Publication Date
January 2019
Abstract
This research uses longitudinal data from The Beginning Postsecondary Survey 2003-2009 to compare short-term job quality outcomes between for-profit college graduates with an associate’s degree and graduates with the same degree from a non-profit college. While previous research comparing for-profit college graduates with more traditional graduates examined mostly financial and income related outcomes (Lang and Weinstein 2012; Deming, Goldin, and Katz 2012), we include holistic measures of job quality including: job benefits, job satisfaction, and relevance of respondent’s degree to their job. Results showed that for-profit graduates were more likely to be offered health insurance from their employer, but the same graduates were also likely to be working at a job that was the same or like their job prior to graduation. For-profit graduates were also less likely to see their degree as helping their career.