Argosy Going Down the Tubes

Students struggle after national college chain abruptly closes

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/apos-unfair-understatement-apos-students-215321031.html

As discussed in earlier posts, this was predicted:

The nationwide chain of schools closed after months of turmoil and unpaid financial aid led the U.S. Department of Education to yank eligibility for federal aid programs, the final nail in the coffin for a university.

 

The latest article in this fun series:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2019/03/26/how-to-choose-a-college-argosy-university-college-closing/3211480002/

 

For-profits and private-nonprofits should not be so dependent on government backed student loans. These institutions should be able to back some of the loans of their students. A few years ago, my opinion was no government backed loans for for-profits and private-nonprofits. My opinion has evolved, to that government of should not back more than 50% of loan to these institutions. Thus the government, the students, and the institutions share in the benefits and the cost of the education . At present for-profits and private-nonprofits reaped all the upside and none of the downside.

 

It's not a bad idea on paper. The biggest problem, of course, is that we would never allow the invisible hand to do its thing.

Let's think about it like this. Let's say Hamilton College. It's pretty much the only employer in Clinton, New York. It's a private non-profit school of reasonable repute. So let's say they back 50% of their students loans. They do fairly well because they have alumni going on to good things either with their Hamilton degrees or because they can then leap to grad and professional programs at even more reputable schools. Then there's a recession. Hamilton then ends up holding the bag on a bunch of defaults.

Hamilton closing doesn't just affect the students currently enrolled and the ones who hoped to apply next year. Hamilton closing would mean the economic ruin of that town, a fleet of professors now unemployed and on the job market and a campus that will eventually fall into ruins because there are few development opportunities for buildings of that type in a town like Clinton.

Now, we can argue that Hamilton should just be judicious in its loan practices. How does that work, exactly? No loans to the liberal arts? What about the people who are getting those degrees and then going on to Harvard Law? What happens when we finance the accounting or finance major and that person decides s/he would rather do performance art in Belgium and just says screw it to their loans? What do we do if our key group of up and coming alumni all get laid off in a recession?

There are just so many factors beyond the control of a school, particularly a small school, as to whether the student will default on their loans that I'd say it's just not feasible. You'll end up with more parents co-signing, I suppose.

The real question, I'd argue, is why should Hamilton get tax dollars at all? It's really just the higher ed version of the voucher program. We have public institutions. Instead of funding public institutions we found a way to funnel tax dollars into religious institutions. What makes it legal and OK to give Hamilton my tax money is what makes it legal and OK to give TRACS schools my tax money. As far as USDOE is concerned, Hamilton, SNHU and DeVry are all in the same boat as it pertains to federal financial aid.

Subsidized public schools work and work well. CUNY schools provide a high quality education at an insanely low price relative to the higher ed market today. SUNY schools should be offering the same insanely low rates but they don't because they receive so little public funding at this point. The Excelsior scholarship was a step in the right direction but there are more steps to take.

Not giving funds to private institutions at all could restore public institutions to the point where a student can pay for a year of college by spending summers scooping ice cream.

But we won't do either. Because doing so would result in many of these small schools, currently living on the dole, to close and pandemonium would ensue.

 

a little help for Argosy students

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/06/14/private-university-in-bloomington-taking-former-argosy-students

 

As Northwestern doesn't have any of the programs that they will be accepting students from, I'd be curious to see how generous they were in the transfers. They don't offer associates degrees at all and only have one B.S. program, a human biology degree completion program. Hopefully it offers some relief to those affected.

 

Here's an update on some of those Argosy students

https://kstp.com/news/former-argosy-university-students-return-to-classroom-at-new-school-northwestern-health-sciences/5526619/

 

I always thought Argosy and Nova Southeastern were similar. Thoughts?

 

What? How are these two schools similar?

 

It has been awhile but they used to appear to be chasing similar students with a similar value proposition.

 

I think that maybe there was some overlap to the degrees they offered. Some sort of Psych doctorate, the obligatory Business degrees, etc. Also, I think they both lived in the same general cost zone. Maybe. I really don't remember a lot about Argosy.

 

They are not at all similar, in my opinion. Nova Southeastern is a large not for profit school with accredited doctoral programs in law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, psychology, education, etc. Nova is ranked by the US News and World Review magazine, Forbes Magazine, etc.

 

They are not at all similar, in my opinion. Nova Southeastern is a large not for profit school with accredited doctoral programs in law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, psychology, education, etc. Nova is ranked by the US News and World Review magazine, Forbes Magazine, etc.

 

No comparison. Argosy got way out over its skis. NSU has always been stable, a true founder of online education.

Argosy's University of Sarasota's roots give it some bona fides in this area, but they obliterated it as they merged with other schools. NSU, on the other hand, always maintained its identity.

IIRC, back in the mid-1980s, Nova University (as it was known then) began offering online degree programs before the existence of the world wide web. You accessed classes (from all over the world) through the internet, using a connection service like Telenet or Tymnet.

Perhaps others could give more specifics, or correct my fuzzy memory where necessary.