"In general, higher education is a good investment, but there are no guarantees," he said. "At some schools, there's a one in five chance you'll be in worse financial shape three years out than before you began."
Students, he added, should be careful about borrowing large amounts of money for college. "The debt can grow exponentially in default, and it follows you forever," he said. "College loans can almost never be discharged in bankruptcy."
Dan Madzelan, acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education, noted that while some for-profit colleges have high default rates, others are in line with traditional colleges. He also cautioned that for some schools with high rates but a low number of borrowers, the default rate numbers could be misleading.
