“At a car dealership, the person who sells the car is the hero, and also gets the commission. But if the mechanics don't service that car well, the customer won't return.” — Roger Staubach
No one likes to admit being wrong, and I'm certainly no exception. But recently over on the forum I was discussing the University of Phoenix with Donald11. He insisted that they pay their admissions people on commission. I believed that federal student loan regulations prohibit this. But ultimately I was wrong and he was right, as the rule is only that commissions cannot be the only factor in how admissions people are paid, and he found a reference where the University of Phoenix say that they do use commissions as a factor in admissions compensation.
This raises an interesting discussion of its own, though. Surely the University of Phoenix isn't the only school that has this policy. What are the ramifications of admissions people being paid on commission, even just partly? Is it a problem? Some might argue that schools that have this policy will encourage their admissions people to enrol as many students as possible, whether the school is a good fit for those students or not. But then the schools have the incentive to do that anyway, especially since the amount available to each student from guaranteed federal student loans is so high. And that's true whether the schools is for profit or not. At the same time, there's not much point bringing in students if the school doesn't do a good job of giving them a reason to stay.
Perhaps the thing for all prospective students to remember is that admissions people, however friendly or even well-meaning, are there to represent the school's interests, not yours. Yes, they can be a good source of information, and for some questions one might have about a school they're the best place to get definitive answers. But whatever their title may be, they're not counselors or advisors; they're salespeople.
As a final note, comments are always welcome here, but this issue is interesting enough that I created a thread on the forum to discuss it, in case anyone's interested.
Next up, does the University of California at Berkeley really need a bailout from federal taxpayers? Their executives seem to think so.
Image courtesy of Cosmic Kitty