Free College!

My son's friend just graduated from Arizona State, without paying a penny. How? She works at Starbucks and through a combination of starting at community college and continuing with Starbucks College Achievement Plan, she was able to earn her bachelor's degree for $0. She's now working on her student teaching and expects to be a full-time teacher soon, all without any student loans.

Students looking to complete college for nothing or nearly nothing have more options than might appear to be the case, especially with the pandemic having increased access to online programs. Starbucks isn't the only company that covers college costs for its employees; many large employers including Amazon, Chipotle, Boeing, T-Mobile, Disney and more offer free college through partnership programs, primarily with online institutions. Each company has its own rules for eligibility and its own set of partner institutions. Keep in mind that one eligibility criterion is typically continued employment, so students do need to balance work and school and stay at their job.

Employee tuition assistance is federal tax-free if it's offered through an Internal Revenue Code section 127 plan and less than $5,250 annually, which is why online programs are what's typically offered. Students receiving more than that will report the difference as taxable income.

Another option: free community college. While two years of free community college is only halfway to a bachelor's degree, half price still represents a considerable savings. Most states offer some version of free community college. One element tends to be typical: you have to apply while still in high school, and there's usually a maximum number of college credits a student can have-- typically the equivalent of two years-- to still be eligible. Check with your high school guidance counselor for details in your area, or google "[state] free community college."

Perhaps the most common way of getting college credit for free-- or nearly free-- is taking college-level courses in high school. In addition to AP and IB classes, many school districts allow high school juniors and seniors to complete their high school curriculum at a community college, typically earning an associate's degree and two years of college credit in the process.

A key consideration for students planning to do part of their college for free and then transferring to a four year college to complete their degree is ensuring that they get credit for the courses they've taken. Not all colleges accept transfer credit, and even among those that do, the credits may or may not be applied to the student's major.

Scholarships are a second consideration. Most colleges are more generous with incoming freshmen than with transfer students. In fact, a student who's eligible for a lot of scholarship money as a freshman might end up spending more by starting with a free option and then transferring, due to the much smaller pool of scholarships available to transfer students. Such students would benefit from a meeting with an academic advisor at the four-year college to map out the best way to combine free options with the four-year plan to maximize financial aid.