Community Colleges and Proprietary Schools: A Comparison of Sub-Baccalaureate Institutions

PWP-CCPR-2005-012

Abstract

This exploratory article describes how community colleges and proprietary schools differ, which students are served by these two types of schools, and how these institutions compare in the areas of financial aid and school quality. I describe and synthesize existing data sources and analyze a new data set of California’s for-profit colleges. I find that there are many more proprietary schools and students than previous estimates suggest. I note key similarities and differences between the private and public sectors and investigate hypotheses explaining the observed patterns.