Corinthian
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Corinthian Colleges was one of the largest for-profit college operators in the United States. Founded in 1995, it ran more than 100 campuses and online programs under the Everest, Heald, and WyoTech brands, enrolling over 80,000 students at its peak. Its business relied heavily on federal student aid: the company was heavily criticized for aggressive recruitment, misleading job-placement claims, and leaving students with high debt and poor outcomes. In April 2015 it closed its remaining 28 campuses, and in May 2015 the company filed for bankruptcy - one of the largest failures in the history of for-profit higher education, triggering years of federal student-loan discharge programs for defrauded borrowers.
02 / Corinthian FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
OCR/Bloomberg (4 May 2015) traces the collapse to ED cutting Title IV access in 2014, a $30M ED fine and California enrollment freeze over misrepresented Heald job-placement rates, and inability to sell remaining campuses (Massimino: regulatory environment blocked a teach-out sale). NBC/Reuters same day: hamstrung by federal and state investigations for misleading students and investors.
ED reduced access to federal student aid; $30M fine and California enrollment stop over misrepresented placement rates.
Title IV was the core revenue; cutting aid access precipitated the meltdown (company received $1.4B in federal aid in 2013).
CEO: regulatory environment would not allow completing a sale/teach-out of remaining campuses.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
NBC/Reuters: on 26 Apr 2015 the company said it would close remaining campuses (~16,000 students). OCR/Bloomberg: 28 remaining for-profit career schools; ~2,700 jobs.
- Bankruptcy
NBC/Reuters and CourtListener docket 15-10952: Corinthian Colleges Inc. filed bankruptcy restructuring in Bankr. D. Del. 4 May 2015 listing ~$19.2M assets vs >$143M debts to complete an orderly wind-down.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Founded in 1995, it grew into one of the largest for-profit college operators in the United States — the Everest, Heald and WyoTech brands, with over 80,000 students at peak enrollment.
- 02
In April 2015 it closed its remaining 28 campuses and filed for bankruptcy in May 2015.
- 03
No audited loss figure was publicly disclosed.