Seven Tuition-Free Colleges Help College Dreams Come True

Seven <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Tuition-Free Colleges Help College Dreams Come True<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
J. Michael Sharman
 
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, college graduates earn an average of $1 million more during their careers than high school graduates, and earn back as much as $30 for each dollar invested in higher education.[1]
But as the investment cliché says, "It takes money to make money," and a lot of families don't have any spare cash to invest in their kids' college education.
Seven very unique colleges give free tuition (and a few even provide free room and board) to help make college dreams come true for kids who otherwise could not afford it.
The Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, http://www.williamson.edu/, in Media, Pennsylvania has a three-year Associates Degree course of study to train young men to be truly skilled craftsmen and businessmen in carpentry, masonry, horticulture, machine technology, and power plant operation.
Williamson is the only free school of its kind in the nation. It provides all students with full scholarships that cover tuition, room, board, and textbooks, for an academic, trade, technical, moral and religious education based, its website says, "on the Judeo-Christian perspective that fosters the values of faith, integrity, diligence, excellence, and service."
The students also compete in cross country, football, soccer, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse, and baseball through the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Williamson is a small school of 251 undergraduate students. Even though the average high school GPA of the entering class is a modest 2.3, it is a selective school, with only 26% of its applicants accepted each year. Admission applications should be completed no later than March 15th.
The 1500 students who attend the College of the Ozarks at its 1000-acre campus in Branson, Missouri, http://www.cofo.edu/, also get an entirely free education in exchange for a mandatory work-study program.
The Wall Street Journal appropriately called the College of the Ozarks "Hard Work U" because the students run the College's hotel, restaurant, dairy, crafts centers, gift shops, greenhouses, newspaper, theatre, and radio and television stations. They are its building and grounds crews, as well as its cooks, secretaries, and laundry workers.
It takes work just to get into the school: only 10% of applicants, with a 3.5 average high school GPA, are admitted to the College of the Ozarks,
Two other colleges were founded with a mission of providing mountain folks with a tuition- free higher education: Alice Lloyd College (http://www.alc.edu/) and Berea College (http://www.berea.edu/),  both of which are in the Appalachian areas of Kentucky. These schools do have a room and board expense, but even so the total indebtedness of a graduating student from Alice Lloyd College is only $3,495 and from Berea College only $7,299. That's about $120,000 cheaper than the average cost for a four year education at other private colleges.[2]
There are free colleges in the big city, too.
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, http://www.cooper.edu/, is the only private, full-scholarship college in the United States dedicated exclusively to preparing students for the professions of art, architecture and engineering. Thirteen percent of its applicants are admitted with an average high school GPA 3.3.
Over in  Philadelphia, the Curtis Institute of Music http://www.curtis.edu/html/10000.shtml, is the only major music conservatory to provide merit-based full-tuition scholarships to all students regardless of their financial situation. Admission is by live audition and highly selective, with only 5% of applicants being admitted. Enrollment is limited to about 160 musicians-in-training for the school's symphony orchestra, opera department, and programs in piano, organ, harpsichord, composition, and conducting.
The students at the tuition-free Webb Institute on Long Island Sound, http://www.webb-institute.edu/, are all studying the college's only major: Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
Webb Institute students take fall and spring academic courses, but every January and February, they intern in the marine industry with a salaried work experience during each of their four years of study.
Typically, freshmen start off as helper mechanics in a shipyard; sophomores work in the engine room of a ship; while juniors and seniors work in naval architect and marine engineering design offices.
Whether a student wants to be a master carpenter or a maestro conductor, one of these seven schools can help transform their dreams into reality.


[1]http://education.yahoo.com/college/financial_aid/articles/college_an_investment_in_yourself.html;_ylt=AhcPnkLlVmxl6o1R_nSl.VZYQMcF
 

[2] Annual Survey of Colleges, The College Board, New York, NY, 2004-2005 (Enrollment-Weighted)

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