Today I officially made the leap to transfer schools this fall. I'm confident enough in holding my grades that I feel my scholarships for Avila are secured, so I cancelled my fall classes for National American. The process was a little drawn out, and it all boiled down to "how can we keep you paying us?". While I've had a decent enough time at this school, it got me to thinking about the differences between a traditional 4 year private school and a for profit.
With University of Phoenix being the largest college in the world, a lot of attention has been given lately to the quality of these for profit schools. I enrolled in one out of convenience, so I could start getting classes finished while waiting to get accepted to a better school. I did however do some research before I started. The first thing I did is check their accreditations, and called some of the local private schools to verify that all credits would transfer. I also searched online for reviews and opinions. Here's where I hit a giant cluster of bad, wrong, or poorly represented information. Overall the reviews and opinions were pretty decent, including those of people who claimed to be employers. In the most scathing reviews I noticed a trend that caused me to quickly discount them. Most of the horrible reviews were written by disgruntled former students who had difficulty finding a job, I get that. Most of these reviews were also written by people who couldn't complete a sentence with anything resembling logic as well. In my opinion, the trouble you're having getting a job is more likely related to the fact that you didn't pay attention while you were in school and that is obvious to interviewers, not that the school wasn't good enough.
So far in my experience, NAU has been a good school. The curriculum is comparable, the teachers knowledgeable, and the teachers seem to genuinely care about your success. I believe more of the bad reputation these schools get is from the quality of students they attract, not the quality of education they provide. Basically, you get out of it what you put into it.
There is one thing noticeably missing from this school that you will find in a private school though, an excellent support structure. Counselors, tutors, huge libraries, and more accessible teachers all lend a tremendous amount of support to students that need it. Unfortunately, the kids that flock to the for profit schools are the ones that need this support the most. This leads to perhaps the biggest support structure of all, the other students. If you are at a school where you aren't confident in your fellow classmates it is very difficult to get help from the one group that is doing the same thing that you are.
The counselors at NAU are where I've seen the biggest problem. They spend most of their time on financial aid issues and seem to only take an academic interest when it means keeping a students grades just high enough to keep attending. I've tried working with mine a few times and have concluded that his "academic adviser" title is nothing more than a shiny plate on his door. Interestingly enough though, the guy who enrolled me in classes and is basically in a salesman position has routinely checked in to see how classes were going, asked for feedback about the school in general, and has presented changes to the admins based on my feedback.
Overall, I think the for profit route isn't all bad. If a traditional program doesn't fit your schedule these programs are excellent. The largest pitfall is the amount of responsibility that falls on you as the student. At any college you're responsible for your work, but at least with the private option you get an exceptional support network to help you through. If you are able to take your pick of schools though, go with the private school. The quality of education, support, and the overall "college experience" is well worth it.
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