Should Colleges Offer Money Back Guarantees

I often wonder if colleges will begin to offer money back guarantees.

Think about this for a minute. You go to college to study nursing and invest your time and money on an education. You carefully picked out a school.  The brochure told you that earning a degree from their school would put you on the fast track for a great nursing career. So, you took out a student loan and set out to move your career in the right direction. Four years passed, and now you are in debt for, let’s say, fifty thousand dollars. You think to yourself, no problem, I will earn a great wage as a nurse and have good job security. You graduated in the top of your class and were excited about your future. You sent out resumes and went to job fairs, but no one was hiring nurses. You try your best and nothing happened. Years rolled by and you have been stuck in a variety of jobs, none of which require a degree. Finally, the job market picks up, but now your skills are too old and employers want new grads with the latest technology. Then reality hit you like a hammer…I am never going to work in my field. Should the college be entitled to give you your money back? Why not? All the promotional material from the school explained how their education would prepare you for your new career. You held up your end of the bargain by getting good grades and paying the tuition.

Students need to look at colleges closely when they sign up. Slick brochures can easily sway you to sign on, but look at career stats closely. This is a made up example, but there are plenty of fields in which students never work. Graduates that will never work in their chosen fields are everywhere. When looking at colleges, students need to look at hire rates and do so for the specific degree that they are getting. Someone is paying for that education and whether it is; you, your parents or Uncle Sam, you need to look at that school closely. There are no guarantees in life, but you were sold a product. You purchased a product and it failed to do what it promised, which is give you a career in nursing.  The day of the college degree that has a money back guarantee has not arrived, but mark my words someday it will become a reality.