Posted on Jan 6, 2020
Are “Best for Vets” and “Military Friendly Colleges” Rankings Believable?
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Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 1
I remember back to atleast 2011, regional accreditation was the biggest factor being pushed by the higher education oligopoly, to differentiate a good school from a bad school. Of which at that time, many for-profit schools didn't have regional accreditation but had national instead. It seems many for-profits have obtained that regional accreditation, causing the industry to shift it's marketing toward other factors that tend to favor the long-established institutions.
I've always wondered about the fairness of comparing a traditional school's graduation/retention rate to that of a modern online-only school. With modern online schools, they tend to attract working adults who have varying degrees of availability, resources, and self-motivation to continue the difficult process of online learning still working and/or supporting a family. Add active military service to the picture, and I think it creates a recipe for high turnover and lower graduation rates, especially when there are many competitors that could attract internet-based learners to jump ship. I attended three different schools over 8-years just to complete my associate's, of which one school I only attended for a single class I needed to transfer and haven't been back since. I can only imagine how that impacts stats over many students and years.
I've always wondered about the fairness of comparing a traditional school's graduation/retention rate to that of a modern online-only school. With modern online schools, they tend to attract working adults who have varying degrees of availability, resources, and self-motivation to continue the difficult process of online learning still working and/or supporting a family. Add active military service to the picture, and I think it creates a recipe for high turnover and lower graduation rates, especially when there are many competitors that could attract internet-based learners to jump ship. I attended three different schools over 8-years just to complete my associate's, of which one school I only attended for a single class I needed to transfer and haven't been back since. I can only imagine how that impacts stats over many students and years.
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