For-Profit Colleges Are A Massive Scam

Frequent visitors of this internet space will be well aware that for-profit law schools are a massive con. At a somewhat lower average level of financial outlay, the same can be said of for-profit colleges:

On average, counting both grads and dropouts, students at for-profit schools earn less after leaving school than they did before. And even graduates don’t do very well: They earn only about $1,300 more than they did before, compared to $4,500 for community college grads.

The study was done by Stephanie Riegg Cellini and Nicholas Turner, and as usual, there are some caveats. Some of the negative effect may be driven by unreported tip income. The study ended in 2008, which means it might be picking up the first bits of the Great Recession. And it’s hard to infer causality: it’s almost certainly the case that better students enroll in community college programs in the first place.

All that said, however, the results are pretty stunning. Once you take into account the debt load from attending for-profit schools, virtually no one benefits. Even graduates probably never make up for the cost of the program.

The difference between the typical for-profit diploma mill and Trump University is more one of degree than one of kind, right down to the high-pressure sales tactics. And while most prominent Republicans don’t have their own rip-off brand, they certainly tend to think that taxpayer money should continue to fund other people’s scams and receive generous consideration in return.