Tuition free online classes open new opportunities for students

Numerous options for studying tuition free online provide students with new opportunities to acquire college credits and even degrees in a variety of specialized areas. Accredited state and private colleges, theological seminaries and innovative open universities all offer ways for students to complete college level studies online without paying tuition.

Tuition Free University Programs
o Many colleges in the United States offer tuition free options for attending college, with online study available for some courses and programs. Some of these are need or merit-based, such as Harvard's (harvard.edu) low-income tuition waiver for high school honor students and the University of Arizona's (arizona.edu) waiver for those who exceed testing standards.

Theological Studies
o Private theological seminaries and Bible colleges offer some tuition free options for distance learning. Trinity College (trinitytheology.org) offers college level courses in Christian theology and ministerial training for free, while others such as Northwestern Seminary (northwesternseminary.com) grant a full ministerial degree, free of charge, to students completing the program. Some online seminary schools are affiliated with specific denominations and are not accredited as degree granting institutions outside of the ministry.

Online Open Universities
o Open universities online offer all courses at all levels free of charge. With options ranging from personal interest classes to career related training and degree preparation coursework, these innovative online institutions rely on a network of teachers and online communities to provide quality education to all. The University of the People (uopeople.com) offers tuition free college level courses over the internet in a variety of subject areas, charging only a registration fee, while People 2 People University (p2pu.org) focuses on peer-led and shared learning in selected subjects such as website development and business.

Free College Classes
o A number of notable institutions such as MIT (mit.edu) make selected courses available online for free through open courseware programs. These courses offer lectures and other materials from the full classroom version via a number of online course clearinghouses such as Poynter's NewsU (newsu.org) for students not requiring credit or a degree.