<p>My mother (who came to America 16 years ago) does not understand the difference between those "colleges" commercialized on T.V. than let's say FSU, Drexel, and Parsons. Can someone help me discuss to my mother why those schools aren't the same as the ones listed just now. I'm only a sophomore in high school and she really wants me to go to like technical for profit schools because it's cheaper and more "popular" because it's on T.V. -__- I have a 3.9 GPA and I took my SATs early and received 1760. AND that doesn't even changes her mind.... UGH</p>
<p>If cheaper is what she wants, explain that you can get a merit scholarship based on your grades & test scores to go to a real school.</p>
<p>See:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Tell her that most of those schools (i have Phoenix in mind here) leave students with degrees that aren’t respected, with units that don’t transfer to traditional colleges, and they leave students with high debt, and high student loan default rates.</p>
<p>Yeah, unless you’re choosing between a for-profit and an Ivy League, I’d be pretty surprised to hear the for-profit is cheaper.</p>
<p>Think of the other things they advertise on TV: cloths that absorb liquid through carpet, powders that clean all stains easily, a full powered blender the size of a coffee mug. Yeah that’s good company to be in.</p>
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<p>I’d be surprised to hear that the for-profit is cheaper than an Ivy League school for most families, assuming one is not comparing commuter student or distance learning costs to costs with room and board (though it is the case that for-profit college students are heavily commuter or distance learning).</p>
<p>Of the hundreds of for-profit colleges, most are non-selective, and only one is selective enough that its 25th percentile SAT CR and SAT M scores are 500 or higher.</p>
<p>Those schools (Devry, Uphoenix etc) are really only of use to people that are working and only need a degree to move up the ladder.</p>
<p>Aha - I have an idea! Go to the library and borrow every college guide you can find - all of them! Then take them home and show your mom that DeVry, Phoenix, etc. are not listed in ANY of them. Maybe if she sees it in a book (in several books!), that will convince her.</p>
<p>Mom needs a quick course in advertising. She needs to understand that what she sees on tv from these schools is paid advertising. That doesn’t mean anything about quality, just that the school made a commercial and gave the tv station a lot of money to broadcast it.</p>
<p>Ask her how many advertisements she’s seen for Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. Explain that the best schools don’t advertise on TV, and neither do most respectable institutions like FSU, Drexel, etc. There are plenty of editorials denouncing the practices of for-profits. Find them, show her the average student debt, the sort of marketing campaigns for-profits (and some bad non-profits) engage in.</p>