Questions to ask an online school's enrollment advisor

Before you sign with an online school in 2026, get four answers from its enrollment advisor in writing: your cost after aid, the credits it will accept, completion and earnings for students like you, and the refund and withdrawal rules.

Federal rules also limit how these schools pay recruiters. Under the incentive compensation ban, 34 CFR 668.14(b)(22), a school in the federal student aid programs agrees not to pay anyone who recruits students “any commission, bonus, or other incentive payment” based on enrollments or aid awards. Source · 34 CFR 668.14(b)(22)

If you are paying with your own money this time, a wrong pick costs you directly. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) still warns that recruiters “may be paid by the number of students they bring in,” so ask every question below and check the answers yourself. Source · FTC

If you filled in a school-matching form, ours included, the schools it matched may call you. Keep this page open for that call, and check that the school is accredited by a recognized agency first with our five-minute legitimacy check.

Twelve questions cover cost, credits, results and the contract

Ask for each answer in writing. The last column says where to check it yourself.

The FTC warns that some schools “may try to hide the number of classes or amount of time it will take to complete a program,” and “Some might change course requirements after you enroll,” which is why question 12 asks for the plan in writing. Source · FTC

The school has to make much of this available anyway. Federal rules list “The cost of attending the institution,” “Any refund policy,” “The requirements and procedures for officially withdrawing” and its transfer of credit policies among what it must make “readily available to enrolled and prospective students.” Source · 34 CFR 668.43(a)

The transfer policy must name “any types of institutions or sources from which the institution will not accept credits,” its articulation agreements, and its written criteria for credit for prior learning, including “service in the armed forces” and “paid or unpaid employment.” Source · 34 CFR 668.43(a)(11)

Our guide to how many credits will transfer shows how to get the evaluation in writing.

On cost, a tuition quote is not your budget. Federal rules have the school make its cost of attending available, including books and supplies, “typical charges for room and board” and transportation, and our guide to cost of attendance for online students shows where to find your school’s figure.

Federal aid rules bar paying recruiters per enrollment

A school can take part in the federal aid programs “only if the institution enters into a written program participation agreement.” One of its promises reads in full: Source · 34 CFR 668.14(a)(1)

The rule defines that payment as “a sum of money or something of value, other than a fixed salary or wages.”

The activities it covers include “contact in any form with a prospective student,” such as advising, setting up appointments and “involvement in a prospective student’s signing of an enrollment agreement or financial aid application.” Source · 34 CFR 668.14(b)(22)(iii)

The Education Department’s handbook says it “expects that employees who have titles such as enrollment counselors, recruitment specialists, recruiters, and enrollment managers have sufficiently direct involvement in recruitment that the incentive compensation ban applies to them.” Source · FSA Handbook 2026-27, Vol. 2, Ch. 3

The ban also covers recruiting staff employed by a school’s servicers or contractors, “such as online program managers.” Source · FSA Handbook 2026-27

Schools may still pay on “seniority or length of employment,” and on other factors not tied to enrollments or aid awards, such as “job knowledge and professionalism” and “student evaluations.” Source · FSA Handbook 2026-27

The rule itself allows two kinds of payment, quoted in full: Source · 34 CFR 668.14(b)(22)(ii)

• (A) “Merit-based adjustments to employee compensation provided that such adjustments are not based in any part, directly or indirectly, upon success in securing enrollments or the award of financial aid”
• (B) “Profit-sharing payments so long as such payments are not provided to any person or entity engaged in student recruitment or admission activity or in making decisions regarding the award of title IV, HEA program funds”

The rule also has limits on what it covers:

• Only two activities are covered. The handbook says “securing enrollment (recruitment) and securing financial aid. No other activities are subject to the ban.” Advertising and “Collecting contact information” are marketing, outside the ban, unless “the activities of the employee or entity also involve a covered activity.” Source · FSA Handbook, Table 1
• Buying contact details is allowed, with a condition. A school may pay a third party “for the provision of student contact information for prospective students,” as long as the payment is not based on any further step by the third party or by you (such as an advising session, an appointment, or signing an enrollment agreement or aid application), or on “the number of students” who apply for enrollment, are awarded financial aid or are enrolled. Source · 34 CFR 668.14(b)(22)(iii)(B)(2)
• It binds schools in the federal aid programs. It is a term of their agreement to offer federal aid. It does not apply to the recruitment of “foreign students residing in foreign countries who are not eligible to receive Federal student assistance.” Source · 34 CFR 668.14(b)(22)(i)(A)

The rule says what a school in the federal aid programs agrees to. It does not say how any one advisor is paid.

Completion rates change with who is counted

Ask which students a completion rate counts, and over how many years. College Scorecard’s “Graduation Rate” for a degree-granting school is the share who “graduated at this school within 8 years of entry, regardless of their full-time/part-time status or prior postsecondary experience.” Source · Scorecard glossary

Scorecard’s data files also keep a different measure: first-time, full-time students who finished within 150% of normal time, which is 6 years for a bachelor’s school. The two measures count different students over different spans, so compare like with like.

College Navigator’s “Outcome Measures” splits the same idea by group: first-time or transfer-in, full-time or part-time. Source · College Navigator

Example: Colorado State University Global, a public school whose programs are all online. Here is how its rates look by group, from College Scorecard’s October 2026 data and College Navigator.

Find your row. If you have been to college before and will study part-time, the part-time transfer-in row (40%) counts students like you. Full-time with college before is the 65% row; part-time with no college before is the 21% row.

The first two rows are different measures from the Navigator rows, so read each against its own definition.

At CSU Global, 67% of undergraduates were part-time in fall 2024 and 84% were 25 or older in fall 2023 (College Scorecard, October 2026 data). A rate built only on first-time, full-time students leaves out those part-time students, so ask for the rate that matches you. Source · College Scorecard

The “At another school” column is Navigator’s share enrolled at a different school eight years after entering in 2016-17.

Navigator’s “Overall Graduation Rate and Transfer-Out Rate” section gives no rate for this school: “This institution did not admit full-time first-time undergraduate-level students in the cohort year, therefore graduation rate information was not reported.” Source · College Navigator

Earnings and debt work the same way: ask for your program’s figure and its years.

CSU Global graduates’ median earnings four years after finishing were $79,486 (completed 2017-18 and 2018-19, measured 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars), and graduates’ median federal debt was $23,000 (entered repayment in federal fiscal years 2024 and 2025). Source · College Scorecard

Those are school-wide figures; our guide to what a college’s graduates earn shows how to find one program’s.

Net price counts living costs, so it can top tuition

Ask for the cost after grants, not the tuition alone. College Scorecard’s “Average Annual Cost” adds “the advertised price for tuition, fees, books, supplies, and the average living costs at the school” and subtracts “the average grant and/or scholarship aid,” averaged over full-time, first-time students with federal aid. Source · Scorecard glossary

College Navigator builds its net price the same way, from “the total cost of attendance,” which adds “books and supplies” and “the weighted average for Food and Housing and other expenses” to tuition and fees, then subtracts the average grant or scholarship aid. Source · College Navigator

At CSU Global, tuition and fees were $9,000 for 2025-26, in state or out. The average net price was $17,732 for 2024-25, for the 97 full-time, first-time undergraduates with federal aid in that average (College Scorecard, October 2026 data). Source · College Scorecard

College Navigator’s own average net price for full-time beginning students with grant or scholarship aid was $16,510 for 2023-24. Source · College Navigator

By definition, the net price adds books, supplies and living costs to tuition and fees before grants come off, which is how it can top the tuition figure. The figures cover different years and students, so they are not a bill. Navigator links each school’s net price calculator for your own estimate.

Sales pressure is the FTC’s warning sign, and you can end the calls

The FTC asks two questions about the call itself: “is a recruiter or advisor for the school rushing you to commit? Are they pressuring you to decide before you have a chance to research the program and confirm the details of financial aid?” Source · FTC

On paperwork, its advice is short: “If the school won’t give you documents to review before you commit, don’t enroll. Period.” Read what you would sign, and check whether it says how to back out. Source · FTC

Get any job or pay claim in writing and compare it with Scorecard.

In October 2021 the FTC put 70 for-profit higher education institutions on notice about “false promises they make about their graduates’ job and earnings prospects,” and it said a school’s presence on that list “does not reflect any assessment as to whether they have engaged in deceptive or unfair conduct.” Source · FTC, Oct 6, 2021

If a school “didn’t live up to its promises,” the FTC says to report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general. Source · FTC

Save these questions for the call

More checks before you enroll, from accreditation to who runs the school, are in our online degree guides.

Your next step: know your aid figure before the call

Your own aid figure lets you check what the school quotes. The aid check shows a full-time Pell Grant estimate and full-time annual federal loan limits under the rules for the year you start (2026-27 or 2027-28), before you give any name, email or phone. Your school’s aid office sets the actual offer, and school matching after your result is optional.