THE RISE OF CAREER COLLEGES

The Rise of Career Colleges and Universities

After graduating from high school, what type of institution does a student attend who wants to become a plumber, electrician, or appliance repair person? Where does he or she go to become a secretary, a dental hygienist, or an automobile mechanic? Although still called trade schools by some, the vocational school has had a reincarnation to the more-inclusive career college, or for-profit institution.

For-profit institutions, which are privately owned and managed, are run as profit-making businesses. They differ from public or private not-for-profit colleges and universities in that their primary focus is teaching career skills. They do not provide a liberal arts education meant to broaden students’ perspectives. Today’s students, who want to develop job skills for a particular career, often choose to attend for-profit colleges and universities.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance lists the top five for-profit colleges (in order of enrollment) as University of Phoenix (380,232), Kaplan University (71,011), Strayer University (54,325), Walden University (40,714), and Capella University (31,998) (Clark, 2011). (See Table 1 for the top eleven.) Although these schools are top in enrollment, Thomas D. Snyder and Sally A. Dillow (2011) note in Digest of Education Statistics, that degree-granting for-profit institutions have increased to over 1.8 million in 2009 from 21,679 in 1967 when their numbers were first recorded by the government (p. 291, Table 197).

Why do Many Students Find Career Colleges Compelling?

Robin Wilson in “For-Profit Colleges Change Higher Education’s Landscape” (2010) explains that career colleges and universities meet the needs of their students by offering online learning and scheduling face-to-face classes when students are available, such as weekend mornings or weekday evenings. An entire course of study is planned in the beginning, and courses are always available for students. Students do not have to worry that courses will fill up and become “closed.” In addition, the course of study focuses directly on the career the student is pursuing.

Despite such factors that draw students to career colleges, these institutions are expensive to attend. Many students take on large student loans, are unable to get jobs when they graduate, and cannot repay the loans. In response, the U.S. Department of Education developed new rules that bar federal financial aid from flowing to career colleges that overburden their students with debt (Andréa Ford, “Student Debt for Life: New Government Rule Cracks Down on For-Profit Colleges” Time, June 2, 2011).

Question:

1. What errors, if any, do you see in the format of the title page of the research paper?

a. The paper’s title should be justified left.

b. The author’s name should be in the footer.

d. The course instructor’s name should be listed.

e. Research papers in the APA style should not have a title page.

f. There are no formatting errors.

2. In the third paragraph, what formatting errors, if any, do you see with the reference to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance? Refer to the link below.

a. The author’s name must be in the sentence.

b. The page number is missing.

c. The year is incorrect.

d. There are no formatting errors.

3. In the third paragraph, what formatting errors do you notice, if any, in the reference to the Digest of Education Statistics? Refer to the link below.

a. The names of the authors in the sentence should be formatted with the last name first, followed by a comma, and then the first initial.

b. The date of the publication should be placed immediately following the publication’s name, not the names of the authors.

c. The table number should not be used with the page number.

d. There are no formatting errors.

4. Regarding the margins, running head, layout of the body of the paper, and placement of the heading, what formatting errors, if any, do you notice?

a. The margins are too small.

b. The running head should state “Running Head” on each page.

c. The body of the paper should be centered with right and left margins justified.

d. There are no formatting errors.