In Depth December 30, 2009, 5:00PM EST

For-Profit Colleges Target the Military

(page 4 of 4)

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Drake says an attractive Ashford recruiter got the attention of wounded Marines Bryan Regan

Songer, director of lifelong learning at Camp Lejeune, says most online for-profits do a very good job Bryan Regan

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Unauthorized marketing pitches by for-profit recruiters have become widespread on military bases. "Some of these schools are a little underhanded," says Pat Jeffress, branch manager of lifelong learning at Camp Pendleton, a Marine base in California. "They try to backdoor me."

One recruiter for Ashford University, a unit of Bridgepoint Education, recently ignored the anti-solicitation rule at Camp Lejeune, says Songer. He says he told the recruiter, whose husband is in the military, that she could only meet students at the base's education center. Instead, she pitched the online for-profit in the recreation room of a barracks for wounded Marines. About 30 Marines showed up, says Brad Drake, a corporal who attends Ashford. "It helped she was really attractive," says Drake, 23, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan when a rocket hit his truck. "That got everyone's attention."

The recruiter spoke at the barracks with the approval of the unit's commander, says Bridgepoint spokeswoman Shari Rodriguez. "We keep our students' needs at the forefront of all we do." Songer says unit commanders are often unfamiliar with educational rules, and that he told the recruiter: "'If you cross that line again, you'll never be allowed on this base."

About 8 to 10 wounded Marines signed up with Ashford after the recruiter's presentation, among them Corporal Long. Besides his brain injury, he has nerve damage and walks with a cane. Long is pursuing a bachelor's degree in organizational management at Ashford. In his first class, students could retake the final test until they passed, he says. "I took it 10 times," he says. "I kept getting the same answers wrong."

Long is married and says he needs to provide for his family. Still, he wonders if he can graduate. "I got my doubts," he says. "My family's more important than my doubts. That keeps me going."

Golden is a reporter for Bloomberg News .