I went to ITT in California.  We had the HEA back then.

In 2011, Section 487(a)(20) of the HEA went into effect.  Section 487 prohibits colleges from providing incentive compensation to employees or third party entities for their success in securing student enrollments or the awarding of Title IV HEA program funds.  There is a wordy explanation of what that means on the Department of Education’s website, but basically it means that “schools” cant give their recruiters bonuses based on how many “starts” they get, and financial aid advisors cannot get bonuses on how many loans they package.  I believe that the goal of Section 487 was to remove the incentive for recruiters and advisors to commit deceptions.

Prior to 2011, well, I’ll let you decide.

This is a help wanted ad that ran in a large paper in Southern California during the late 1980s.  Do you think these folks were getting bonuses for their starts?