They're new, striving to be well-known and continuing to gain a bigger piece of the student pie.

They are for-profit colleges. The University of Phoenix, Stautzenberger College, DeVry University and Strayer University are just a few of these schools that have popped up in Northeast Ohio in recent years.

Their flexible methods of delivering instruction — and an enormous amount of advertising spending — are enabling for- profit schools to build their enrollment levels with students who otherwise might have chosen the traditional, nonprofit colleges that have called Northeast Ohio home for decades.

“They're obviously taking a big chunk of the market away,” said David A. Armstrong, vice president of enrollment and legal counsel at Notre Dame College in South Euclid. “They have made all colleges look at what they do and see if what we do, we can do better.”

About 2.6 million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, and that number is rising by an average of 9% annually, according to a Feb. 8 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Overall, about 19 million students enroll in degree-granting schools every fall, the article noted.

Such figures have caused Notre Dame to take notice. Though enrollment is up in all categories at Notre Dame, Mr. Armstrong said the college still worries it's losing market share to the for-profit schools. As a result, Notre Dame recently launched the Finn Center, which will oversee its adult, graduate and professional programs.