We’ve all seen those cheesy commercials promising students who enroll in hassle-free online classes at for-profit institutions a job within the lucrative careers of their choice. What these commercials forget to mention, though, are the incredibly steep tuition costs, the even steeper debt that students should plan to graduate with and the statistics of high dropout and low success rates of graduates from these institutions. The government is pouring millions of federal tax dollars and much of its student aid into these for profits, which results in only 3 things: rich CEOs, grads deep in debt and the rest of us college students (at non-profit schools) losing out on more federal student aid each year.

So what’s the real deal with these for-profit colleges?

Well, here’s how the system works. Recruiters are paid upwards of about $750 to practically harass students to enroll in these institutions, which typically offer online courses. Tuition costs an average of $31,000, which is about double that of non-profit public universities who are also federally funded. Ironically, the for-profits spend on their students only 1/3 of the amount that public universities spend on their students. The reasoning for this may be that the for-profits offer most of their classes online. Bridgepoint Education for example, has a 99% of its enrollment online. Campus Progress provided a statistical breakdown of the scams non-profit professionals are running, and the injustices their students face during enrollment and post graduation from these schools. Here’s a rundown of the stats:

- Non-profits are the fastest growing sector of higher learning. Enrollment has increased drastically by 225% in 10 years, yet students of these colleges still make up only 10% of college students nationally.

Read More »

Theme parties. Only the best thing to happen to college since the Solo cup.

Think about it: the best pictures of your collegiate years are all from nights where you’re wearing the most ridiculous clothing, are covered in highlighter, or are standing ankle-deep in a foam/beer mix. These are what we live for, and mistakenly document weekend after weekend. (I mean, who thinks it’s a good idea to bring the camera to the foam party?)

We’ve all been to an 80′s bash, been CEOs (or rather, CE-Hos), done anything for an A, and dabbled in the Heaven and Hell parties, sure. But, why keep the themes to the actual event? What if you started the fun a little earlier? Why not take your pre-gaming life to the next level?

I bring you, the Themed Pre-Party: Read More »