A COMPARISON OF For-Profit and Community Colleges' ADMISSIONS PRACTICES

College choice has been an area of inquiry in higher education research for decades. While this scholarship has evolved, it has yet to incorporate the fastest-growing sector of higher education: for-profit colleges and universities. The authors investigate the admissions and recruitment conditions that would lead students- particularly those from low-income backgrounds-to consider a for-profit college over a community college. Specifically, the paper considers information provided to prospective students by several for-profit and community colleges in an urban city. On the basis of this research, conclusions and future directions for college choice theory and organizational practice are developed.THE recent proliferation and politicization of for-profit colleges has prompted important scholarly exploration (Kinser zoo6; Rosenbaum, Deil-Amen and Person 2009; Ruch 2001; Tierney and Hentschke 2007). Of current concern is the growing number of students- particularly low-income students of color-enrolling at for-profit institutions that could place them at considerable risk for debt (Chung 2012; Garrity, Garrison and Fiedler 2010; Hing 2012; Ruch 2001). Comparable degrees typically could be acquired at a community college for significantly less money. One possible interpretation is that for-profit colleges trick customers into buying a poor product. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this notion and to suggest that such an interpretation may be simplistic. We called upon the student choice literature to focus on one particular part of the decision to attend an institution: the entry point. Over the course of three months, we called five community colleges and five for-profit institutions to gauge how they responded to a prospective student. Rather than suggest that one institution is good and another bad, we suggest instead that how institutions engage with prospective students is in part a reflection of the culture and ideology of the institution and may affect prospective students' choice of which college to attend.Accordingly, we review the literature on college choice, focusing on students' initial engagement and how they construct going to college. Our intent is to explore commonalities and differences between for-profit colleges and universities (fpcus) and public community colleges as they pertain to admissions practices. We begin by providing a brief background of the college student choice literature. In the second part of this paper, we explore the missions and admissions practices of fpcus and community colleges. We then present results from a case study that investigates information presented to a prospective student by several fpcus and community colleges. We conclude with new considerations relevant to the future direction of college choice and admissions research on for-profit and community colleges.STUDENT COLLEGE CHOICEWhether to attend an institution of postsecondary education and which institution to attend are two of the most important decisions prospective students make (Johnson and Chapman 1979). These decisions are guided by the quality of information prospective students gather. Hossler and Gallagher (1987) define college choice as a process or stage(s) students go through to determine which college to attend. Models of college decision making generally examine the stages that lead to a choice. Hossler and Gallagher (1987) identify three critical stages: (1) predisposition, in which the person makes a decision to attend college, (2) search, wherein a person begins to seek information about colleges and narrows his alternatives, and (3) choice, during which the student considers alternatives and decides which college to attend. This particular model emphasizes the role of the student rather than the institution in the decision-making process.Hossler, Schmit, and Vesper (1999) updated this model to include information-gathering, information-processing, and decision-making activity. …