5 Things You Didn't Know About For Profit Colleges

FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES For-profits enroll around 10% of all students, but account for nearly 25% of all federal student aid, and produce close to 50% of student loan defaults. For-profit college graduates rack up a lot of debt. FOR- PROFIT $32,700 PUBLIC $22,000 PRIVATE NON- $18,000 PROFIT Not many for-profit enrollees will end up graduating. FOR- 22% PROFIT 55% PUBLIC PRIVATE NON 65% PROFIT For-profits invest the least in student instruction. $2,659 FOR- PROFIT | $9,418 PUBLIC PRIVATE $15,289 NON- PROFIT 5 The largest for-profits receive 86% of their revenue from public funds. All told, for-profits receive $32 billion a year in taxpayer money. TCF fellow Suzanne Mettler explains how a dysfunctional political system has derailed higher education policy in her latest book, Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream.