Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 4: Finances for Proprietary For-Profits

Saturdays we share tips or cautions to facilitate getting scholarships or avoid problems

Barbara had signed a contract to attend a nursing program at a proprietary for-profit college. They helped her apply for federal grants and student loans for financial aid. They offered no scholarships. She came to our office seeking $38,000 in scholarships. We worked with her multiple times, but to no avail. We could not find many scholarships for the school she had contracted.

Government, Nonprofit, and For Profit Schools

Colleges and universities, generally, include three categories:

• Government schools include colleges run by states, communities, and cities. Legislative bodies set the tuitions for government colleges. They usually include the name of the sponsoring government (state university, state college, city college)
• Nonprofit schools were usually founded by religious and charitable organizations. They do not report to government entities, but to an advisory board or private board of education. By law, nobody owns nonprofit organizations.
• For-profit schools are owned by private or publically traded corporations. Generally, tuition for these schools is set by a board of directors or owners. These schools are generally listed as proprietary schools in state directories. Frequently, proprietary schools cost more than government and nonprofit schools.

Reduced Financial Aid for Proprietary Schools

Search engines ask questions to determine what scholarships for which you may qualify. One of the questions will generally ask what school you plan to attend. Based on your answers to the questions the search engines generate a list of scholarships.

Very few scholarship committees award scholarships for people who attend for-profit schools. In addition, many scholarships include qualifying statements such as:

“Plan to enroll in full-time undergraduate study at an accredited U.S. four-year college or university for the entire 2012�13 academic year (excluding proprietary and online schools)”

“The scholarship can be used at any four-year accredited college or university in the United States or Puerto Rico (excluding proprietary and online schools).”

Many times, proprietary schools encourage you to apply for federal grants and student loans to compensate for a lack of scholarships.

Monday we will review the scholarship search engine www.zinch.com