For profit universities have been a target of state and federal investigations for years.  I have written about this topic since 2012.  It should be noted that not all for profit colleges are scams, but there are a large number of for profit colleges, sometimes referred to as “diploma mills” that at times offer credit for your “life experience” and lure students in with promises of a helpful degree, but the students end up with a worthless degree and an empty wallet.  Sometimes the names of these scamming colleges and universities are confusingly similar to legitimate colleges.  For instance, Columbia State University is a diploma mill while Columbia University is an eminent Ivy League school.

In 2019, the University of Phoenix settled charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it used deceptive advertising to attract students.  These ads falsely implied that the University of Phoenix worked with companies such as AT&T, Yahoo and Microsoft to create job opportunities for students and to shape its programs for the jobs. Pursuant to the settlement,  the University of Phoenix paid 50 million dollars to the FTC and the FTC began sending refunds to 147,500 former University of Phoenix students in March of 2021 as I told you at that time.  Additional rounds of payments were made by the FTC in 2023 and 2025  and now the FTC is sending Zelle payments to people who didn’t cash their check or accept a PayPal payment from the FTC.

TIP

If you attended the University of Phoenix and want to find out if you qualify for the refunds, check out the “FTC Scam Refunds” tab in the middle of the first page of http://www.scamicide.com.

These refund checks are only being sent to student whose debts had not been already cancelled by the University of Phoenix.  In addition, in order to qualify for a payment, you must have initially enrolled at the University of Phoenix between October 15, 2012 and December 31, 2016 and must have paid more than $5,000 to the University of Phoenix although this figure can include funds derived from student loans or military benefits.

In addition, recently the Department of Education approved federal student loan forgiveness for people who attended the University of Phoenix and were deceived by the school’s jog placement claims and submitted a valid application for borrower defense.  The Department of Education is notifying people whose borrower defense applications were approved.  Even if you received a payment from the University of Phoenix settlement fund, you can still appy for loan forgiveness through the borrower defense program.

If you are considering attending a for profit school, first check it out with the United States Department of Education’s website at https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home  to make sure it is an accredited institution.
You also should investigate whether a local college, university or community college would be more cost effective for you.  For profit colleges and universities are often more expensive than these other alternatives without offering any distinct advantages.  Also, check out the graduation rates of any for profit college you are considering and finally, investigate the job prospects in your field of study.  Don’t just take the word of the college.

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