It's been evident for more than a year now that "for profit colleges"—which is to say, "shitty colleges which exist only to make money and which run a lot of advertisements and which you would never ever recommend to a true friend"—are on the decline, after years of virtually minting money. Enrollment is down across the board. Last week, the University of Phoenix announced it's shutting down half of its physical locations. Could this be... real progress?

Well, please feel free to digest these additional relevant facts, via the WSJ today:

[For profit college operator] Apollo said last week that enrollment fell by nearly 14% to 328,400 in the fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31. Student counts have dropped by nearly a third since their May 2010 peak of 476,500...The U.S. Department of Education recently reported the first drop in college enrollment in more than a decade-albeit one of less than 0.2%-based on data for students enrolled in fall 2011. But for-profit colleges saw enrollment fall by 2.8%... In California, lawmakers this summer decreed that students at 154 schools-nearly all of them for-profit colleges-will no longer be eligible for the state's need-based Cal Grants

Plummeting admissions, far exceeding the national averages. The drying-up of government funds. It's enough to make you think that both students and legislators have decided to seek out real colleges and stop burning huge sums of money to enrich private corporations and their shareholders at the expense of the public! (In this very specific arena, we mean.)

The only drawback: how is the Washington Post going to make money now? Ehh... sponsored animal listicles, fuck it. It's worth it.

[WSJ. Photo: AP]