In Naperville, Illinois, just a three minute drive from a Costco Wholesale, resides a supple staple of American education: DeVry University, a private, for profit college. Bursting onto the collegiate stage in 1931, DeVry specializes in “Accounting, Business, Healthcare, Technology, Liberal Arts, and Media Arts & Technology,” working to “close society’s opportunity gap” (devry.edu). Recently, DeVry ran into some hot water with the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising practices—DeVry marketed that 90% of its graduates landed jobs in their field within six months of graduation. The debacle resulted in the private college coughing over $49.4 million to the FTC, and $50.6 million in student relief (FTC).
With a heavy emphasis on hybrid learning, DeVry declares itself one of the top online colleges, citing a student backed study from Statista and Newsweek. However, in a ranking of online bachelor programs, US News & World Report (a company famous for its analytics and ranking) placed DeVry indistinguishably in a range of #272-354 in a pool of 354 schools. Additionally, US News also tied DeVry for 139th of 162 in top performers of social mobility (usnews.com).
In terms of campus life and location, things get a bit tricky. Google describes DeVry as a private university in Illinois, but that’s only partially correct. There’s not just one DeVry. There’s 85 of them. From California to Florida; Arizona to New York, DeVry campuses litter the nation. DeVry’s 2021 enrollment was 45,988 students, when a 2020 study found the average college size was a little over 6,000 (bigfuture.collegeboard.org).
Student and alumni opinion on DeVry is thoroughly mixed. For example: Grad Report, a college ranking cite based on student reviews, gave DeVry three out of five stars. Only 59% of reviewers say they’d recommend DeVry and only 54% say their degree improved career opportunities (gradreports.com). Looking through the reviews, there’s a rigid split between those who feel they’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime and those who feel scammed.
With a graduation rate of 15% (devry.edu), DeVry consistently places in the swamps of worst college lists—#18 of 21 in degreechoices.com, #37 of 52 in avacadoposts.com, and #1 worst college in moneyinc.com. If there’s any justice left in the collegiate system, DeVry will stay down in the bottom of college choice lists, and up in our hearts for years to come!