As the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its mismanagement continues to ravage the country, it is not hard to imagine an increased number of people turning to colleges to look for new credentials in hopes of increasing their job prospects. Colleges may be tempted to do anything necessary to cash in on this new supply of students, and it is more important than ever to protect these prospects from misleading or predatory practices.
As part of an ongoing project with that end in mind, The Century Foundation is monitoring college advertising. An ad run by Brandman University this summer got caught in our net for its misleading nature. The ad in question is indicative of why colleges may want to examine their advertising practices. In particular, when colleges run ads that are based on very specific data to imply more general outcomes a prospective student might expect, a clear line is crossed into both questionable and misleading territory. Without question, colleges are obligated to avoid using misleading statements in their advertisements, but ideally all schools equally avoid crossing into gray areas.
Brandman University’s Misleading Ad
Brandman University is a private, nonprofit institution founded in 1958 by Chapman University to serve military and other so-called nontraditional adult students.