Capitalizing on Fear and Failure: For-Profit Colleges Selling Themselves to the Poor

• In Event: 3213 - Problems in Educational Decision-Making

Abstract

This study explores the admissions encounter that prospective undergraduates experience at many for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs). We consider how this encounter is shaped by intentional sales techniques and the implications of that approach for the college enrollment choices of low-SES and low-achieving students. Using the content of an admissions and recruitment staff training manual from a for-profit college with a publicly traded parent corporation and interviews from 47 students who went through the admissions and enrollment process at a for-profit college, we explore how recruiting practices are relevant to students’ college choice. Our data reveal for-profit admission representatives, despite their good intentions, are incentivized to work as institutional agents in service of the institution’s profit motive at the expense of the student. FPCUs use admissions representatives to recruit prospective students by presenting the benefits of enrolling in a way that capitalizes on student anxieties, stress, and fear.

Authors

• Regina Deil-Amen, University of Arizona

• Courtney Campbell, University of Arizona

• Jessica Gjerde, University of Arizona