Key Points: AI-assisted summary
- • Many Purdue Global students graduate with significant student loan debt and some struggle to find jobs in their field of study.
- • Purdue Global was created from the for-profit Kaplan University, which still manages marketing, recruitment, and financial aid.
- • The university spends heavily on marketing to attract students, many of whom are low-income and rely on federal aid.
- • Some former students have filed borrower's defense claims, alleging they were misled about costs and job prospects.
Latoya Sowers enrolled at Purdue Global in 2022, choosing to study health-care administration because of her background as a phlebotomist and certified nursing assistant. She earned associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, completing the latter in May.
Sowers had struggled in previous attempts at higher education. She’d gone to three schools in person and two online, “failing horribly,” she said.
But then she kept seeing ads for Purdue Global in her home state of South Carolina. The school’s message about making a comeback resonated with her. Sowers was skeptical of a return to online school, though, knowing that many who enrolled did not graduate.
But she found Purdue Global on a college rankings site with a graduation rate of 88%, she remembered.
She was finally able to complete her schooling. It felt empowering, she said, to reinvent herself and take a step to secure a better life for her, her husband and their two sons.
Copyright © 2025 www.jconline.com