Predatory Colleges Bite the Dust

[Langue_doc]

'A Rip-Off': Students Secure a Final Settlement Against Walden University
A $28.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against the university helped create a fresh precedent for prosecuting predatory advertising in for-profit education.

[sinenomine]

Here's another story with no paywall.

I'll be interested to see where this goes...

[lightning]

I can't believe places like Walden are still open, in 2024. With all of the high-profile news about for-profit colleges, for the past twenty years, there comes a point where caveat emptor applies.

[kaysixteen]

The kids/ young adults, who mostly use these places are not usually from the sorts of backgrounds, relative to college attendance, that is generally indicative of possession of the background skills knowledge and experiences needed for caveat emptor to apply, and the fact that the fedgov has not shuttered these 'schools' probably also works against caveat emptor, as well.

Further, as to the older than 20-something adults who seek 'doctorates' at places like Walden, well it is often a transactional relationship between the school, the student, and the student's employer, that allows students to enroll there (one former k12 employer of mine, an expensive boarding school, trumpeted greatly when its head of psychological counseling did in fact get a 'PhD' from Walden, making him one of the very few doctoral-level employees it had.

[lightning]

The kids/ young adults, who mostly use these places are not usually from the sorts of backgrounds, relative to college attendance, that is generally indicative of possession of the background skills knowledge and experiences needed for caveat emptor to apply, and the fact that the fedgov has not shuttered these 'schools' probably also works against caveat emptor, as well.

At one time I would be in agreement with you, but it's 2024.  Potential customers of any product or service that they are thinking about purchasing can look up ratings and reviews for anything, including universities, any university's program, and even their faculty. And, in any casual search for a university, googling will return oodles of articles about the negative marginal utility of for-profit universities. The Feds are getting better at shuttering these places, but they are not working fast enough. I remember when the Feds finally closed down a for-profit bad actor that was near my university. Some of their students ended up in one of my classes. Not only did none of their credits transfer, they were dumb as rocks (not street-smart and definitely not book-smart).

Further, as to the older than 20-something adults who seek 'doctorates' at places like Walden, well it is often a transactional relationship between the school, the student, and the student's employer, that allows students to enroll there

In 2024, any grown-up who seeks a doctorate from places like Walden, are complicit in the for-profit scam. I've been on search committees where a PhD from Walden was proudly listed at the top. The candidate's CV deserved every bit of derision heaped upon it, before it was dragged into the virtual circular file.

(one former k12 employer of mine, an expensive boarding school, trumpeted greatly when its head of psychological counseling did in fact get a 'PhD' from Walden, making him one of the very few doctoral-level employees it had.

That expensive boarding school is clueless. Private schools often have legitimate PhDs on their faculty. If that school's first PhD was one of their counselors, and it was proudly trumpeted to the world that the PhD was earned from Walden, the school's clientele is even more clueless than the headmaster.

[dismalist]

I can't believe places like Walden are still open, in 2024. With all of the high-profile news about for-profit colleges, for the past twenty years, there comes a point where caveat emptor applies.

Walden is accredited!

This is not market failure; this is government failure.

Way to go is to stop the accreditation cartels, and let institutions survive on reputation, or die.

When was Oxford accredited?

[apl68]

I suppose the continued survival of such schools is a consequence of our job market's emphasis on credentialism.  People learn that they need credentials to qualify for positions or promotions they want, and so they try whatever school offers them.  The less savvy they are, the less picky they are about the credentials they seek.  If you don't have the educational background to get into a legitimate school to get the credential you want, you'll desperately try whatever you can find.  And will likely not know enough even to realize that you're being cheated.  Sure the information's out there, but if you're doing garden-variety Google searches about these schools your feed will likely give you pages of ads and puff pieces for them before anything talking about how bad they are.  Most people won't make it that far.

Employers are  the same way.  If they can't afford or attract workers with credentials from legitimate schools, they'll accept what they can attract, and try not to ask too many questions.

[kaysixteen]

1) it is certainly true that in 2024 it is possible for 17yo X to do a search on For-Profit Scamschool, before enrolling there, but how many of them will do so, esp those who have no college-educated fam members, and likely attend a sh*tty urban or rural pub hs where they will also get no help in doing such a search *and* evaluating the results of such a search.  Mom and dad with either 1) be very happy that kid is going to college, and a relatively inexpensive one, all things being approximately equal, or 2) very unconcerned, at best, or actively hostile, at worst, to the very idea of junior's going to any college, in the first place.   Meanwhile, kids are bombarded with propaganda ads for such schools, which appear on tv, etc., that emphasize all the relative pluses of choosing to attend such a 'school', as opposed to a regular college (look for 'South University', for instance).

2) wrt that guy at my former employer, who chose to get the Walden 'PhD', which the employer then heavily touted  (interestingly, the dude only stayed at this school for a few  years after getting the Walden degree, after which he left-- I do not know why or to where he went), this guy was a very effective psy counselor, had some sort of very legit Master's and operated effectively at this school for years.  But the school itself had very few doctorates on staff, including none of the admins-- I was one of only 2 he year I was here ('02-03), the other being a 90-ish physics PhD who had essentially volunteered his services several years earlier, after his retirement from long-term service in a govt agency (he had actually been on the Manhattan Project as a younger guy, and needless to say the school jumped to snatch him up when he, having recently retired to this posh CT mountain town, showed up one day).  Even today, the school still has only a few PhDs, including again no admins, and this school, whilst very expensive, is a specialized boarding school focusing on serving underachievers, so any PhDs that it could add to its faculty roster would be a sales pitch, esp since the rich parents who use the school probably won't know any differently.