For-profit higher education is a large, complex system of institutions, and its explosive growth over the last decade has made it a prominent force in shaping higher-education policy and practice. The for-profit educational sector is composed of a diverse set of colleges, but most of the literature neatly ignores this. The author argues that for-profit higher education is in need of a good classification system, one more suited to it than those that currently exist. Here, he builds on the elements of existing models to outline a new classification system with three dimensions: (1) geographic scope; (2) ownership; and (3) highest degree offered. Examples of its application are discussed.