10 Tips to Help You Get a College Degree for Free

The best things in life are free; the guy who came up with this gem probably never knew a thing about going to college. A college degree is easily one of the best things in life you can get – but it ain’t free. You’ve got to pay through your nose or get someone else to pay through theirs so that you can hold the degree certificate. A degree, whether associates, bachelors or higher is your key to better things in life – such as better earning potential, job security, attractive retirement benefits, and a healthier sex life…okay just kidding about the last one.

But what if it were possible to get a college degree for free, believe it or not it is indeed possible to become a degree holder without spending a dime. Here we list for you ten tips that can help you get a college degree for free.

1. If you have relevant work experience then you can fulfill credit requirements for a given degree type and be awarded one for free or with far less classroom attendance. Your previous education and jobs can exempt you from classroom courses. Community service in different fields, for example teaching or mentoring, is a great way to collect credit hours that can be used toward getting a degree.

2. Look for tuition waivers. Usually these waivers are need-based and directed towards communities that need support to boost their representation in education. Twenty four states in America have enacted laws to provide full tuition waivers to Native American students.

3. The Lorain County Community College runs several programs that cover complete tuition fees for up to two years. Also there are programs that let you accumulate college-credit via free education programs, add enough of these credits and you can get a college degree free or very cheap.

4. A basket of grant monies from different sources can cover your college tuition fees and other expenses if you are eligible for these. Financial need is the overriding criterion and getting approved for the Pell Grant will open the doors to a whole lot of other grants.

5. Tuition reimbursement is another option, it’s not exactly free upfront but many employers will reimburse the cost of education for their employees. Some may actually foot the cost of your college degree; of course you may have to use your newly acquired academic skills for the company’s benefit for a given period of time.

6. Check with your college financial aid department for your options regarding aid. There are always some scholarships and grants that slip into obscurity over time and lie unclaimed year after year. Add those to your bouquet of financial aid and you could get a well-rounded package that will see you through college for free.

7. If you are looking for free college degrees then remember they won’t come to you, you have to go to them and you’ve got to know where to find them. So start your search early, the internet is a great source and many scholarship search sites exist that can help you with your search for free money for education.

8. If you want to get some free education, then look for a college that wants you rather than spending energy competing for funds at places where there is competition. A fellowship is the best type of scholarship that you can hope to get. Not only are your tuition fees get waived, you actually get paid a stipend to stay with the college. Of course, there is a small catch. For most fellowships you will have to serve as faculty for some time.

9. Try Upromise. It’s a novel idea under which you can save a substantial amount of money that can be used for your college expenses. It’s basically a rewards network and its proceeds are meant to be used for your education. If you start early, you save more. Probably not enough for a free college degree but it can definitely contribute to that end.

10. Finally, there are many scholarships and grants out there that target communities. If you belong to a certain community such as African-American, American-Indian, Asian-American, then your chances of gathering enough funds for a free college degree are quite good.

This entry was posted on February 09th, 2010 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.