The For-Profit Postsecondary School Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators?
David J. Deming, Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz
NBER Working Paper No. 17710
Issued in December 2011
NBER Program(s): CH ED LS
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ABSTRACT
Private for-profit institutions have been the fastest growing part of the U.S. higher education sector.
For-profit enrollment increased from 0.2 percent to 9.1 percent of total enrollment in degree-granting
schools from 1970 to 2009, and for-profit institutions account for the majority of enrollments in non-degree
granting postsecondary schools. We describe the schools, students, and programs in the for-profit
higher education sector, its phenomenal recent growth, and its relationship to the federal and state
governments. Using the 2004 to 2009 Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal survey
we assess outcomes of a recent cohort of first-time undergraduates who attended for-profits relative
to comparable students who attended community colleges or other public or private non-profit institutions.
We find that relative to these other institutions, for-profits educate a larger fraction of minority, disadvantaged,
and older students, and they have greater success at retaining students in their first year and getting
them to complete short programs at the certificate and associate degree levels. But we also find that
for-profit students end up with higher unemployment and “idleness” rates and lower earnings six years
after entering programs than do comparable students from other schools, and that they have far greater
student debt burdens and default rates on their student loans.
David J. Deming
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Gutman 411
Appian Way
Cambridge MA 02138
[email protected]
Lawrence F. Katz
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
and NBER
[email protected]
Claudia Goldin
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
and NBER
[email protected]