Free College?
 

While reading some older threads, I see that several people have mentioned that colleges in their home states are free to anyone who can get in. The states that were mentioned were Georgia and Louisiana.

Is that really true? Or is calling it free oversimplifying things? I've never heard of such a thing before and was just curious/interested.

Thanks! :)

Cooper Union is private and tuition-free.

I don't know about free state schools.

Re: Free College?
 

Several states offer scholarships to those who qualify. The funds are via lottery. ;)

I know back when I applied to college state was free for me and city would have actually paid me to go. Neither were options I would have enjoyed. I also know Cooper Union was a free ride for engineering people.

-Rudey

Florida public colleges certainly aren't free but the State does have a wonderful scholarship program.
Florida use to have a great tuition payment program called Florida Pre-Paid but they did away with it this year. The program allows parents to begin paying tuition for a public Florida school from the time of the child's birth. The program locks in the tuition rates for the year you set it up. My parents set up my Florida Pre-Paid account back in 1981 so they were paying the rates for that year. The downfall, of course, is if the child decides to go to school out of state or at a private Florida school. I don't think you can get your money back if this occurs (someone from FL who knows can correct me if I'm wrong).
Florida also has the Bright Futures Scholarship which gets its money through the lottery. Depending upon your GPA and the classes you took in HS, you can either get a 100% scholarship or a 75% scholarship. I think the minimum GPA for the 75% scholarship is a 3.25.
It was a great deal. When I was in school, I had Florida Pre-Paid plus the 100% scholarship (and I had another scholarship). Florida Pre-Paid covered my tuition and my scholarship money was deposited into my bank account. I used that money for books, food, sorority, rent, etc.

The University of Oklahoma (the "other" O.U.) has a National Scholars program which offers essentially full rides to National Merit and National Hispanic Scholars.

By essentially, I mean that, even for out of state students, it covers nearly everything. I think our sons' first year cost us nothing, his second about $500 and this year we anticipate around $750-1000 out of pocket.

This is done through a series of fee waivers, cash stipends and scholarships. Also, additional scholarships the student may receive, even from the university, are NOT deducted from the package -- which can help with "spending money" and the like.

Our son's freshman class had 192 "National Scholars" in it, the highest number per capita of any public supported university.

I BEGGED my mom to do the pre-paid for some reason. But she never would. Good thing she didn't b/c by the time I graduated I was ready to get out of there. You're right - you don't get your $$$ back if you choose not to use it.

I was awarded a Bright Futures scholarship (back when it was called the Gold Seal scholarship) but chose not to use that either. Yeah, mom was a little peeved at me about that one too. :D

My little transferred from Elon to UGA because she's from Georgia and got a huge break going in-state. I'm not sure of the program name, though.

The only problem I can see with a free or almost free state school program is that a lot of people want to go out-of-state or to a private school. All the public schools in VA were too big for me and didn't have programs as good as the one I was in at Elon.

Georgia has a program called the HOPE scholarship that is funded by the GA Lottery. A GA resident who graduates HS with a 3.0 GPA or better receives free tuition at any public college or university. The student still has to pay for room & board (if applicible) and any fees. The HOPE also has a book scholarship that is, I think, $500 a semester. The student has to have at least a 3.0 GPA the first year or so then the GPA requirement is increased. I think to keep the HOPE all 4 years you have to graduate with a 3.2 or something like that. Sorry I don't remember the details, but it did not exist when I was in college!

The program is so successful that many of GA's schools have increased their GPA requirements. Schools that were once considered 'safety' school are increasingly more competative because good students are choosing to stay in state. With state budget issues there is talk of raising the GPA, adding a needs based component, or reducing the award amount. The success of the program also has led to charges that HS students are taking "easy" classes in HS to keep their 3.0, HS (and college) teachers are giving As and Bs so that students don't loose their eligibility and that student are taking longer than 4 or 5 years to graduate because they drop classes if their GPA is in danger of falling below a 3.0

As an aside, the HOPE scholarship also pays for people who get their GED to continue their education, pays GA HS students who go to private schools a small stipend (a couple thousand dollars, I think, with no GPA requirement) and for 4 year old kindergarden.

I hope I got all of that right....I did it from my personal knowledge of the program.

Really? I remember hearing that the cut off enrollment was January 2004. My friend was mentioning about her sister needing to enroll her newborn son into it before the program ended. Or maybe they were thinking of ending the program?

Stanford was free for the first few years, and then had very low tuition for a long time after that. Sucks that they changed their mind!

You got financial aid. Stanford is not free.

-Rudey

I would've LOVED free tuition...then my college fund would've been money in the bank. :p

Kinda off the subject, but I read an article in our local paper today about an "undocumented immigrant" who just completed a degree at the local community college and wants to continue his education at the state university in this city, but can't afford it and he's complaining and all "woe is me" because he says the community college didn't offer enough guidance on how to finance his continuing education. He can't receive federal aid because he's illegal, but he seems to think that the school should've helped him apply for merit scholarships. I have issues with this, but I was wondering what you all thought about illegal immigrants or noncitizens getting scholarship money?

Like BetaRose said, they converted it to a 529. My sister has it for both of her kids. I think a 529 will make it easier to travel than the prepaid did. It was hell getting that one out of the grasp of the state of Florida.

I had Florida Pre-paid, and qualified for Bright Futures (back when it was Florida Academic Scholars). Not only did I go out of state, I went to a private, expensive out of state. But, I didn't want to be in school with all 39 of my HS classmates, so it was worth it.

Louisiana has a program called TOPS, which is essentially the same thing.

Lousiana school have TOPS. If you have a certain gpa and ACT score you can go to any state school for free ... when I graduated in 2000 the gpa was like a 2.0 and act like a 20 ... they have sinced raised the standards ... i unfortunately did not benifit because I went out of state and then came back two years later and you can't get this back once you leave .... the money can also be put towards private school ed but you will still have to pay bc private are of course more than public

You want a free edjamacation, shoved up yer ass a nickel at a time? Get an appointment to the military service academies. :D

Only one hitch... you commit to five years of service as an officer if you graduate (ten if you get pilot or navigator training). If you drop out or get kicked out in your junior or senior year, or fail to complete your commitment as an officer you owe the Feds a hefty chunk o' tuition (calculated at around $250,000 for all four years) or you can enlist.

Only one thing though... no Greek system - their equivalent of pledgeship is the fourth class year!

We have this same type of thing in Maryland(also called the hope scholarship). The difference being that you get full tuition coverage if your a teaching or a Nursing major(right now it only covers teaching and nursing). When Maryland doesn't have enough people in a certain field they will provide free tuition to those willing to study and graduate in that field. They don't have to repay anything as long as they work in maryland for atleast 5 years.

On the east coast there is something called the academic common market. If a university in your state doesn't offer your choice of major (you have to make sure that no public institution has that major) you can go to an out of state school for the same cost that it would to attend your instate university. The hope scholarship applies to this aswell.

Also if you are not accepted by an instate institution for nursing/teaching in Maryland, you can go to another school at a prorated cost (usually the same or less then a UM school). This has just been approved in the last year since we have 3 major universities with execellent nursing programs and everyone and the brother seems to be applying to these programs/schools.

Texas has (or used to have.. not sure) the Texas Tomorrow Fund, which sounded similar to the program FLordia used to have.

I wish that my state would have adopted the high GPA and free school attitude. Im in VA and I heard of nothing like that. I graduated high school with a 3.33 and I had an "advanced" dipolma and I would have loved to go to any public college or university of my choice for free. That would have been a tremendous help to me, but NOOOOOOO VA wanted to be difficult and money hungry! Angry GC poster, Angry Angry! :(

Q

Re: Free College?
 

why am I laughing at this?

Lar-ned... edumacation.

People in Iowa shouldn't throw stones.

A lot of states have reciprocal agreements like this, and they're usually divided by region. There is the Southern Academic Common Market (but Florida and Texas are not part of it for undergrad because their college systems are HUGE), New England has a similar agreement, and I know that kids from Missouri who want to study architecture can go to either U.Kansas or Kansas State for in-state tuition, since MO does not offer a B.Arch in the state system.

I am with you on this one! I went to VT for two years and claimed instate residency shortly after starting. they wouldn't let me claim instate tuition so I had to leave becuase it was a ridicoulous cost for out of state kids. That made me so mad! They are TOO money hungry! bugger heads!

Actually, XOMichelle is right. For the first decade or so after the university's inception, tuition was $0. The board of directors only voted to have a tuition fee once they saw that the students were better off financially than their professors (I believe this was in the 1920's or 1930's) So while today Stanford does have tuition and a financial aid system, it was in fact free to attend for a period of time.

I should add that it was Jane and Leland's desire that Stanford students never pay for college, but times changed and so did the board's impression of the situation. Later tuition increases reflected increases in costs for the university and the inability of the university endowment to keep up with those demands (its a possibility that tuition wouldn't increase nearly so much if alumni were exceedingly generous).

They have a scholarship thing in WV but I didn't get it and it wouldn't do me any good anyway. Loans what, what.