Send Your Kids To College For Free

[jeffrey]

Tim Stroud's alarm goes off at 3:40 a.m. every weekday morning, a time when most of his classmates at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo., are fast asleep. By 4:30 a.m., he is out in the pasture in his work boots gathering the college's herd of 50 Holstein cows into the barn for their morning milking session. His unusual campus job—working in the dairy 15 hours a week—is a small price to pay for what he sees as one of the best deals today in higher education: a free degree.

Pssst! Wanna Go to College for Free?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Truth is, just as good a deal can be had at many state universities and some private colleges if one qualifies for scholarships. And it seems to me that there simply are very many more scholarships available these days than there were twenty years ago. Of course for scholarships that are publicly funded, that could change every time a state legislature meets.

I wonder if there is any stigma to attending any of these schools by reason of having been free.

There are some unusual schools in that list. Some have acceptance rates of 30%, but some of only 7%! I wonder why the 93% rejections.

Oddly, one school, Berea, asks for ACT score between 20 and 30. What?--they don't want anyone with a score higher than 30?

By the way, I do know someone who went to Berea. He is a most cool person, with so much inner strength and such a natural acceptance of every person from the lowliest to the highest. I don't know what hand that school had in his development, but if it had any role, it deserves credit for contributing to the making of one fine human being.

Definitely there are things to investigate about these schools if any of them seem attractive on first glance.

[DebbieL]

I read it that Berea's average student has ACT score between 20 and 30, not that it was a requirement.

I read the whole article, boy your colleges are expensive. I'm in Canada and returning to college in January. I am taking 3 courses (I have to continue working full time). It is costing me $1050 for the term. This includes all my courses, an extended medical/dental plan (for the year), a bus pass for the entire term, all the recreational facilities, student society fees, etc. If I were taking a full time course load (5 courses/term) it would cost me about $1500 for the term. Textbooks will be extra (about $100 most courses), but most of them can be bought used from other students for about 1/2 price or less (say $35-50).

At the end of it all I will have a very high paid career (I’m going to go for my accounting designation) that is highly sought after and most importantly no student loan debt. I cannot imagine EVER being able to go if the average cost of tuition was $24K or so like it says in the article. I guess that is part of why our income taxes here in Canada are fairly high, lol. Nothing is ever totally free I guess. I’ve read that the tuition here only covers about 17% of the actual cost of our education. The rest must come from taxes, etc.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Oh yes, you're quite right, That's their average range, not the requirement. I guess I just flunked my entrance exam.

And that $24,000? I think that is for private schools. Some of them really are superb. Some are much higher than that. The tuitions for state universities are much lower, though.

[DebbieL]

Oh, I read it as an average. I would hope it's lower than that to go to college!