Our Experience with Tuition Free Colleges
Low-Cost and No Cost Options
Pros and cons of free and low-cost tuition programs
Our own son was able to benefit from one called the Tuition Exchange Program, as I detailed here . Did he get a college education at a huge savings? Unquestionably. At the time, the average cost of college was rising by as much as $1400 a semester and we were hard-pressed to come up with tuition money, even though we'd been saving for years. If you'd like to know how much college prices have gone up since them, you can check out the 2008-2009 info here at College Board's site.
Although tuition was covered, we still helped out with other costs that weren't part of tuition, from clothing to assistance with school fees and other incidentals. Our son also worked summers and whenever he could to help defray his educational costs and even spent an entire year away from school, working to save up money to add to his college savings.
Free college tuition programs can have limitations
When it comes to the Racine students who might be able to go to college free (the program is still being proposed and isn't final yet), they would have to live in Racine, obviously limiting the pool of possible candidates. In our case, our son was eligible to attend only certain universities. Luckily, one of his top picks was on the list. His father also had to work at a university for a number of years before we met eligibility requirements. This meant that we had at least one son who didn't qualify for free or reduced tuition because his father hadn't been at the job long enough.
Even when we did meet the eligibility standards for free college tuition, there were limited openings and no guarantee our son would be accepted. But we were lucky, an opening appeared, and he met the requirements. Even then, we had to provide tax forms and financial statements. This could be seen as a negative by some who want to keep their financial information private or worry about identity theft. We were more concerned about paying for college at that point.
Free college tuition programs can have GPA requirements - but some don't
This is a controversial area because college guidance counselors have gone back and forth about whether to have merit-based programs for free college tuition or to accept all students who graduate from high school, even if they barely meet those graduation requirements. Our college admissions officer did wonder how a student who has trouble graduating from high school, could handle college challenges.
When our son applied for the Tuition Exchange Program, there were spots opening up because other students dropped out or had barely made the cut to get into the program in the first place. But some college admissions officers feel every student who gets through high school deserves a chance for a college education. So the debate continues and was actually being discussed when our son applied for free college tuition. Some participating colleges used GPAs (grade point averages) as a factor and others did not.
Low-cost options to free college tuition programs
Even if a student doesn't meet the cut for free college tuition, there are ways to cut costs. Scholarships and student loans exist and some students simply take a year off and work - or work during college - to help pay costs. There are also merit-based programs and work study options. Two year colleges, community colleges and trade schools can also be low-cost alternatives to tuition free colleges - or a temporary option for finding work and saving money for a return back to school. Some allow students to work and earn money even while learning a vocation.In a tight economy, some students even stay home a year or two longer and wait for the economy to improve before tackling college costs again.
Sources
Personal experience
My Experiences with the Tuition Exchange Program: Save Money on College: here
Best Values in Public Colleges for 2008-2009, Kiplingers: here
Free College Tuition in Racine? TMJ4 Milwaukee: here
Published by Jan Corn
I've had extensive experience with DIY and home renovation projects, particularly after buying a home that was in need of repair. As the daughter of a builder, I'd learned a few things when helping my fathe... View profile
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82 Comments
Post a CommentI hadn't heard of this before. Thanks for the info.
I had never heard of anything like this. Thanks for the information.
We have a program like this in our county and it's terrific. I don't think the real effect will be seen five or ten years after kids grow up knowing college IS an option.
Two great schools that are open to anyone with no tuition: West Point, of course, and Berea College in Kentucky. the latter does require financial need.
Interesting article!
Whoops! I wrote a bit much! To finish... "least a measure of truth."
I'm living in Virginia at present, and we have community colleges here. They are similar or the same as what used to be called junior colleges. There are troubles with colleges. To accept just anyone doesn't mean a great education has become available for more people. It may mean that the education available has been degraded some by allowing anybody, qualified or no, to be part of the classroom. Besides, the job-market is variable, perhaps to a lesser extent to trade-oriented jobs such as plumbing, electrical work, auto repair, etc. A glut of college graduates means two things are likely to happen. 1. A bachelor's degree will no longer be considered enough qualification, and 2) There will be too many candidates for too few jobs, more thus finding their way to the soup kitchen (exaggerating). In addition, since the quality level is degraded, we may face a generation of doctors and lawyers who are incompetent. Admittedly I paint a bleak picture here, but I think it contains at
If you live in certain areas of Appalachia...oh, never mind. I'll safe that for one of my articles. LOL!
Helpful article.
=)
I have never heard of this. What a great idea and a great incentive for high school students. Education shouldn't be so expensive and we're only hurting ourselves in the long run if teenagers don't go onto college. College should be no different than high school - we need people to learn important trades so we can sustain ourselves. It's amazing how few engineering students there are who are actually American - imagine offering free college tuition for American engineering students?