Free College?

[AlphaSigOU]

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

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!

[DawnDZ]

Originally posted by Eclipse
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.

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*princess]

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

[Queencece]

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

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by KillarneyRose
The states that were mentioned were Georgia and Louisiana.

why am I laughing at this?

Lar-ned... edumacation.

[CarolinaCutie]

People in Iowa shouldn't throw stones.

[Munchkin03]

Originally posted by DawnDZ
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.

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.

[DawnDZ]

Originally posted by Queencece
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

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!

[oncelurked]

Originally posted by Rudey
You got financial aid. Stanford is not free.

-Rudey

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).

[DGqueen17]

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.