College is Free!
This is becoming increasingly true for poor and sometimes middle class teens with the grades to get into elite schools. The key is to get this information in front of elementary and middle school students so that they see the value of school and can overcome the one caveat to all of these policies-you need the grades to get in. Too many youth get great grades in elementary schools and have a huge decline in middle school as they start to ask, “Why should I bother?” We need to turn the marketing machine on to let them know they can afford to go to college if they get good grades. Please help spread the word.
Theo Johnson looks at Harvard’s policy of a free education to families with income less than $60,000 while the New York Times talks about Yale’s policies. Much of this has to do with pressure on schools with large endowments to spend more of the money. FinAid has more on the trend here.
“Colleges that have eliminated loans from the financial aid packages of all undergraduate students include Princeton University, Davidson College, Williams College, Amherst College, Harvard University, Pomona College, Swarthmore College, Haverford College, University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Bowdoin College and Dartmouth College.”
Locally, the College of the Holy Cross will give free tuition to children of families who make less than $50K and live in
It looks like it’s moving down to prep schools as well as this Boston Globe article points out.
Please let me know what other institutions you are aware of who have these policies. I plan on making a poster, brochure and add a page to the website to advertise this to teens, parents and professionals who work with teens. Thanks for your help.
Update: If you want to help hard working teens from the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester get to college, click here to support the Walter and Pauline Doolan Scholarship Fund. Just make sure to put that it is designated for the Doolan Scholarship Fund in the comments.
I just wanted to say thank you for such a great post. I’ll be visiting your blog again and adding you to my reader ! Thank you again
Feb 13th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[...] a Budget, Part II: Uncle Joe’s Leadership Blog tells parents and students how to get a free college education. And Thursday Bram at Wise Bread tells students where to shop when they have to start buying their [...]
Feb 13th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[...] a Budget, Part II: Uncle Joe’s Leadership Blog tells parents and students how to get a free college education. And Thursday Bram at Wise Bread tells students where to shop when they have to start buying their [...]