Free College Courses

Is a there a free college in the United States where students can avoid paying the high education costs? The answer is yes; there are free schools in the county where even international students can be admitted. Among them include Berea College.

The Berea College, located in Madison County in Kentucky, is one of many American Work colleges, a system that combines work and study, and allows students to fund all or part of their tuition fees.
Where this free College stands out is that it is the only higher education school to guarantee international students free education during their entire training.

How Does This Free College Work?

Studies at Berea College are not free. They have a cost. But this cost is taken care at 100%.
The school fees are funded through a set of scholarships that each student receives in a safe and certain way.  For the first year of study, all additional costs, such as accommodation and meals, are covered. However, for the following years, international students must provide at least USD 1000 of participation for these different services.

Upon admission, international students must pay $ 50 in administrative fees and make a deposit of $ 2,200. This deposit can then be used to pay for certain expenses on campus.

Is Berea College a good school to Study?

This free college ranks 67th in the US News ranking of the best Liberal Arts College (please for the top 10, please visit Best Universities and Colleges in the World). But like almost the entire Liberal Arts Colleges, it only offers undergraduate courses.

Its success rate in 4 years is 45% and its rate at 6 years is over 60%. This means that less than half of the students graduate in 4 years, the normal time for a Bachelor. Given the fact that Berea is a Work College, that is, all students have a job in parallel to their studies, this might not be shocking. However, after 6 years, still 40% of the workforce has not yet graduated. The education is free but the graduation rate is below average.

This can be due to the fact the education is free, so some students are negligent; or the fact the students have to work, thus have less time for their education. The reason is because the retention rate of first-year students, which generally indicates the level of student satisfaction, remains very high at 82%.

What are the admission requirements?

Not only it is natural for people to love free stuffs but the school also opens its door to international students. A free college in the United States will surely attract applications worldwide. That makes the admission more difficult. In 2015/2016, the admission rate of Berea College was 33.7%.

In order to be admitted to this institution, certain criteria must be met. Among them, applicants must be able to demonstrate financial hardship which makes it impossible to finance their higher education. For international students, only those whose family financial contribution is equal to zero may have a chance to be admitted. That is, while this is a free college, admitting is extremely difficult for certain group of students.

In addition, Berea College does not normally accept more than one student per nationality at each admission session. In other words, there can only be one Mexican student, one Haitian student, one Swiss student, one Canadian student, one Tunisian student per class…  Only thirty international students are admitted each year.