For-Profit Colleges Filling State Transfer Gap

By Katherine Long

Washington’s community-college students are transferring to four-year colleges and universities in record numbers, but increasingly they are turning to private, for-profit schools to earn their bachelor’s degrees.

The trend highlights the growing difficulty of transferring to a state-supported four-year college or university, according to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, which reported the results in a study released Monday. The trend is also a concern because, according to the U.S. Department of Education, about a quarter of students at for-profit institutions default on their student loans within three years of starting to pay them — a number that suggests students at these schools pay a high price for an education that does not prepare them adequately for a career after college.

During a five-year period ending in summer 2010, the number of state students transferring from community and technical colleges to four-year colleges or universities to earn bachelor’s degrees grew 13 percent. But the number transferring to public four-year schools in Washington increased only by about 1 percent, while the number transferring to private schools went up by almost 37 percent.

Continued at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014748433_transferstudents12m.html