Attended a for-profit school recently, or plan to? We'd like to interview you.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an independent government agency, is looking to speak with students at for-profit colleges or universities to better understand their experiences around the financial aid and student loan process.

For-profit schools include colleges like ITT Tech, the University of Phoenix, and The Art Institutes. If you’re unsure whether your school is classified as “for-profit,” please check this list of for-profit institutions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_for-profit_universities_and_colleges

We’d love to speak with you if you fit the following criteria:

• You’ve enrolled in a for-profit school in the past 12 months or you plan to enroll in a for-profit school in the next three months
• And you were offered financial aid from your school

Our 45-minute interviews can be conducted in person (in select cities) or by phone.

If you are interested in helping by sharing your experiences, please PM me with the following information:

• Your name
• What school you are attending or plan to attend

We’ll get back to you to schedule a convenient time to talk.

Thank you in advance for your help!


About Us
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent government agency that makes sure the banks and other financial service providers you depend on operate fairly. We also help educate consumers about financial products and services to ensure you have the information you need to make informed decisions.

Privacy Act Statement
5 U.S.C. 552(a)(e)(3)

The information you provide to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), will only be used to screen candidates for participation in a survey regarding the development of tools to assist students in making financial decisions when financing their education.

Information collected will be treated in accordance with the System of Records Notice (“SORN”), CFPB.021 – CFPB Consumer Education and Engagement Records, 77 F.R. 60382. This information will only be disclosed as outlined in the Routine Uses for the SORN. Direct identifying information will only be used to facilitate the study and will be kept private except as required by law.

This collection of information is authorized by Pub. L. No. 111-203, Title X, Sections 1013 and 1022, codified at 12 U.S.C. §§ 5493 and 5512.

Participation in this study is voluntary, you are not required to participate or share any identifying information and you may withdraw participation at any time. However, if you do not include the requested information, you may not participate in the interview.

 

No phishing.

 

This member has asked for and has received permission to post this request on our forum. Members can participate in this interview process or not, as they like.

 

IMHO, it was fishy without your explanation. Perhaps, in the future, such information can be made available up front?

Also, it would seem rather important that the CFPB is looking into this. Perhaps some background...again, from the board...would have been nice.

It's great to hear they're doing it.

 

Yeah, I'll tell my boss that I need more time to post on degreeinfo.:indifferent:

 

I assume the CFPB will also be tackling the "non-profit" schools that sell bachelors degrees in "contemporary studies" (and other nonsense) in exchange for six figure debt?

Hmm...maybe next administration.

 

There was a time when those degrees were worth something. Granted that was a time when a Bachelors was a check in the box(so yes, about 2 decades ago) but still there was time.

I think what the CFPB is doing, at least on the surface is interesting. The issue I see is not all for-profits are created equal. Some have different models and some non-profits are as bad as for-profits, IMHO(yes, SNHU I am talking about you).

 

It's a cost/reward proposition. Yes, a degree in say, archaeology might help me "check the box" and get a job. It obviously won't be as an archaeologist but it will be something that requires me to have a college degree. Fine. But if that degree costs $100k and the job it checks a box for is, say, a $30k/year call center representative, that's off-balance.

Frankly, from an economic standpoint, that student would have been better served with an associated degree in any number of allied health professions (say, PT Assistant) and a $50k paycheck.

I agree wholeheartedly. Hence my snarky comment. CFPB is very interested right now if I've attended a for-profit school in the recent past and was offered financial aid. They don't give a damn about SNHU. And I'm assuming they don't give a damn about Everest in its new "non-profit" (in a non-profit run by the former executives of Corinthian) form.

But by trying to paint all for-profit schools with the same brush you end up harming the students of for-profit schools who did receive a quality education and did use that degree to get a better job and did sign onto loan terms that they understood and were able to handle.

And, frankly, I'm tired of having to defend my degree because Dick Durbin decided that a "capitalism is the root of all evil" campaign would help him win another term.

 

From an Economic standpoint that has been true much longer than it ever wasn't. It's just like the Yale Education graduate, who goes on to teach at a public school. It makes 0 economic sense and you will never pay off that debt.

In my opinion, there is a big problem in higher education. First there is a problem where people are willing to pay $100,000 for a degree in contemporary studies! Then there is a problem with a government willing to loan me that amount of money towards that degree. If I wanted a million dollar loan for a $100,000 house even Ginnie Mae would not allow that(that said, I can discharge a house in bankruptcy). There is also a problem where there is very little grant money for kids to go to college day compared to what there was until the early 1990's. All of this, plus the fact that the cost of tuition has increased where you have no choice but to take out a loan.

All of that said, I am not against for-profit education. I do think certain models of both for-profit and not for profit take advantage of the current system. All of them should be addressed.

 

You're right, it would make zero sense to go into debt in that instance. Another good example would be a B.S. in nursing from Columbia. You're going to get the same pay as the recent BSN from NYU or CUNY.

Two things:

1. Not everyone goes into debt for school. If Zuck's kid decides to go to Yale for education I'm sure that the tuition bill will be paid without a lender getting involved.

2. Nor does Yale market itself to the youth of the nation as the answer to their economic woes. Yale has a solid reputation because it's Yale. They don't need to go to the local high school and whip up juniors and seniors into a frenzy.

That second point simply isn't true of many small, non-profit private schools. I went to high school in a town with 12 degree granting institutions within a half hour drive (King's College, Wilkes University, College Misericordia, the University of Scranton, Marywood University, Keystone College, Lackawanna Junior College, Luzerne County Community College, Baptist Bible College [Now Summit University], Johnson College [NA] and two campuses of Penn State, just in case you were curious). They would send their admissions people in regularly to tell us how they had the "top" business program (Kings) or the "top" nursing program (Marywood, which was ironic because they once had their programmatic accreditation yanked without notice).

Some of these schools easily put students into six figure debt. Some of them had programs that promised a reasonable return (Wilkes has a six year pharmacy program and Kings has a Physician Assistant program, for example). But the mjaority of these degrees simply had limited utility outside of the area because most employers simply never heard of these schools.

So, $100k for a degree in business administration from a school with the same standing in, say, NYC, as TESC. And then, of course, the constant manipulation of "average alumni salaries" which were thrown off by these schools hiring so many of their grads for 1 year temp jobs.

I agree. I don't mean to say that all schools are a problem. Or that for-profit schools are better. I just mean to say that there is a problem throughout higher ed. Trying to pin the blame on for-profit schools is scapegoating and the current investigation looks a lot more like political posturing to me than anything else.

I agree.