For-profit career colleges suffered major setbacks in 2006 as many students dropped out with huge debts and no degree. Students entering college in 2008 had a 55 percent rate of graduating college from public universities but only 27.8 percent among for-profit 4-year schools.
For the more than 100,000 students enrolled in the main online campus of University of Phoenix, that rate was only 17 percent, according to reporters Gordon and Ybarra at the McClatchy Washington Bureau.
