University or Colleges for Network Security / Network Architecture Degrees?

Hey all I wanted to get some inputs on where some different programs are offered. I have been looking at UMUC and Phoenix programs and a few of the colleges in Southern California. I am currently in the Navy as an IT (which covers a wide aspect of IT) right now working in Communications and Radio Frequencies, but have worked in the networking area to both as computer repair and network tech/admin. I am wanting to get into Network Security and Architecture because those are areas that interest me, but I have yet to find a program that seems viable to try to do both. Any help or advice you have or even college program names would be helpful as rightnow I am on deployment and internet isnt reliable enough to browse dozens of college websites at a time. Thanks all!
Addison

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the_Grinch

1. Attempt to reclass to a CTN as soon as you can. That will give you the job experience and definitely help increase your skill level.

2. Look for a program that is Computer Science, Information Technology, or Information Systems with a concentration in Information Assurance. DSU has a BS in Cyber Operations which is a mix of Computer Science and Information Assurance. It's online and only runs about $300 a credit for undergrad (might be cheaper since you're military). A combo of your GI Bill and the $200 per credit in tuition assistance through the Navy should get you through for nothing.

Good luck!

aspiringsoul

Addison,

Please for your own good, avoid FOR-PROFIT schools at all costs. University of Phoenix is a FOR-PROFIT school, and many for-profit schools have a history of targeting and taking advantage of Veterans because of GI bill benefits.

You can read more about that here: Obama Must Not Coddle For-Profit Colleges Facing Fraud Probes | David Halperin

Also, in regard to UoP:

I have done extensive research on for-profit schools, and I support what everyone else is telling you. Do NOT go to University of Phoenix. There is far less ROI for your money, and it's less respected than its non-profit counterparts. Please see the fact sheet below, or the attached PDF detailing the investigation of UoP by the HELP committee.

University of Phoenix Fact Sheet

UNCATEGORIZED
Is this the education we want?
Many Apollo Group students leave the University of Phoenix without diplomas.

60.5% of students that enrolled with the Apollo Group in 2008-09 withdrew by mid-2010, with 66.4% of Associate degree students withdrawing within two years. In comparison, the average withdrawal rate among for-profit colleges is 54%.
For students who entered a Bachelor’s degree program in 2006 only 13% graduated by 2012 and nearly 83% had dropped out.[ii]

More than 1 in 4 students at the University of Phoenix default on their loans.

26% of Apollo Group’s students will default on their loans within three years of entering repayment.[iii]
The online program appears to be particularly harmful to students. According to Apollo Group, 75% of their undergraduate students that default on their loans attended the online program.[iv]
Apollo Group expects the lifetime default rates for Associate degree students entering repayment in 2006 to be 77.7%.[v]

Is the Apollo Group harming low-income students?

Apollo Group receives more Pell Grant dollars than any other college in the country, more than $816 million in 2013.[vi] Pell grants are need-based grants for low-income undergraduates and certain post-baccalaureate students, and intended to increase access to higher education. Studies have shown that 95.1% of Pell Grant students have a family income at or below 250% of the federal poverty line and 67.5% of Pell Grant recipients have a family income at or below 150% of the federal poverty line.[vii]
Nationally, 41% of undergraduate students received Pell Grants in 2012-13, yet 59% of University of Phoenix students received Pell Grants in 2012. When the data is examined campus by campus, the rate goes even higher: as many as 81% of undergraduate students at a University of Phoenix campus receive Pell Grants in 2012.[viii]
Alarmingly, the loan default rate among University of Phoenix’s Federal Perkins Student Loan students is a staggering 36.3%. University of Phoenix’s Federal Perkins Student Loan students owe $769,796 for loans in default for more than 240 days as of June 30, 2013.[ix]

Apollo Group is not providing the highest quality education.

The University of Phoenix’s accreditation is on Notice status by its accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Notice status is a sanction that indicates that the University is on a course of action that, if continued, could lead to the institution being out of compliance with one or more of the Criteria for Accreditation.
- Specifically, the University of Phoenix received this sanction because of practices around governance, student assessment and faculty scholarship and research for doctoral programs.[x]
- Although the University of Phoenix was only placed on notice, a comprehensive evaluation by a peer review team from the Higher Learning Commission actually recommended in February 2012 that the University of Phoenix receive a tougher penalty and have their accreditation put on probationary status.[xi]

High Costs and Misplaced Priorities
Tuition is higher at Apollo Group than at public colleges: hurting students and veterans.

For example, tuition for an Associate of Arts in Business at the University of Phoenix Online costs $24,500, but the same degree only costs $4,087 at Phoenix College in the Maricopa Community College System.[xii]
The higher tuition results in higher costs for veterans. From 2009-2013, Apollo Group received $751 million dollars from the post-9/11 GI Bill. For 2012-2-2013 the average cost per veteran attending an Apollo Group college was $6,250. In comparison, public colleges received an average of $3,914 per veteran.[xiii]

University of Phoenix collected $12,319 per student in tuition but only spent $1,655 per student on instruction in 2012.[xiv]

In 2012, John Sperling, founder and Chairman of Apollo Group, received $6.95 million in total compensation.[xv]
Sperling’s retirement package includes a $5 million bonus, two company vehicles, reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs he incurs to obtain medical and dental care coverage under the Company’s health plan and a lifetime annuity of more than $70,800 per month.[xvi]

Kicked Out of California:
University of Phoenix performance is below the California standard.

University of Phoenix is ineligible for Cal Grant, financial aid for California residents, for the 2014-15 school year.
To be eligible for Cal Grants a school’s cohort loan default rate must be below 15.5% and graduation rates must be above 30%.
- University of Phoenix’s 2010 three-year cohort default rate is 26% and its 2011 graduation rate is 19.1%[xvii]

Lawsuits and Investigations
Apollo Group is under investigation by Attorney General offices and the Department of Education in numerous states.

On March 21, 2014, University of Phoenix received a subpoena from the Mid-Atlantic Region of the OIG. The subpoena seeks the production by the University of documents and detailed information regarding certain activities conducted after January 1, 2007, including information relating to marketing, recruitment, enrollment, financial aid processing, fraud prevention, student retention, personnel training, attendance, academic grading and other matters.[xviii]
Attorneys General in Florida and Massachusetts are investigating University of Phoenix allegations, including “misrepresentations regarding financial aid” and “unfair or deceptive practices regarding recruiting, enrollment, placement, etc.[xix]
A 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation uncovered multiple instances of deceptive and misleading recruiting by University of Phoenix staff. Undercover agents were told inaccurate prices for tuition and were not given answers about job placement rates.[xx]

Apollo Group has been the subject of numerous federal investigations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated the Apollo Group in 2012 and in 2009 but did not take any enforcement action.[xxi]
The federal Internal Revenue Service is auditing Apollo’s tax returns from 2006 through 2010. Apollo previously settled with the IRS over an audit of taxes from 2003-05. Apollo paid $27.3 million in this settlement.
- Apollo Group was audited by the Arizona Department of Revenue in FY 2010 for fiscal years 2003 through 2009. Apollo paid $57.9 million in this settlement. [xxii]

Apollo Group is being sued by former employees.

In 2003, Apollo Group was sued by two former employees for violating incentive compensation rules. The case was settled in 2009 for $78.5 million. In 2004, the Department of Education alleged that Apollo Group violated incentive compensation rules; the suit was settled for $9.8 million.[xxiii]
In May 2011, a qui tam lawsuit was filed in California alleging various inappropriate actions by recruitment officials leading to infractions of the False Claims Act; the case is still pending and a trial is scheduled for January 2015.[xxiv]
In January 2010, a wage and hour lawsuit was filed in California and certified as a class covering 1,500 employees. The case was settled in August 2011.[xxv]

Apollo Group is being sued by its own shareholders.

In 2008, a jury found in favor of the plaintiff in a securities class action by the Policeman’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, which alleged that Apollo Group made misleading statements by failing to disclose a Department of Education program review report. In 2012, Apollo Group entered into a settlement agreement of $145 million.[xxvi]
In 2012, a securities class action lawsuit was filed by Douglas Gaer alleging that Apollo Group made false and misleading statements about its business practices and prospects for growth. Two related lawsuits were also filed with an overlapping class period of 2007-2010; the three suits were merged and the lead plaintiffs are the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme, and Amalgamated Bank. The case was dismissed in Apollo’s favor in June 2012 but the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal in July 2012, and the appeal is currently pending. [xxvii]
On November 2, 2006, the Teamsters Local 617 Pensions and Welfare Funds filed a class action complaint purporting to represent a class of shareholders who purchased stock between November 28, 2001 and October 18, 2006. In 2014, Apollo settled with the plaintiffs and the settlement is pending approval from the district court.[xxviii]
On April 24, 2014, a securities class action complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona by Nader Saleh against the Apollo Group. The complaint alleges (i) Apollo manipulated federal student loan and grant programs to appear to be in compliance with federal regulations; (ii) Apollo’s predatory and deceptive recruiting and enrollment practices violated federal regulations; and (iii) Apollo engaged in a number of practices, including loan forbearance programs, to create the appearance that it was in compliance with federal regulations. The complaint further contends that the truth emerged regarding these statements when Apollo announced on April 1, 2014 it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Education.[xxix]

Apollo Group is facing lawsuits about its business practices.

In November 2010, K.K. Modi Investment and Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. filed a suit in India to enjoin Apollo Group from investing in the education industry in the Indian market in breach of an alleged noncompete agreement.[xxx]

Apollo Group is being investigated by Chile.

Apollo Group institutional accreditation for its university in Chile was not renewed in Chile in 2011. Further, in 2012 a prosecutor’s office in Santiago, Chile requested documents between a former employee and consultant who served as a member of the accreditation commission until March 2012. The prosecutor’s office has also requested documents about its business structure and operation and relationship with other Apollo entities.[xxxi]

Source: http://forprofitu.org/2014/08/univer...ix-fact-sheet/

Apollo.pdf

aspiringsoul

Check out this list of Best Affordable Online Bachelor degrees for IT/Computer Science:

Online Bachelors Degree Computer Science | Affordable Online Degrees | Best Online Colleges | Best Online Universities | GetEducated.com

I would strongly recommend the programs at WGU (the Security track might interest you the most): Online IT Security Degree | Information Security Degree | WGU College of Information Technology

And DSU (as the_grinch recommended):

Online Degrees | Dakota State University

cruwl

If your not quite ready to commit to a 4 year BS, Take a look at Ivy Tech CC Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana . They have On line A.A.S degree in Cyber Security/Information Assurance, as well as a A.S degree in Computer Science. The school is accredited by one of the 4 accreditation places that does WGU as well, so should get quite a bit of transfer if you choose to.

Its also really cheap since its a CC.

cyberguypr

Aspiringsoul needs to be given the Public Service Award of the Year for compiling all that eye-opening info.

akatsuki91

I like DSU. I am in their Cyber Operations program but will be changing to Computer Science. They have a Networking and Security Administration program as well. There is a lot of overlap between the two degrees. Most people in the programs take many of the same courses. I haven't taken any networking classes but the other ones I have are top notch. They cover a lot of different areas. http://dsu.edu/assets/uploads/resources/NetworkSecurityAdmin-BS-MAP.pdf http://dsu.edu/assets/uploads/resources/CyberOps-MAP.pdf

aspiringsoul

cyberguypr wrote: »

Aspiringsoul needs to be given the Public Service Award of the Year for compiling all that eye-opening info.

Thank you!

I just hate to see Veterans (or anyone for that matter) be taken advantage of by For-Profit schools.

Where does the money go to at for-profit schools? Simple....to Profit. Take for example, the Chairmen and CEO of Strayer Robert S. Silberman received $41,489,800 in compensation in 2009. Source: http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/PartII/Strayer.pdf

The chief executive officers of the largepublicly traded, for-profit education companies took home, on average, $7.3 million in fiscal year2009.

You can read about the HELP comittee's investigation into many FOR-PROFIT schools here (including ITT Tech, Devry, Phoenix, Kaplan, etc.) The findings are pretty disturbing.

http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/Contents.pdf

Veterans are targeted VERY heavily...

The Perfect Lobby: How One Industry Captured Washington, DC | The Nation

Check out this video on Youtube. It's John Oliver's Last Week tonight. It's very funny and informative:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pjd1QEA0c

akatsuki91

aspiringsoul wrote: »

Thank you!

I just hate to see Veterans (or anyone for that matter) be taken advantage of by For-Profit schools.

When I was active duty most people were going to For-Profit schools. It was either AMU, Devry, UoP, Strayer, or Kaplan. Since its just a check in the box some don't think about it but then again a lot don't know the difference or look into it. They just see that they will receive a degree.

the_Grinch

Why the switch from Cyber Operations, if you don't mind my asking? Oh and go Trojans!

akatsuki91 wrote: »

I like DSU. I am in their Cyber Operations program but will be changing to Computer Science. They have a Networking and Security Administration program as well. There is a lot of overlap between the two degrees. Most people in the programs take many of the same courses. I haven't taken any networking classes but the other ones I have are top notch. They cover a lot of different areas. http://dsu.edu/assets/uploads/resources/NetworkSecurityAdmin-BS-MAP.pdf http://dsu.edu/assets/uploads/resources/CyberOps-MAP.pdf

aspiringsoul

Figured I might add, that there have been cases of For-Profit school recruiters signing up brain injured Marines for classes, that they could not even remember they were signing up for...

Sickening....absolutely deplorable.

aspiringsoul

akatsuki91 wrote: »

When I was active duty most people were going to For-Profit schools. It was either AMU, Devry, UoP, Strayer, or Kaplan. Since its just a check in the box some don't think about it but then again a lot don't know the difference or look into it. They just see that they will receive a degree.

The reason that so many Veterans attend For-Profit schools is because they are targeted so heavily because the 90/10 rule does not include Veteran benefits.

http://newgibill.org/blog/9010_rule_why_predatory_schools_target_veterans_1

But, when Congress updated the rule in the 1990s, they made a mistake. They didn’t include veteran and military education benefits – like the New GI Bill – in the pool of federal dollars. These programs are clearly paid for by taxpayers and should be counted as federal money. This loophole allows schools to be completely funded by federal dollars: 90% from federal financial aid and the 10% “private funds” can come from the GI Bill.
This loophole rewards schools for targeting veterans – for each veteran it enrolls, a for-profit school can enroll 9 more students on federal financial aid. Many schools have developed aggressive and deceptive marketing campaigns aimed at getting as many veterans enrolled as possible. And they are succeeding – according to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, 8 of the top 10 recipients of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits are for-profit schools.

akatsuki91

the_Grinch wrote: »

Why the switch from Cyber Operations, if you don't mind my asking? Oh and go Trojans!

I mostly wanted to challenge myself since that is what I was originally wanted to go for. I'd rather try it than regret not doing it later. The other programs are still a bit heavy on CS though. It wont be much of a change besides a few core security courses and 2 more math classes.

Addison.Ballard

@the_Grinch - I would switch over to CTN and have thought about it in the past but I am 16 months from my EAOS right now, and as of now do not intend to reelist again ( currently at 8 years in, and 16 months is a long way away and who knows what will change.)

@aspiringsoul - Holly cow!?!?!?! Thank you so much for that info I never would've know!

Thank you so much for all of the info guys it really makes figuring this out less stressful.

Addison.Ballard

aspiringsoul wrote: »

Figured I might add, that there have been cases of For-Profit school recruiters signing up brain injured Marines for classes, that they could not even remember they were signing up for...

Sickening....absolutely deplorable.

WTH that is messed up how are they not getting in trouble for that.

aspiringsoul

Addison.Ballard wrote: »

WTH that is messed up how are they not getting in trouble for that.

Short answer....there is no law against it, and well....lobbying.

Veterans and active service members can use federal benefits that ease the burden of applying, paying for and completing their degrees.

This Veterans Day, one way you can honor your neighbors, friends or cousins who have returned from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is to help them avoid a scam.
The G.I. Bill is America's chief "thanks" to those who have given the most to their country; it is a ticket to the American Dream for most veterans – a chance to earn a college degree and the skills needed for the civilian workforce and a better future for themselves and their families.
But veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are being targeted by very aggressive and deceptive salesmen for low-quality, high-cost, for-profit colleges that have a financial incentive – because of a bizarre loophole in federal law – to deceive veterans in order to get access to the G.I. Bill.

URL="http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/afghanistan-cartoon-collection"]See a collection of political cartoons on Afghanistan.[/URL
Education salesmen turned whistleblowers explain what's going on inside the massive call centers where for-profit college salesmen are under constant pressure to sign up veterans:"We're selling you that you're gonna have a 95 percent chance that you are gonna have a job paying $35,000 to $40,000 a year by the time they are done in 18 months," Brooks College (CEC) salesman Eric Shannon told CBS' 60 Minutes. "We later found out it's not true at all.""Get asses in classes" through "the military gravy train," even if service members are not ready or are being deployed to heavy fighting zones, DeVry University instructed its salesmen, according to Christopher Neiweem, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and DeVry salesman, who was assigned specifically to target military students. Neiweem told Congress he was instructed to pose as a "military advisor" affiliated with the Pentagon. Following his testimony, four additional DeVry military salesmen wrote Congress to say they were told to do the same."Everything here is about the numbers. You make your numbers, or you are out of a job," recruiters atColorado Technical University – housed in an office building with no classrooms and no professors, but row upon row of salesmen – told the New York Times. Salesmen from Ashford and Westwood reportedthe same."You'd probe to find a weakness," said Brian Klein, a former admissions employee at Argosy UniversityOnline, one of four major colleges operated by EDMC, whose recruiters filed a whistleblower lawsuit against EDMC, which the U.S. Department of Justice has joined on behalf of deceived students and taxpayers. "You basically take all that failure and all those bad decisions, and you spin it around and put it right back in their face as guilt, to go to this sh*tty university and run up all of this debt."
[See a collection of political cartoons on defense spending.]
You can hear for yourself how aggressive and deceptive the recruiting phone calls are. PBS Frontline reporters recorded the calls, as part of research for a documentary about veterans tricked by Art Institutes and other for-profit colleges.
Listen to veterans:"I believe that the University of Phoenix is using deceptive practices in order to lure students into the school, the enrollment counselors tell students that they should be complete with their course of studies in a short period of time fully knowing how long it is going to take ... I have talked with other students at the University of Phoenix and this appears to be a common tactic used by University of Phoenix enrollment counselors."Another military student who was billed by the University of Phoenix for a class he never took wrote: "As a marine of 19 years, I've served in Desert Storm, Somalia, and Operation Iraqi Freedom x2. You cannot imagine the emotional battle this has taken on me after dealing with this for nearly TWO years!! An education institution such as yours earns millions of dollars each year, and yet you punish those who are willing to risk their lives and fight for your freedoms, you should be ashamed."Jonathan Ngowaki, a Marine Corps radio operator in Afghanistan, said a for-profit college signed him up for a $15,000 loan without his knowledge: "I went into the military so I wouldn't have college debt, but now I have this debt and I have a family and it's taken that money away from my family. It's all about the money. It's all a money game. It really bothers me."
[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
"I think it is a sin," Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told the New York Times. "Here we are telling these young men and women they can get a higher education, and they get cheated."
"There are some bad actors out there," President Obama explained at Fort Stewart in Georgia, as he signed an executive order to combat the scam. "They'll say you don't have to pay a dime for your degree, but once you register they'll suddenly make you sign up for a high-interest student loan. They'll say that if you transfer schools, you can transfer credits, but when you try to actually do that, you suddenly find out that you can't. They'll say they've got a job placement program, when, in fact, they don't. It's not right."
Why is this happening? Because of a loophole in federal law. Congress failed to specifically name the G.I. Bill when listing federal education aid, and this oversight allows for-profit colleges to count the G.I. Bill and military tuition assistance as private, non-federal dollars to help them avoid a 90 percent cap they face on federal aid. (Twenty-two state attorneys general wrote Congress that this practice was a violation of the intent of the federal cap, if not the actual letter of the law.)
This loophole "gives for-profit colleges an incentive to see service members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform, and to use aggressive marketing to draw them in," Holly Petraeus, the assistant director for service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, explained.
URL="http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/deficit-and-budget-cartoons"]See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.[/URL
"For-profit schools see our active-duty military and veterans as a cash cow, an untapped profit resource," Senate Education Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who led a Senate investigation into this scam, said. "It is both a rip off of the taxpayer and a slap in the face to the people who have risked their lives for our country."
Pain-based recruiting is the method salesmen use to target veterans and other students, as shown in internal corporate documents. They're specifically taught to emotionally manipulate vets into signing up, because, as the corporate documents acknowledge, nobody would make a "rational" decision to attend since community colleges and public universities offer lower cost, higher quality, accredited degrees.
A veteran and staffer at VFW tested the system. He told National Public Radio, "Within three to four days, I got in excess of 70 phone calls and I got well over 300 emails" from for-profit colleges.
"All they hear from these schools is, 'This won't cost you a thing,'" explained Robert L. Songer, a retired Marine colonel who is the lead education adviser at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Songer said for-profit colleges hound Marines at Camp Lejeune to enroll in classes of limited educational value and even sign them up for high-interest-rate loans. He cited numerous complaints he received from Marines.
Some for-profit colleges even promise veterans a career as a lawyer, plumber, electrician or medical expert - but veterans find out after graduation they aren't eligible to get a license.
URL="http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2013/11/11/us-news-releases-best-colleges-for-veterans-rankings"]Check out the U.S. News rankings of best colleges for veterans.[/URL
Sadly, the deception is widespread. Every single one of 15 large for-profit colleges deceived federal undercover officers about the quality of education, cost and likely job and salary for graduates. Four colleges engaged in actual illegal fraud. The undercover officers then registered as students at those colleges, and found the "education" of such low quality that students were encouraged to **** and received top grades for submitting photos of celebrities in lieu of a required essay.
Some examples of the deception:Corinthian (owner of Heald, Everest, and Wyotech) illegally used military seals to entice military and veteran students to enroll and misled them about job prospects – for which Corinthian was sued last month by the California Attorney General.Kaplan owns an unaccredited law school, whose graduates cannot take the bar exam (outside of California, which doesn't require any law degree). A Kaplan law student told the U.S. Senate "The Dean [of Kaplan] apparently didn't know or forgot to mention this little problem."Kaplan also was caught by local TV news in Charlotte, N.C. running an unaccredited dental assistance program whose graduates would never be eligible to get the job, and who said Kaplan lied to them about this key fact.Many for-profit colleges go on military bases to try to sign up service members. Ashford Universityeven signed up a Marine with traumatic brain injury convalescing in a military hospital. "U.S. Marine Corporal James Long knows he's enrolled at Ashford University," Businessweek reported. "He just can't remember what course he's taking."Career Education Corp (owner of Briarcliffe, Sanford Brown, American Intercontinental, U. Colorado Technical U and Cordon Bleu) had to pay $10.5 million for egregious lies this summer to prospective students about their job prospects.Westwood had to pay $4.5 million for lying to prospective students about the tuition, Westwood's job placement rates and for signing students up for both federal loans and Westwood private loans at exorbitant interest rates – even veterans who had the G.I. Bill.Sanford Brown lied to its students about its unaccredited programs in health fields.The University of Phoenix had to pay the federal government $78.5 million in 2009 and another $9.8 million a few years earlier, for violating a law that tries to protect students from recruiter lies by forbidding schools from paying recruiters by the number of students they enroll.
URL="http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-a-college-degree-still-worth-it"]Read the U.S. News Debate: Is a College Degree Still Worth It?[/URL
The University of Phoenix takes in more G.I. Bill dollars than any other college or university in the country, but spends less on education (under $900 per student) than almost any other college in the country, instead setting aside more than $1 billion for profit and another almost $1 billion to the call centers and other marketing and recruiting. (Compare this to more than $11,000 spent on instruction, per student, by the public University of Arizona.) University of Phoenix has more than 8,000 recruiterspromising a bright future to prospective students, but zero job placement staff, in the latest government data. Because of the low quality education, the University of Phoenix has one of the worst withdrawal rates of schools receiving G.I. Bill funds. (50 percent withdrawal by its bachelors degree students and66 percent withdrawal by its associate students, compared to 13 percent withdrawal at the University of Maryland and 26 percent at the University of Texas – the only two public universities among the 10 schools receiving the most G.I. Bill dollars.)
In addition to lawsuits being led by 32 state attorneys general, a Senate investigation uncovered some key facts:For-profit colleges have skyrocketed their recruitment of veterans and military students, increasing by more than 200 percent in just one year.Eight of the 10 schools receiving the most G.I. Bill dollars are now for-profit colleges. The University of Phoenix alone took in more than $200 million in the two most recent years for which government data is available.Those eight for-profit colleges take in $1 billion dollars in G.I. Bill funds, but almost half of veterans dropped out within the first year.For-profit colleges cost taxpayers twice the tuition of public colleges and universitiesFor-profit schools collected more than one-third of all G.I. Bill funds, but trained only 25 percent of veterans, while public colleges and universities received only 40 percent of G.I. Bill benefits but trained59 percent of veterans.
URL="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2013/05/07/us-news-ranks-best-online-programs-for-veterans"]Check out the U.S. News rankings of best online programs for veterans.[/URL
While public universities and non-profit colleges sink the vast majority of their funds into educating students, for-profit colleges set aside very little to education – only 17 percent on average. The rest goes to profit (20 percent, on average), to TV ads and call centers to recruit more students (also more than 20 percent, on average) and to CEO salaries of, on average, $8 to 9 million per year, but with some making up to $20 and $40 million dollars (compared to the non-profit college president's average of less than $400,000).
You can look up each of the biggest brand-name for-profit colleges to see the government data – how much money they take in, how little they spend on education compared to CEO salaries, call-centers, and profit, and how their students fare, including how few graduate and how few get jobs.
So what can you do?If a college is hassling you, or a veteran you know, to sign up, watch out. If a school sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Beware of promises about high salaries and job placement. Many for-profit schools lie about their job placement numbers and real tuition. Watch out for schools that pressure you to sign up the same day. Check out these top 10 tips for veterans on choosing a college or the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's new "8 Questions for Veterans to Ask when Choosing a College."If you, or a veteran you know, was duped by a for-profit college, there's a private fund at Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America to help you recoup some of your losses.Alert the government to bad actors. File a complaint with your state attorney general and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Soon, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense should have a complaint system up and running.Call on the VA to do a better job of protecting vets (it continues to send G.I. Bill dollars to the worst actors – even those successfully sued by state attorneys general and the Justice Department – without even a review).Ask Congress to protect veterans from corporate scams, including by closing the 90/10 loophole.
Source: This Veterans Day, Help a Vet Avoid a GI Bill For-Profit College Scam - US News