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.

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[College kids are notorious for being poor. And why shouldn’t we be? We take out student loans to pay for private universities, can barely balance a part-time job with our full-time courseload, and the only “balance” we’re familiar with refers to the number of points left on our dining hall cards. Oh, did I mention many of us tend to splurge every extra penny on PBR’s at the campus bar?

If you disagree with everything I just said, you probably don’t need this column. But if you’re nodding along because you’re officially an adult and still don’t know how to manage your money, then you might want to pay attention every week, because I’m going to (try to) get you through this, and make you a successful saver and a wise spender.]

Everytime you whip out the plastic at the grocery store, liquor store, or gas station, the cashier asks automatically, “Credit or Debit?” It’s a simple enough question, though to many, it may be redundant. I mean, who cares what type of card it is as long as it buys you a pack of smokes, a 30-pack, or a week’s worth of Ramen Noodles?

There are a lot of pros and cons to using both credit cards and debit cards, and many people adamantly side with one form of plastic or another, much like people adamantly side with either Obama or McCain. Personally, I’m a debit kind of girl. My brother, on the other hand, swears by credit. What gives?

A debit card is like your plastic checkbook. You might not need cash in your hand, but you need to have the funds in your bank account to make a purchase. A credit card, however, lets you splurge now and pay later– even in small monthly increments. In this case, the credit card may SEEM like it has its advantages, because you can pay for your spring break trip now, and spend the next three months waiting tables to pay for it. Read More »