Education for profit.

• Author: Bakemeyer, Enrique
• Position: Letter to the editor

As someone who works in the for-profit higher education sector, I really appreciated Katherine Mangu-Ward's thorough examination of the University of Phoenix model ("Education for Profit," July). There seems to be a prejudice out there that because a school is for profit, it isn't really helping anybody. Yet I work in my company's advertising department, and I routinely see testimonials from satisfied graduates who successfully changed careers with our help. Although our high school recruitment program is growing, most of our students are of the "nontraditional" variety described in the article: working adults who want a less expensive and more flexible alternative to the traditional liberal arts university. Our online campus caters mostly to single mothers who simply don't have the time to attend classes on a college campus. And we don't help our students out of the goodness of our hearts; we do it because there's money to be made. We make money; our graduates get better jobs. Every body wins.

Enrique Bakemeyer

Herzing College

Milwaukee, WI

After two years at American University, where I had a 3.9 GPA, I had to take time off for health reasons. During this time, I finished my degree online through the University of Phoenix. With my health improved, I was able to complete my MBA from the University of Rochester, a top 25 program, earlier this year. I am now applying for quantitative finance programs at some of the top programs in the world, including Berkeley and UCLA. So while the University of Phoenix is much maligned--in part for good reason--the school can serve a purpose.

Matthew Graham

Rochester, NY

Katherine Mangu-Ward professes to examine traditional academia's contempt for the University of Phoenix and its for-profit model. After wading through her litany of just about every criticism leveled against the University of Phoenix in recent history--with little regard for truth or accuracy--I was left with the impression that she shares the disdain of the academic traditionalists she purports to expose.

I would expect a free market proponent such as reason to embrace the concept of for-profit education rather than suggest the University of Phoenix is "the educational equivalent of a sub-prime mortgage." What seems entirely lost on Mangu-Ward is the fact that the University of Phoenix is not trying to be a conventional four-year college or university. It is one of a handful of institutions, private and public, completely devoted to...