Attending a For-Profit College Offers Little or No Advantage in Hiring, Study Finds

Report: “Do Employers Prefer Workers Who Attend For-Profit Colleges? Evidence From a Field Experiment”

Organization: National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research

Summary: The authors, who sent 9,000 résumés of fictitious applicants to employers in seven cities, found no evidence that job applicants who attended for-profit colleges attract more interest from employers than those who attended public community colleges.

They caution, however, that their results don’t capture skill differences that might become apparent only at the interview stage or later.

Bottom Line: Given that community colleges cost a fraction of what students spend on for-profit colleges, the authors conclude that the labor-market payoff of attending a for-profit college is limited.