Tuition Free Colleges

For most families, affordability is one of biggest deciding factors when their students are preparing for college. In fact, two-thirds of today’s college students use some form of financial aid.

With the added pressures paying for school puts on families, many students and parents are happy to learn there are a handful of colleges offering complete financial aid packages in exchange for student work. At these schools, tuition may be totally or partially covered by the tuition busting plans offered by the schools. Most of the "free tuition" colleges require at least 15 hours of student work each week in addition to a full load of classes; and student workers generally serve essential functions in the operation of the school.

Of course, working through school is not for every student; and, options are limited, and may only be available to specific student populations. Taking a heavy class load and working part-time can be challenging, particularly to college students who are unused to managing their own time; however, it's certainly great preparation for any student's future that will certainly involve a myriad of additional responsibilities requiring the skills aquired through programs like these.

The list below details seven colleges that offer four-year degrees at reduced or free tuition in exchange for student work. 

1.  Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, is  nestled in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. Students at this private Christian school choose from 28 liberal arts degree programs, and can expect class sizes to be under 20. Through the school's Labor Program, students are expected to take a full course load and simultaneously work 10 to 15 hours per week to repay the college for extending them the cost of tuition, as well as room and board. Financial aid through traditional sources like federal grants and academic scholarships are not prohibited; however,  they do not affect the work requirements the school has in place.

Working as a student at Berea is not a typical campus work-study assignment. Instead, each student is matched to a job that aligns with his or her major and skill level as a freshman. As students advance through their studies, they are expected to advance in the school based workplace as well, taking on more responsibility as experience is gained. Performance in the workplace is not graded; however, supervisors regularly evaluate and report students' work performance.

2.  Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois, where eighty-five percent of the student body makes ends meet by taking advantage of this liberal arts school's work program. Tuition and room and board at Blackburn College may be supplemented by standard sources of financial aid. Students in this program must log 160 hours of work per semester, earning tuition credits as they work on campus or in the nearby southern Illinois community. Blackburn's Work Program is unique in that it is managed by its students, providing participants the opportunity to gain higher-level skills that may be more attractive to employers

3.  College of The Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri, known colloquially as "C of O", is located near Branson, which is in southwest Missouri. This private Christian university offers 4-year degree programs in 40 different majors, focusing on the development of patriotic and hardworking citizens. The goal of C of O is to provide a tuition-free education to students who otherwise would not be able to attend college. All students must demonstrate financial need to attend C of O; and, all enrollees must work to defray the cost of attendance. Full-time students must work 15 hours each week in exchange for tuition, as well as two 40-hour weeks when classes are not in session. Students who demonstrate extreme need may work 6-week sessions during the summer to cover the cost of room and board.

Because C of O discourages debt, its students may not borrow state or federal funds to cover the costs of college. Grants and scholarship funds from government and private sources are allowed, however. C of O takes its conservative Christian roots seriously and prohibits alcohol and tobacco on campus. Admission is highly selective; only 13% of applicants were admitted in 2013.

4.  Ecclesia College, Springdale, Arkansas, is  a private Christian school, and has a student population of less than 200. Each of the seven available degree programs is taught from a Biblical perspective. Every student at Ecclesia is eligible for financial aid through the school's Work Learning program. Participants spend 15 hours per week in positions on campus; and, junior and senior students are placed in jobs that align with their field of study. Tuition credits of up to $2,000 per semester may be earned to defray the cost of attendance.

Ecclesia caters to students who appreciate the familial atmosphere of a very small campus. Previously homeschooled students, in particular, may find that Ecclesia offers their preferred environment for post-secondary learning. Though students need to pay for the courses, it is also possible to complete class requirements online; and, the school offers a scholarship that greatly discounts the cost of online enrollment.

5.  Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, Vermont,  is a small private institution located just south of the U.S.-Canadian border. Situated on a working farm, Sterling is devoted to educating students via both classroom and fieldwork. The fieldwork takes place in actual fields, as students manage animal husbandry, horticulture, woodlot management, and agriculture and conservation in the process of maintaining a working farm and school.

Four-year degrees are available in ecology, outdoor education, sustainable agriculture and food systems, and environmental humanities. One third of Sterling's students opt to design their own degree programs.

Students may defray the cost of tuition while adhering to Sterling's educational model of hard work in the context of learning. All residential students must work at least 80 hours per semester; in return, a minimum of $1,650 may be credited against tuition. Total enrollment is about 100 students, and average class size is seven. At 63%, Sterling's first-year retention rate is higher than most colleges.

6.  Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina, is a small private liberal arts college that is focused on environmental studies. Though it was founded as a Presbyterian missions school, WWC no longer has a religious affiliation. Students may choose from 40 majors for a 4-year degree, or design an individual program via Integrative Studies. Regardless of major, all WWC students must strive to practice ecological sustainability. To that end, all students must work at least 15 hours a week on a work crew that is essential to the sustainable operation of the school. As a result, tuition may be reduced by as much as $3,500 per year.

There are fewer than 1,000 students enrolled at WWC at any given time, allowing for an 11:1 student-faculty ratio. After environmental studies, the most popular majors include sociology and performing arts. Graduates of WWC generally can expect to do well, as 75% reported full-time employment within six months of graduation.

7.  Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of the most selective schools in the country. Curtis is very small, taking up just five buildings in urban Philadelphia. Its students are talented musicians who are preparing for careers in music performance at the highest levels. The students give more than 200 performances a year. Students who successfully audition into Curtis receive100% tuition coverage.

Financial support for Curtis was initially provided by a $12.5 million gift from its founder Mary Louis Curtis Bok, which launched the school's unusual tuition-free policy in 1928, and provided financial support for much of the school's history. In the 1980s, Curtis instituted annual fundraising to augment ongoing endowment fundraising. Together with planned gifts, this private support funds more than two-thirds of the school's annual operating expenses.

Curtis only accepts an average of 5% of total applicants. This selectivity guarantees an intimate and intensive learning environment for the college's 175 students. Celebrated instructors work one-on-one with student musicians to prepare them for a lifetime of elite performance. The school offers a Bachelor of Music degree, a diploma, and for opera students, a Master of Music degree and a Professional Studies certificate. The length of a student's stay is open-ended, and students graduate when their teachers decide they are ready.

Is Facebook Increasing Your Teenager's Anxiety Levels?

The Anxiety of Social Media

 Because we can now remain in constant contact with hundreds of so-called friends, even ones we rarely see in person, social media has changed the way many of us interact, espcially teenagers and young adults.

The impact of social media on our society has prompted researchers to investigate whether its effect is positive or negative on the mental health of peoplel abd one big area of focus in these studies is the effect of social media on mental health.

Recent research has shown that using social networking sites, namely Facebook, can increase people’s stress levels, produce anxiety, and negatively affect a person’s sense of self. Using these sites are thought to have the possibility of exacerbating, or even causing, a mental health disorder. It has been shown that social media even has the power to quickly spread moods around the world.

Social media sites provide places where people can create the face they want the world to see, which may, or may not, be accurate. Creating a profile allows a person to decide exactly what image to present to others. For some people, this can lead to a near-obsession. This could reflect a person’s self-esteem, according to one study.

This study looked into the association between a person’s self-esteem based upon the amount of time he or she spent on maintaining his or her profile, specifically looking at what actions they performed to create their online persona. The findings were that those with lower self-esteem cared more about what others had posted about them on Facebook, and were more likely to remove certain posts to ensure their profile remained a reflection of the image they wanted to portray. They might even constantly scan Facebook, as well as other networking sites, to ensure that there are no negative remarks or unflattering photos. On the other hand, those with higher self-esteem were found to spend time creating their own profile, and in adding pictures and information about themselves to show the world their ultimate persona.

Another study showed that Facebook increases people’s anxiety levels by making them feel inadequate which led to excess worry and stress. Social media provides constant updates, which can be extremely chaotic and stressful to the brain because many people begin to feel compelled to continually check their statuses and newsfeed on their mobile devices. For some people, the constant impulse to check for updates becomes obsessive.  In this particular study, over half of the respondents felt uneasy when they were unable to access their social media and email accounts.

Additionally, two-thirds of those surveyed had difficulty sleeping due to anxiety and other negative emotions that resulted in using the sites. Their constant updates were found to lead many respondents to frequently compare themselves to others which they found led to feelings of inadequacy, even depression. The anxiety and worry caused by the overuse of social media was found to lead to chronic stress that are known to lead to health problems, including mental health issues.

Another recent study found that Facebook also can increase the amount of social anxiety a person has upon meeting someone for the first time. It was hypothesized prior to this study that for those with social anxiety, looking at a person’s Facebook or other social media profile prior to meeting could help alleviate some of their feelings of nervousness. Reviewing someone’s social media profile, it was thought, is a way to get to know someone prior to meeting them. The opposite, however, was found to be the case. Other studies have shown that people with social anxiety prefer communicating with people via the Internet, which can lead to a lack of true socialization with others.

Another team of researchers performed an experiment to see whether reviewing a person’s Facebook profile before picking a person out of a picture would decrease anxiety levels. The researchers looked at the social anxiety levels of 26 female students between the ages of 18 and 20 using the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS).

The participants had to interact with another student in one of four randomly assigned conditions while their skin response (which shows the body’s psychological arousal) was measured by electrodes on their ring and index finger. These prescribed conditions included Facebook only (memorizing student’s face from the profile page only), face-to-face only (a participant studied the student’s face in the same room), face-to-face and Facebook (study the Facebook photos and then meeting the person), and in person to Facebook (meeting a person face-to-face and then having to find their picture on Facebook). After being introduced to the other person, in one of these four manners they had to identify and circle the student in four different group pictures.

The researchers found that the participants who were first exposed to another student via Facebook, who then had to meet the other student in personm had increased psychological arousal, which means that they were more anxious. The researchers are not completely sure why this might be the case; however, they theorize that this might be due to the participants making comparisons between the other students and themselves when reviewing the Facebook profile. The participants may also have felt safer at first, but then became nervous knowing they had to meet the person in real life because there was already a basis of knowledge about the person,  Additional research is currently being done in this area.

Another phenomenon that has been found with the high use of Facebook is that it has the ability to affect one’s mood, and to even spread that mood globally, accordine to studies. Researchers have focused on weather patterns and their effect on a person’s mood. They found that when it rained in one location, making people feel gloomier and subsequently posting negative comments, a causal effect of an increase in bad moods occured in people who were friends with those people on Facebook but lived farther away, in places where it was not raining.

Of course, this mood transference can also have the opposite effect. For example, it has also been found that people whose friends posted cheery status updates tended also to have a more positive mood, at least reflected by their status posts. The researchers found that for every negative post, there were an extra 1.29 negative posts than normal in that person’s social networkm while happy posts had an even stronger effect, with every upbeat statement causing an extra 1.75 positive posts in the social network. It should be noted some of these researchers were Facebook employees.

There are studies that have found that Facebook actually can make people miserable. Researchers for this study looked at 82 young, frequent Facebook users, 53 female and 29 males. The participants were sent text messages with links to an online survey that asked how they felt, whether they were worried, if they felt lonely, how often they use Facebook, and how often they interacted directly with people.

The researchers found that when the participants increased their Facebook use, their state of well-being declined, while those who increased the amount of time they spent with people face to face had an increased sense of well-being.media sites on users.

Although social media sites like Facebook can cause problems, as recemt research has shown, these sites also have been shown to have some positive effects on people. Social media sites and statistics can help psychologists monitor the mental health of patients, spread awareness about issues (including mental health disorders), connect people with the same interests with one another, and make the world feel a little smaller.

Although there are many benefits, it is important to remember the possible downsides of social media sites, and their use. in order to help people who are vulnerable to self esteem and mental health problems, such as anxiety disorder or depression, to not develop or exacerbate existing problems due to use. The best way for anyone to take advantage of the benefits of these sites, while minimizing the downsides, is to moderate his or her use and maintain a level of detachment. Where social media is concered, moderation is definitely the key to happiness!

October Is Bullying Prevention Month!!!

October is Bullying Prevention Month!!!  Check out these free educational resources on bullying prevention from good old Uncle Sam!!

Source: Federal Directory of School Discipline Climate and Discipline Resources

Contents Include:

Stop Bullying Community Action Kit
Bullying in School Publication
Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment on the School Bus
Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment in the Classroom
Teen Dating Violence
Teen Dating Violence Handouts
Understanding Teen Dating Violence Fact Sheet
The Revolving Classroom: Mobile and At-Risk Students
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools
Fostering School Connectedness Staff Development Training
Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Webinars:

Using Evidence based Registries for Bullying Program Selection
Youth Violence Webinar
Social Bullying
School Professionals Response to Bullying
Bullying Intervention
Bullying and Civil Rights
Cyberbullying
Poverty in the 21st Century

Wishing you a wonderful, bully free October!

Kristine Kilgour, M.Ed., LPSC
School Counselor & Supreme Court Approved Mediator
Rockport-Fulton High School
Rockport, TX
rfhscounselor@gmail.com

RFHS College Night

College Night was held on October 8th, 2015 at Rockport-Fulton High School from 6-8 PM in the high school commons.  Colleges from over 40 locations were represented. Students, and their parents, were able to get a lot of information to better prepare for the coming years.

Some of the colleges/entities in attendance included:

Art Institute

Baylor University

Corps of Cadets @ Texas A&M University

Del Mar College

FIDM

Howard Payne University

IUW

Mary Hardin Baylor

McMurry University

Naval Academy

Our Lady of the Lake University

Sam Houston

Schreiner University

SMU

Southern Careers Institute

Southwestern University

St. Edward's University

St. Mary's University

Stephen F. Austin State University

TAMU

TAMUCC Corp

TAMUInternational

Texas A&M Galveston

Texas A&M International University

Texas A&M Univ.-Corpus Christi

Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Texas State Technical College

Texas State University

Texas Tech University

The Strand Institute of Beauty & Esthetics

The University of Texas at Tyler

University of Houston

University of Houston - Victoria

University of North Texas

University of Texas of the Permian Basin

University of the Incarnate Word

UT Dallas

UTSA

Changes In The FAFSA: What Every High School Student & Parent Needs To Know

The president decided to make changes to the FAFSA process for the following reasons:

1. To align the financial aid process to the college admission process.
2. To take the pressure off parents to quickly prepare their tax return.
3. To alleviate the need for families to estimate their income when applying for financial aid.                             

See the table below for an overview of the upcoming FAFSA changes.

When a Student Is Attending College (School Year)	When a Student Can Submit a FAFSA	Which Year’s Income Information Is Required
July 1, 2015–June 30, 2016	January 1, 2015–June 30, 2016	2014
July 1, 2016–June 30, 2017	January 1, 2016–June 30, 2017	2015
July 1, 2017–June 30, 2018	October 1, 2016–June 30, 2018	2015
July 1, 2018–June 30, 2019	October 1, 2017–June 30, 2019	2016

      Source: StudentAid.ed.gov website

See resource: FASFA Changes 2017-18

 

1. Information for Students Regarding FAFSA Changes

Why the FAFSA?

The US Dept. of Education claims completing the FAFSA is the single most important act in determining financial eligibility for college.  Fast Web adds that completing the FAFSA puts students at an advantage of receiving federal, state, and/or school aid.  So, the FAFSA is important to determining the amount of money students will receive for college.  However, many students and their families fail to complete this free application each year.  Let's talk about the problems with the current FAFSA.

 

Problems with the FAFSA

Hey, come back here!!

Many researchers believe the FAFSA is completely unnecessary, and contains information that is already available from the IRS. Even though Congress has tried to simplify the FAFSA, the Dept. of Education has continued to add questions to this already complex form.  In  ablog post by Susan M. Dynarski of the Brookings Institute, she points out some great reasons why the FAFSA is really unnecessary. 

1.  It's too complex; and, many families don't understand how to complete it.

2.  Many of the questions are totally unnecessary.

3.  The information can be provided by the IRS.

4.  It deters college admission particularly for low income students.

 

What Can Counselors Do to Encourage Families to Complete the FAFSA?

Change your financial IQ!

One of the initiatives of the First Lady is to help students understand the financial aid process.  So who do you suppose high school families and students come to for help?  You guessed it...you, their school counselor.  The problem is that the majority of school counselors are clueless or uncertain about the financial aid process, including myself.  Here are some suggestions about improving your financial aid IQ.



1.  Get training!  The good news is that training is free from US Dept. of Education Financial Aid Toolkit.