Although American for-profit institutions have been around since the 19th century, until the 1980s and 1990s they lived the quiet, unassuming lives of vocational or trade schools. As such, the “for-profit university” is nearly as young in the U.S. as in Brazil. The difference is that Brazilian for-profits are perceived as no different from Brazil’s equally young private universities whereas American for-profits are viewed as on a different planet from the august private universities that now constitute the firmament of American higher education.