Baker College Faces Federal Investigation Over “Recruitment and Marketing Practices”

“ProPublica and the Detroit Free Press found that Baker College spent more on marketing than it did on financial aid. Now, the school faces an inquiry by the U.S. Department of Education.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/baker-college-under-investigation-us-department-education

 

If half of this is true - and I'm guessing it might be -- that's a very, very ugly picture of a school gone wrong. Based on this report, I wouldn't want to be a Baker student about now -- much less a Baker executive. I don't think the USDE undertakes these investigations without compelling reasons. Definitely not a "Witch Hunt," a term a former US President sometimes used.

 

Similar to for-profit schools. They spend more on marketing than on instruction.

 

This investigation appears to be about a lot more than just the spending of money -- e.g. graduation rates, student outcomes, default rates, deception claims etc. It's not going to be easy -- that's the most optimistic statement I can come up with, here. My take: See how the investigation goes - and if / how the accreditor reacts. Any reaction there may be a key determinant of the future.

 

I figure the USDE investigators might really hone in on marketing and recruiting practices, as opposed to spending, although any anomaly there will, of course, be given its due.

 

It's way too early to know what's going to happen. Could be anything from a slap on the wrist to...(shudders.)

 

I applied to Baker College once upon a time, and their financial aid office was so terrible, I gave up.

Interesting history - Baker College was for-profit longer than it has been non-profit. SNHU was also a for-profit that converted to non-profit status. Obviously, neither school changed their culture.

 

Baker College could blow through this like UNC. The difference is that Baker College doesn't have name recognition, so its status will remain the same before and after all of this is over. But, if you really want to jump ship, I recommend attending a longstanding traditional university with online programs. UNC was an outlier. Large state universities rarely have these issues, and they have higher graduation rates.

If you're getting hung up on the dissertation, Oklahoma State University's DHCA program doesn't have one. I'd steer clear of VUL because that's not really a stable university, and I'm sure you don't want to end up in this spot again.

 

I had not seriously considered those two programs. I research programs for others. I don't have a master's related to healthcare administration or business administration, so likely nothing would have transferred to Okstate. VUL is not regionally accredited, which is a no for me. VUL's doctorate is not really a healthcare administration program. It's a general leadership and administration program. Healthcare is an afterthought.

Okstate's Doctor of Forensic Science program has at least two digital forensics courses and other courses in management, leadership, statistics and accounting. Of course, it's forensic accounting. Outside of the 18-credit core, you're free to tailor your program to your interests. My thread history has quite a few programs with alternative culminating projects or ABD completion tracks.

 

If I were in your position, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I considered jumping ship at Liberty when the scandals about Jerry Falwell, Jr. occurred. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. I am doing exceptionally well with my Liberty Ph.D. I don't sleep any less comfortably because I don't have a doctorate from a top CJ school.

What's in a name?

Do your personal or professional plans hinge on the name of the school you earned your doctorate?

BTW, SNHU became a non-profit in the 60s and Baker in the 70s. I wouldn't be hung up on their former status. I could understand schools that only converted within the last decade.

 

I think Keiser University is a good example of a university that changed its culture after converting to non-profit status. At least that's how it appears on the surface. Their graduation rate is almost 70%. I don't know what it was prior to the conversion. I don't think it matters how long ago a college converted if it chooses to still operate like a for-profit. SNHU, admittedly, modeled itself after University of Phoenix, and its graduation rate is 38.6%.

I don't get too caught up on graduation rates as an individual if I'm confident that I will finish. Thomas Edison State University's graduation rate is only 39%, but since I knew that I was going to test out of a bunch of credits, I wasn't worried about it.

 

Here are the 11 public universities with the worst graduation rates:

• Southern University at New Orleans (Graduation Rate: 4%);
  
  
• University of the District of Columbia (Graduation Rate: 7.7%);
  
  
• Kent State University - East Liverpool (Ohio) (Graduation Rate: 8.9%);
  
  
• Rogers State University (Graduation Rate: 11.5%);
  
  
• Texas Southern University (Graduation Rate: 13.3%);
  
  
• Ohio University - Southern Campus (Graduation Rate: 13.7%);
  
  
• Kent State University - Tuscarawas, Ohio (Graduation Rate: 13.9%);
  
  
• Purdue University North Central, Indiana (Graduation Rate: 14%);
  
  
• Cameron University (Graduation Rate:14.1%);
  
  
• Ohio University at Chillicothe (Graduation Rate: 15.6%);
  
  
• Coppin State University, Baltimore, Maryland (Graduation Rate: 16.3%).

I guess their public status didn't help their graduation rate. I will admit that the rates are dated, but most are still below 50%.

Source: https://www.nuroretention.com/blog/11-public-universities-with-the-worst-graduation-rates

 

In the "iron triangle" triple constraint of scope, cost, and time, your project can be good, cheap, or fast, but you can choose no more than two.

I feel some of the popular higher education metrics exist in an iron polygon.

A graduation rate being low is not a great thing, other things held constant. But the other things often aren't constant.

Often a huge reason that a graduation rate is low is that admissions is open or nearly so. There are great things about admissions being open or nearly so! It allows second chances and reinventions and nontraditional students and paths. Sometimes a big reason a graduation rate is low is that coursework is rigorous. There can be great things about coursework being rigorous! Sometimes a reason a graduation rate is low is that students move on to opportunities preferred by and better for them than their original program. Again, great things!

 

There are also characteristics that are far more prevalent in certain sectors. How many 4-year for-profit colleges have a graduation rate that is over 50%? At the end of the day, the average graduation rate for public universities is far higher than that of for-profit universities. Listing outliers means nothing. If the for-profit model worked most of the time, we wouldn't have to dig so hard for a for-profit college that has good metrics. A for-profit college having an abysmal graduation rate isn't an outlier; it's the norm.

 

This is true. Regardless of whether a college is public, not-for-profit, or for-profit, having open admissions usually results in a lower graduation rate. However, for-profits don't accept everyone out of the goodness of their own hearts. They do it to maximize profits. Their recruiting efforts are focused on retaining a student until they can profit, not until the student graduates. They even calculate how long a student has to attend before they make money. After that, they're not wasting money on retention. If most for-profit colleges cared about education, which they don't, they wouldn't spend more on marketing than instruction.

As I've stated many times, the for-profit college industry does not self-regulate because they don't have to. The free market only works with informed customers. Most Americans do not understand the higher education system in this country. How did so many students end up attending for-profit colleges that didn't meet licensing requirements? They were uninformed and didn't know how to become informed.

 

As far as I am concerned, once a student graduates, that's all that matters. For-profit or non-profit, it means nothing to me because if one attends a public university with a 90% graduation rate, but that student doesn't graduate, did the high graduation rate favor that student? Conversely, if a student attends a school with a low graduation rate but manages to persist, that student has achieved their goal.

Anyway, I have no dogs in the FP vs. NFP fight. Mi reach weh mi a guh aready.

 

Doesn't that also apply to doctoral programs?