Graduates of for-profits have higher default rates and lower earnings and employment than peers, study finds

Students attending for-profit colleges fare worse than similar students at community colleges and public and private nonprofit institutions, according to a new study reported on in the Chroncile of Higher Education.

Six years after they enter college, students from for-profit institutions are employed at lower rates and earn between $1800 and $2000 a year less than their peers.

For profit college students also have significantly higher default rates. Among students in the data set who had racked up between $5,000 and $10,000 in cumulative student-loan debt by 2009, 26 percent of those from for-profit colleges had defaulted, while 10 percent of those from community colleges and 7 percent of those from nonprofits had done so. As the level of debt increased to $20,000, the discrepancies grew wider: The default rate among for-profit-college students was 16 percent, compared with 3 percent for community-college students and 2 percent for those from four-year colleges.

The study is linked here.