Why it's Unfair to Compare Community College Graduation Rates to For-Profits

I can see what people often do because I was a CC student. I chose to be degree-seeking at the CC because it's required to receive financial aid. I had no intention of earning an associate's in CJ. As a matter of fact, most of the credits that I took at the CC didn't even count toward the CJ degree; I was earning credits for TESC's social science degree.

 

Proof of predatory enrollment practices (check) and you just made my dropout point too (double check). You want to measure something based on what people think/feel (or something) verse what they do. I am on the right side of this argument for sure.

 

Registering in a degree-seeking student category, as opposed to non-degree seeking ≠ agreeing that you don't intend to transfer out!

I ask either you to retract or the moderators to remove the libel against a fellow poster.

 

Fair enough I didn't mean it as a personal attack.

 

How is that predatory? I got the credits I needed without having to take out loans to cover tuition. The CC didn't trick me into doing anything. I don't have to pay back any of the grants I used to earn those CC credits. How did I make your dropout point? I made my point that people often go to CCs just to earn transfer credits toward a bachelors.

Enroll under false pretenses? What I did is not illegal or against rules and regulations. If this were illegal, transfers before completion wouldn't even be allowed. The government knows that many CC students transfer before graduating. If this were a problem, they would have made changes to the financial aid regulations. I actually saved taxpayers a lot of money by attending a CC and testing out of many of my courses. Nowhere did I have to sign that I intended to finish.

 

This is how the Alamo Community Colleges, the colleges I attended, define transient students.

Admissions - San Antonio College - Acalog ACMS

I was not enrolled at another college, and I attended for more than one semester. I actually attended for 4 semesters. They have no other non-degree seeking category for those looking to earn credits. You're either a transient student, auditing courses for non-credit, or taking continuing education credits. Everyone else is degree-seeking or some special case like dual enrollment at a high school.

 

It seems to me that if people want to make comparisons between community colleges and for-profit career colleges, they should be apples-to-apples comparisons.

In other words, compare completion rates for similar terminal vocational programs, things like all those para-medical professions (dental assistant, inhalation therapist or whatever) that people go to community college to learn.

My speculation is that there's going to be a awfully large drop-out rate for these at many community colleges. It's possible that some of these program-leavers continued on in something else at a different school. But the same thing could probably be said for students in similar programs at the for-profits too.

One problem with all this stuff is that it's become so politicized in recent years. I treat pretty much anything that's written about it with a great deal of skepticism.

 

Pardon my perhaps ignorance, but how is that proof of predatory lending?

 

Unfortunately, the methodology for IPEDS graduation rates is designed for traditional full-time students who attend a single 4-year university. It is not appropriate for most community colleges (for the reasons specified in this forum), not is it appropriate for most for-profit colleges, where the bulk of students are transfer students (who are excluded from IPEDS).