Heald College
Heald College — What It Was, What It Became, and What It Taught Me
Heald College was originally a good institution in the earlier days because it was nonprofit and it was more of a business college.
That’s the Heald I knew first. Practical. No frills. Typing, accounting, business math, dress for success. It was built for people who needed skills, not prestige. It took students who were overlooked by four-year universities and gave them a shot at an office job, a certificate, a paycheck. It met you where you were.
I think the downfall of the school was becoming for-profit and not being the way it was.
The problem with for-profit colleges is they cater to people that are not community college ready to transfer or go to four-year institutions. Towards the end, it was a trap for people at the bottom of society — “get in, get ahead, and expect a job.” But the job market changed. The promise didn’t.
The times also changed. The history of Heald had a lot of success stories. I know many success stories that walked those halls. But trade schools were fading because new administrations kept pushing education and degrees. “College for all” became the mantra, and schools like Heald got caught in the middle — not prestigious enough for the degree crowd, too expensive for the trade crowd.
I kinda appreciate Trump because we need trade schools and more trade work. We swung too far toward “everyone needs a bachelor’s” and forgot that society runs on people who can fix, build, file, and keep records. Heald at its best did that. Heald at its end sold hope without the infrastructure.
Then there was the rise of Christian colleges, which are not the same as schools that are public. Getting a degree from Liberty College is not the same as going to a school with a variety of input and instructors that are well-rounded. I believe in faith. I don’t believe in echo chambers. I learn best when I’m challenged, when my classmates don’t look like me, think like me, or pray like me. That’s education.
It’s funny — in the 90s I wanted to go to National University, and Northcentral turned to National. I never got into the schools like Harvard that offered business degrees that are not Harvard. You know the ones. The extension schools. The executive programs. The ones making money off working adults who want the name without the campus.
Heald became one of those, in its own way. It stopped being a nonprofit business college for secretaries and bookkeepers and became a for-profit machine for people like me — midlife, restarting, vulnerable, hopeful.
But I saw it coming. I followed Kamala Harris when she went after for-profits in California. I made sure to get my transcripts and my degree before Heald closed. I wasn’t going to be another story of lost credits and broken promises.
Heald taught me accounting. It also taught me how to read fine print. It taught me that “nonprofit” and “for-profit” are not just tax statuses — they’re values. One serves students. One serves shareholders.
I don’t regret Heald. The early version gave people a career. The later version gave me a lesson. Both mattered.
We need trade schools. We need business colleges. We need nonprofits that put people over profit.
And we need to tell the truth about the schools that lost their way, so the next student doesn’t.
Cathryn M. Murray
Salem, Oregon | August 1, 2026
