Question:
I don't think it's a "real" university, as that's generally understood.
I believe there's a chain of for-profit vocational training schools,
each called "DeVry Institute", and they now call the totality of them
"DeVry University". Check the web again. I assume, without checking,
that it's not an accredited tertiary institution (not that it should
be).
Probably the reason Leno mentions it is that the name is well known.
I think it might be a nationwide chain, and I believe they do
television as well as print-media advertising. To me, it would be just
as funny, if not more so, to do a joke about "Apex Tech", but that has
a lot to do with their old TV commercials. Heck, I think it would be
funny to make a joke about "Heriot-Watt University", but who'd get it?
I think I told youse guys that I saw a recent Apex Tech commercial. On
the old ones from the early '80s there was an otherwise bald guy with
otherwise grey or white hair and a moustache who was the spokesman in
the commercial, but they never said who he was.
It was presented as if he was the head of Apex Tech. And what I
remember most of all is his strong regional accent, which I think may
have been Southern Californian, because it was a bit like Wilford
Brimley, with those exaggerated r's that Nixon couldn't shake. Well,
on this recent commercial it didn't show any spokesman; it just had
some announcer. But at the end of the commercial they show an image of
that same guy with the moustache -- again without identifying him!
Who was this man? Was he the founder of Apex Tech? Just some actor,
like that guy who plays Dave Thomas? What sort of regional
hyperrhotic accent did he have? And does the new commercial imply
that he is no longer alive? I'll bet the answer to this mystery is on
the web somewhere, BITLTLIU.
Answer:
Although they have one page referencing "DeVry University",
they refer to themselves at "DeVry Institutes". I think you
under-rate them when you call them a "vocational" school.
To me, a vocational school and a trade school are
synonymous. DeVry is quite a few steps above this level.
In Chicago, DeVry was a rather well respected school for
certain technical - mostly electronic - careers.
The most common objection to DeVry is their advertising.
They imply/promise job placement, and that's really more of
a market factor. As a private for-profit school, they are
more aggressive in recruiting.
