For Illinois students, the promises of for-profit colleges often ring hollow

For-profit colleges sell a promise of success to marginalized groups, but often haven't delivered. Now, they may have to pay for it.

Chicago-area resident Nikka Ewing said she was pregnant with her first daughter when she saw a TV commercial for DeVry University, a chain of for-profit colleges with campuses around the country. She said the ad promised a bachelor’s degree in three years and job placement within six months after that.

Five years and more than $60,000 in student loans later, Ewing still doesn’t have a degree or a job — other than dropping off other people’s takeout.

“That’s why I’m like, ‘DeVry, something’s got to come,” Ewing said. “Because I can’t keep living like this.”

Many Black, brown and low-income students who need a college degree to move up in the world go to for-profit colleges to get one. These schools are companies that promise a fast track to graduation and a better job — one you can do while you’re working the job you already have, raising your kids or both.

But an investigation by WBEZ Chicago found that two-thirds of for-profit schools in Illinois report students who attend earn less than a high school graduate does in the state.

WBEZ analyzed federal data and found that low-income students and Black students like Ewing attend for-profit colleges in Illinois at much higher rates than other groups do.

As of 2022, more than 50,000 students were enrolled at for-profit colleges across the state. This spring, the station surveyed 250 current and former students about their experiences and heard that many of them were stuck in low-wage jobs and, like Ewing, struggling with student debt.

“The for-profit kind of playbook is [meant] to meet these communities where they are, capitalize on the lack of infrastructure, lack of funding, lack of opportunities, and then dangle that promise of economic security, economic stability, economic mobility to these same folks,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director for the Student Borrower Protection Center. “And the results are catastrophic.”

DeVry specifically has paid for some of these promises. In 2016, the school and its parent company settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $100 million over its allegedly deceptive ads.

Dominique Baker, higher education researcher at the University of Delaware, said for-profit schools are able to keep attracting students because they give the perfect pitch. She said they are pointed at a key demographic.

“People in those ads have children, they [tend] to be older,” Baker said. “And those ads have Black women more often than other institutions’ ads do. So, in every sort of way, these for-profit institutions are creating an image of being incredibly welcoming to Black women in particular.”

WBEZ’s survey also found that once students come through the door, the bottom often drops out. Some students we spoke to said the instruction didn’t live up to their expectations — and in some cases was nonexistent. 

Ewing said in many classes for her software engineering degree, she’s had to use class materials to teach herself.

“On one hand, it makes you feel good when you can teach yourself something,” she said. “But then on the other hand, it’s like, ‘This is what you’re paid to do. You’re paid to help me, so help me.’”

DeVry said in a statement that Ewing’s account of her experiences is inconsistent with the information they have. And some students who filled out the WBEZ survey reported positive experiences with their schools — and say they were able to get lucrative jobs.

This month, the Department of Education introduced new rules governing for-profit training programs. Those that leave students with a certain amount of debt — and not enough income to pay it back — could lose access to federal funding.