Free College Education!

If you and your student are willing to take a chance on a college, he can go to Antioch College for free. For the next three years, those who enroll at Antioch will attend tuition free. The 160-year-old school has reopened in the 2011-2012 school year after being closed since the end of the 2007-2008 school year, and is trying to attract students. Students have until mid-February to apply.


Antioch College

http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-113840-11763-4-how-to-get-a-106000-college-education-for-free?ywaad=ad0035&nc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioch_College

Private Colleges and Financial Aid

While many of us would like to see our children at a top private college, we simply cannot afford the $40,000+ a year pricetag and don't wish to see the kids graduating with crippling student loan bills. However, according to the following article some of these schools may not be as financially out of reach as they appear. Food for thought.

http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/113708/best-values-private-colleges-kiplinger

Colleges - Time to Think Globally?

At this point we have a vague idea of the colleges we're shooting for. We live in the midwest, so reputable midwestern schools are on the list. Schools like the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Notre Dame and Northwestern are all on the list. Some of the Ivy League schools are on the list - Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Stanford and MIT. Sonny expressed an interest in the Foreign Service last year, so Georgetown was added to the list.

Unfortunately, finances are a big issue here. Although Sonny's had a college savings plan since he was 6 months old, we haven't contributed enough to cover the tuition at the exclusive private universities, which makes the public universities more feasible for us.

However, this past week I came across a list of the worlds top universities that makes me think we should be thinking globally. According to the QS World University Rankings , the top university in the world for 2011/2012 is the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, with a pricetag of $18,000 to $20,000 a year for international undergrads. Harvard comes in at number two at double the price - $38,000 to $40,000 for a domestic undergrad. MIT and Yale took third and fourth places, both at $38K to $40K, and the UK's Oxford University was fifth at $20K to $22K for international students.

Food for thought.