I'm getting my basic courses done for $3400 a year from the government (Pell Grant) through the local community college. At this point, going into a job interview with absolutely no college education is like saying, 'I want to clean your toilets, not work towards anything worthwhile and lasting.' You don't even have to complete a degree, just do a semester and pass with a decent grade.

wrecker: If you need the NYT to tell you that ITT Tech is bullshit, you deserve what you get.

I see commercials on TV for these places all the time and I always assumed this was true, this article just cemented it in my mind.

spankerchief: It's just training. Getting a job afterward is still YOUR responsability.

True, but recruiters are assuring students that they will be highly sought after in fields that they know are shrinking. The whole point of getting a degree is to make it easier to find a better job. Sometimes the training you get doesn't make you any more employable than the next chump, and sometimes the jobs just aren't there. Also, most of these 'schools' promise some sort of post-graduation job placement program, which often consists of little more than passing on a local classified ad.

My big problem with this is how they are cashing in on people's desire to make a better life for themselves. Everyone wants to do a little better than the generation before them. They want their children can have it a little better than they did. What these institutions are doing is bastardizing the American Dream for profit, at a cost to tax payers in the form of defaulted, federally-backed student loans. How these places still exist is a mystery to me.

I especially empathize because, despite the fact that I have earned a ligitimate degree, I have not found it any easier to get a job where I am not required to wear an apron.

This week, the UK government announced that it was cutting or freezing funding to the majority of universities. Chancellors have been lining up to say that unless the cap on tuition fees is scrapped (I think it's up around �3/4k per year right now, which is what? $5/6k?) then quality is going to suffer. And sadly, they're right.

I was lucky to have done my degree several years ago, and paid only 3 grand per year tuition to do so. But these poor fuckers who are coming through within the next 5 years are probably going to be paying US-amount of tuition; accumulating tens-of-thousands in debt before trying to enter an over-subscribed job market with the degree, yes, but no on the job experience. It's tough out there; we've already got thousands of graduates from last year who are unable to find work, and the situation is only going to get worse when the next crop of graduates emerge this summer.

I don't know what the solution is, but if I should ever have a sprog, I'll probably advise it to do something vocational at university, so at least they're leaving with marketable skills in exchange for all that debt. Plus it'd be nice to get free medical care in my old age ;)

The ads for these places are the hilarious part. 'Guess what Billy, you could have a great career working in a doctor's office! awesome!'

*cut to Billy having a great 'career' as a secretary making 8 bucks an hour in a doctor's office

My big problem with this is how they are cashing in on people's desire to make a better life for themselves. Everyone wants to do a little better than the generation before them. They want their children can have it a little better than they did.

Cashing in on stupid people's desires. Wrecker was correct, anyone going to one of these places and expecting to come out with anything that's not worthless deserves it. Of course, as this article shows, critical thinking is a lost art among the type of people these institutions prey on. It's a nice vicious cycle, isn't it.

What these institutions are doing is bastardizing the American Dream for profit, at a cost to tax payers in the form of defaulted, federally-backed student loans. How these places still exist is a mystery to me.

Your first sentence answered your question. Why NOT have a sub-standard educational system, as long as you can wring as much profit from it as possible? What they're doing is not much different than what contractors did in Iraq.

But don't forget, we mustn't have national healthcare! Socialism! blargh!

Why should preying on the weak, dumb, & poor be the sole providence of government?

critical thinking is a lost art among the type of people these institutions prey on. It's a nice vicious cycle, isn't it.

This is pretty true, Sexninja. You are so cynical and I want to argue with you, but I know I can't. Sorry poor people :(

lulzzzz

When I was hiring, the last person I wanted was a college graduate. Most of them played around and got drunk for 4 years on daddy's money. I hired people who couldn't afford college, so they went out and got a job, and had actual experience doing the job I was hiring for.

^(sincere)Golf clap.