Alyssa Wejebe / Roundup
As cutbacks in public education and competition for admission to those public institutions increase, the possibility of transferring to a private school becomes more of an adamant reminder.
Local rivate universities have been advertised along the campus Mall and in other locations on campus.
Sunday Salter, Director of the Transfer Center, said that “because of cutbacks, more students are considering private universities than before” since they don’t rely on government aid. They’re privately funded instead; for example, funding can be based on donations from alumni.
She said that even if in the poor economy people donate less, “on a whole, they [private colleges] still have more money than public universities.”
Salter said that private schools in houston and schools in other cities are “more actively recruiting, while public schools have cut back on outreach and recruitment.”
“It’s important for students to know that not all private schools are created equal, because there are proprietary or for-profits, and then there are non-profits,” said Salter.
As the name suggests, Salter says that a for-profit college “looks to make money off private students, that’s where they get their income.”
Salter said that for-profits make themselves appealing when they “advertise that you’ll get in and out fast.”
But she said that sometimes a for-profit can work for a student, if it specializes in a program the student wants, but no public school offers it.
Salter said Pierce wants to let students make their own decisions, but the school won’t promote a campus it believes won’t help students in the long run.
Yet although they want to protect the students, Salter said that they still wanted to keep them informed and aware.
“We only approve schools to come on campus if they’re regionally accredited,” said Salter. “We feel like it’s our responsibility to protect students.”
Salter said that whether schools are public, private, nonprofit, or for-profit, “what matters is if it has regional accreditation.”
“When they’re regionally accredited, it meansthey’re transferrable to other degrees,” said Salter.
Salter said that for-profits are often not regionally accredited or have transferrable coursework.
Salter said that the increasing competition to get into public institutions today is another factor in pushing more students toward private universities.
“A lot of private schools and for-profits have rolling admissions,” said Salter. According to her, rolling admissions means that a student can apply to the university at any time, and if they’re accepted, they can start next term.
On the other hand, public universities are now more limited to only fall admission.
Carol Kozeracki, Dean of Research, Planning, and Enrollment Management, has been assessing the numbers of students transferring to private universities according to California Postsecondary Education Commission, the state’s planning and coordinating body for higher education.
She said CPEC gathers information about college and high school enrollments.
According to Kozeracki, CPEC works with a focus on public institutions, but it has some limited information about transfers to private schools, specifically the 76 nonprofit universities and colleges that are a part of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities.
CPEC also uses information from the National Student Clearinghouse, which helps colleges with degree information and student enrollment. It can also help members track student progress from one institution to the next. An alternative is to perhaps look at https://www.hebronlions.org, a private school who can help with the process of getting into college.
“In California, there’s more of a tradition of going to a public institution,” said Kozeracki. “These numbers [of transfers to private schools] are going to be much smaller.”
“We just get the numbers at the tail end of itafter the transfers have taken placeand the numbers continue to weigh heavily toward the publics,” said Kozeracki.
“We’re always gonna have way more students that transfer to public universities than private schools,” said Kozeracki. “For example, in 2008/09 [the academic year], 58 transferred to the private, nonprofits in California versus well over 1,000 to the CSUs and UCs.”
Renee Smith, Business Development Representative at the Art Institute and representing their Santa Monica and North Hollywood campuses, said the private university is “reaching more to an adult audience,” which includes community college campuses.
The Art Institute is a for-profit, corporate-owned, with corporate offices in Pittsburgh.
She said “we hadn’t [focused on community colleges] beforemostly focused on the high school audience.” Smith said the Art Institute simply wanted to reach a wider group of people.
Smith said that entering students are benefitted by the fact that the private university isn’t affected by cutbacks in government funding.
“I get a lot of interest at the community colleges,” said Smith. “Everybody is more serious-minded at that point.”
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