If their goal is success for their students, isn't it more beneficial to not accept students they deem higher risk instead of going for a guaranteed cash grab?
Seeing responses from others in this thread, this sounds more like the "pay to present" pitch from earlier in the year where they wind up a startup founder with interviews and congratulatory acceptance calls, only to hit them at the end with a fee to attend..
First, their goal is to make money, probably. Success of their students might be important in service to that goal, but it's quite important to not confuse the two.
Second, I'm not sure why they make their decisions. Maybe they want to grow (you know, to make more money) and that requires taking on higher risk students. Maybe it's becoming harder to place people and so there are not always enough low-risk students. Maybe they're getting bolder and even though these students are low-risk, they figure "what the hell, people will pay so we will charge them." Maybe there's some other reason.
Seeing responses from others in this thread, this sounds more like the "pay to present" pitch from earlier in the year where they wind up a startup founder with interviews and congratulatory acceptance calls, only to hit them at the end with a fee to attend..