falsify student information to maximize their financial aid award.

(4)    The GAO is part of the legislative branch of the US government. It serves to audit, evaluate, and investigate the use of public funds. The GAO makes reports in order to maximize efficiency in public spending.

(5)     FAFSA - free application for federal student aid
Federal  student aid - helps students pay for college with free grants, work study programs, and loan programs
.

(6)     "Within a month of using the Web sites, one student interested in business management received 182 phone calls and another student also interested in business management received 179 phone calls" (14).

As soon as students sign up for websites affiliated with for-profits, they are immediately targeted, receiving calls from unrelenting recruiters. 


"Three colleges required undercover applicants to make $20–$150 monthly payments once enrolled, despite the fact that students are typically not required to repay loans until after the student finishes or drops out of the program"(13).

For-profit recruiters would use deceptive tactics to persuade students to pay fees, which sometimes did not even exist.

"At the same Florida college, multiple representatives used high pressure marketing techniques, becoming argumentative, and scolding our undercover applicants for refusing to enroll before speaking with financial aid" (12).

Students are pressured to enroll in for-profits and if they are not complying, recruiters would often become aggressive.

(7)     This study shows the harshness of the for-profit recruitment process. Students, such as those in the minority population, are easily taken advantage of by these schools. Desperate for an opportunity for schooling, students are often misled into paying more for education, enrolling into for-profit schooling without taking the time to research the educational institution.

BLOG POST #7 : Argument & Counter-Argument

In my paper, I argue that low-income students will find more benefit in enrolling in community colleges or traditional schooling, rather than enrolling in for-profit colleges. One counter-argument supports the rise of for-profit colleges and learning activities provided within the institutions. Occupational colleges focus on providing students hands-on learning classes that helps the students gain major experience in their relative field. Career services building are major offices in most for-profit schools, emphasizing the institution's desire to help their graduates, including many disadvantaged students, acquire and maintain a career.