Can For-Profit Colleges Teach Your Portfolio a Thing or Two?

Ten thousand late-night TV commercials can't possibly be wrong, can they? You can hardly get through a night of drinking scotch and watching Roseanne reruns without stumbling across two or three dozen commercials for one of the many for-profit post-secondary schools. While education experts disagree about the usefulness and validity of the schools, investors cannot deny that they have the chance to make some folks very, very rich. For-profit schools make up a small overall percentage of America's education system, although that number is growing quickly. Eduventures, a higher education research and consulting firm, states that nine percent of all U.S. college and graduate students attend for-profit institutions. That's a lot of federally backed student loan money flowing into the industry. Want a piece of the action? Consider these stocks.

Education Management offers education through a few different groups, including the Art Institutes, Argosy University, the Brown Mackie Colleges, and South University. They offer campus-based and online instruction for undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as certificates.

You may have heard of Apollo's biggest name group, the University of Phoenix. They're kind of a big deal. Overall, APOL provides educational programs and services at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.

DeVry owns and operates DeVry University, Advanced Academics, Ross University, Chamberlain College of Nursing, and Becker Professional Review. DeVry University offers associate, bachelor, and master degree programs in technology, healthcare technology, business, and management

Career Education Corporation provides educational services primarily in the United States. The company's programs include doctoral degrees, master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, and associate degreess, as well as diploma and certificate programs in various career-oriented disciplines.

ITT Educational Services provides master, bachelor and associate degrees, and career-oriented education programs in a variety of fields.