UPDATE 1-Education Management to price $380 mln IPO Oct 1

* Education Management to sell 20 mln shares, $18-$20

* Estimates net proceeds of $353.4 mln, to pay down debt

NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Education Management Corp is set to price its planned $380 million IPO in early October and become the latest private equity-owned firm to go public during the current stock market rally.

EDMC, which initially filed in December 2007 to go public, said in an updated prospectus filed on on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it planned to sell 20 million for between $18 and $20 each and list them on Nasdaq under the symbol "EDMC."

The IPO is set to price Oct. 1 and begin trading the next day, one of the deal's underwriters said.

Education Management, based in Pittsburgh, offers post-secondary education in North America and runs 92 schools, including Argosy University. It had about 111,000 enrolled students as of last October, according to the filing.

As of July 2009, approximately 26,200 students were enrolled in EMDC's online programs.

In June 2006, EDMC was bought by a group of private investors, Providence Equity Partners, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners (GS.N) and Leeds Equity Partners. These private equity funds will still collectively own 65.5 percent of the company after the IPO, according to the filing.

In the year ended June 30, 2009, EDMC's revenues rose 19.4 percent to $2.01 billion, with net income of $104.4 million.

The last two education companies to go public in the United States have performed well since their IPOs. Grand Canyon Education Inc's (LOPE.O) shares are up 57 percent since its November 2008 IPO, while Bridgepoint Education Inc (BPI.N) is up 69 percent since going public in April.

EMDC said it expects net proceeds of $353.4 million and will use them largely to pay down a subsidiary's debts.

Several other private-equity owned companies have gone public in recent weeks, including chipmaker Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO.O) and healthcare records manager Emdeon Inc.(EM.N)

The IPO will be led by Goldman Sachs & Co, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. (Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)