<p>Subprime schools are defined here as schools that, while accreditated and legally authorized to confer degrees, are schools that deliver subprime education. And very often inflate grades substantially or, worse still, the student body don’t learn very much and admit a lot of unprepared students.</p>
<p>I ask this so people can cross these schools off their lists.</p>
<p>How do you define inferior education? How can you prove substantial grade inflation? How can you tell if the students don’t learn “very much”? Community colleges admit a lot of students unprepared for university-level work, and offer remedial courses to bring them up to speed. Are they subprime?</p>
<p>I think it’s a very subjective issue. Even in competitive colleges, there are “easy” classes/majors and profs who set low expectations. You’d need a hard look at a particular dept at a particular school. If a kid is really thinking of the easiest colleges to get admitted to, sometimes cc is a more priceworthy option.</p>
<p>But, I will say online “for profit” colleges often miss the boat.</p>
<p>And even non-subprime schools may have subprime departments…</p>
<p>Community colleges may be more cost-effective than subprime universities, though.</p>
<p>Catria, your initial post sounds like you have a list or a very defined set of criteria that one could use to define these so “people can cross these schools of their list”. The definition you offered uses the word you are defining as the definition (“subprime”), so is not much help. Do you have specific statistics, listings, or cutoff points of various types that you would care to share to go with your recommendation?</p>
<p>I know that granting the “subprime” status to a school is a tricky business, though.</p>
<p>Some possible criteria for determining “subprime” colleges:</p>
<ul>
<li>School is not regionally accredited.</li>
<li>School primarily offers business major bachelor’s degree programs but is not [AACSB</a> accredited](<a href=“https://www.aacsb.net/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=AACSB&WebKey=ED088FF2-979E-48C6-B104-33768F1DE01D]AACSB”>https://www.aacsb.net/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=AACSB&WebKey=ED088FF2-979E-48C6-B104-33768F1DE01D).</li>
<li>School has a federal student loan default rate higher than 15.5% – this and the next criterion are [new</a> Cal Grant rules](<a href=“http://www.calgrants.org/index.cfm?navId=278]new”>http://www.calgrants.org/index.cfm?navId=278).</li>
<li>School fails to have at least a 30% graduation rate in 150% of the nominal program length (i.e. 6-year rate for freshman to bachelor’s degree, 3-year rate for freshman to associates degree or transfer-readiness).</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, some respectable colleges have weak departments. For example, it is not too hard to find weak computer science departments at otherwise respectable colleges.</p>