Scholarships for Graduate Degrees

TechGuy215

Good Morning All!

I'm starting my PhD in Information Security and Information Assurance this October at Capella and can't wait!

I just wanted to let you all know of a Scholarship that I was awarded for my studies so that anyone else pursuing undergrad/grad can apply if they too are seeking funds.

I was awarded $1000.00 for the upcoming semester from ISC2s Scholarship Fund.

If you're interested, you can view the details and apply here ---> https://www.iamcybersafe.org/scholarships/

Hope everyone is doing well and happy Monday!

aspiringsoul

TechGuy215,

Thank you very much for the information. I admire your desire to further your education and advance the profession. I'm guessing you're a WGU graduate (I am as well). May I ask where you earned your AAS in IT Network Systems Administration?

Anyways, I wanted to reply to your post for a very specific reason...

I have a degree from a "For-Profit" institution (ITT Tech) which as you may know, filed for bankruptcy last year. ITT Tech had been sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for Predatory Lending, and the SEC for fraud/misleading investors (these are both connected):

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-for-profit-college-chain-itt-for-predatory-lending/

https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-86.html

In 2012, the Senate HELP Committee did an investigation into many For-Profit schools (including ITT Tech and Capella).

You can view the report in its entirety here: https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/Contents.pdf

I graduated from ITT Tech in 2008 (I didn't even know what a "For-Profit" school was until after I graduated. This report wasn't published until 2012, and the SEC and CFPB lawsuits didn't occur until after the investigation had occurred. Had this information been available to me in 2006, I never would have enrolled at ITT Tech.

In any case, I didn't come here to complain to you about ITT Tech or my experience with them.

I wanted to inform you of the Senate Help Committee's investigation of Capella, which you can read here: https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/PartII/Capella.pdf

Some takeaways:

While Federal student aid programs are intended to support educational opportunities for students, for-profit education companies direct much of the revenue derived from these programs to marketing and recruiting new students and to profit. On average, among the 15 publicly traded education companies, 86 percent of revenue came from Federal taxpayers in fiscal year 2009. During the same period, the companies spent 23 percent of revenue on marketing and recruiting ($3.7 billion) and 19.7 percent on profit ($3.2 billion). These 15 companies spent a total of $6.9 billion on marketing, recruiting and profit in fiscal year 2009.

The percentage of revenue Capella allocates to marketing exceeds the for-profit sector average by a considerable margin. In 2009, Capella devoted 29.8 percent of its revenue, or $99.6 million, to marketing and recruiting and 19.1 percent, or $63.9 million, to profit. On average, the 30 for-profit schools examined spent 22.7 percent of revenue on marketing and 19.4 percent on profit.

Capella devoted a total of $163.5 million to marketing, recruiting and profit in fiscal year 2009. The amount of profit Capella generated also increased rapidly, more than tripling from $30million in 2007 to $95 million in 2010.

Executives at Capella, like most for-profit executives, are more generously compensated than leaders of public and non-profit colleges and universities. Executive compensation across the for-profit sector drastically outpaces both compensation at public and non-profit colleges and universities, despite poor student outcomes at many for-profit institutions. In 2009, Capella CEO J. Kevin Gilligan received $3.8 million in compensation, almost six times as much as the president of the University of Minnesota who received $646,097 in total compensation that year. The chief executive officers of the large publicly traded, for-profit education companies received, on average, $7.3 million in fiscal year 2009. Gilligan’s $3.8 million compensation package for 2009 is approximately half the average for publicly traded companies.

Enrollment growth is critical to the business success of for-profit education companies,particularly for publicly traded companies that are closely watched by Wall Street analysts. In order to meet revenue and profit expectations for-profit colleges recruit as many students as possible to sign up for their programs.

The quality of any college’s academics is difficult to quantify. However, the amount that a school spends on instruction per student compared to other spending and what students say about their experience are two useful measures.Capella spent $1,650 per student on instruction in 2009, compared to $4,538 per student on marketing and $2,912 on profit. The amount that publicly traded, for-profit companies spend on instruction ranges from $892 to $3,969 per student per year. In contrast, public and non-profit 4-year colleges and universities generally spend a higher amount per student on instruction. By comparison, on a per student basis, the University of Minnesota spent $13,247 per student on instruction, and University of Saint Thomas spent $11,361 per student. A large portion of the faculty at many for-profit colleges is composed of part-time and adjunct faculty. While a large number of part-time and adjunct faculty is an important factor in a low-cost education delivery model, it also raises questions regarding the academic independence they are able to exercise to balance the colleges’ business interests. Among the 30 schools the committee investigated, 80 percent of the faculty is part-time, higher in some companies. Capella is one such company with 86 percent of its faculty employed part-time. In 2010, Capella employed 165 full-time and 1,073 part-time faculty. Student complaints indicate dissatisfaction with the instructional quality at Capella. In a letter to the President of Capella from HLC, the company’s accreditor expresses concern regarding academic quality:[This student’s] letter is troubling in light of two other recent complaints … These complaints,taken as a group, suggest dissatisfaction on the part of at least some graduate students with the quality of the interaction they have had in the institution’s core academic programs and an unwillingness on the part of the institution to review and respond to the potential customer service issues these complaints suggest. While student complaints may not be representative of the experience of the majority of students,these complaints do provide an important perspective on Capella’s academic quality.

While many for-profit companies employ large numbers of recruiters to enroll new students,these same companies frequently employ far less staff to provide tutoring, remedial services or career counseling and placement. Capella, however, employs a relatively large student services staff. In 2010,with 38,634 students, Capella employed 329 recruiters, 25 career services employees and 394 student services employees. That means each career counselor was responsible for 1,430 students and each student services staffer was responsible for 91 students. Meanwhile, the company employed one recruiter for every 77 students.

Conclusion

Graduate students attending Capella’s exclusively online programs appear to be faring much better than students at many companies the committee examined. However, the company’s high withdrawal rate among its growing Bachelor’s student population is a serious concern. While the backward looking default rate is very low and reflects Capella’s solid track record to-date, it may fail to capture the emerging challenges the company faces with 4-year degree students.Capella also spends an unusually high portion of revenue on marketing and a relatively small amount on instruction for its exclusively online program. Moreover, with most of the faculty serving in part-time positions, the academic independence of the faculty may also be an issue that should be addressed by accreditors. Although Capella appears to maintain aggressive enrollment goals for the more than 300 recruiters it employs, the company also appears to have better controls on recruiting practices and invests more in student services than many companies reviewed. Capella’s demonstrated record of student success in graduate degree programs will hopefully guide the company in improving the student completion rates of its growing undergraduate student population.

The reason for this post is not to talk you out of your plans in enroll at Capella. I just want to make sure that you have access to this information and the chance to review it before you enroll. I hope you find this post to be informative and helpful.