How To Get One Year of College For Free

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exams will give you a year’s worth of credits.  Let’s look at each of these programs separately.

For High School Students

There are 13,000 high schools around the world that offer AP classes.  These classes are conducted to prepare students for AP tests, and they are typically more difficult than regular high school classes.  Thus students should be prepared to work a bit harder than they normally would and should also expect more homework in these classes.  There are currently AP classes in 23 areas of study, and some examples are calculus, physics, music theory, Spanish and other languages, psychology, computer science, and environmental science to name a few.  The costs to take the tests are a bit on the expensive side at $86 each, but this is nothing compared to saving the costs of one year of college.  The tests are normally given during the first two weeks of May each year.  The average cost of one year of college is $20,000 at a state school, and $50,000 at a private school.  And these costs keep increasing all the time.   California recently announced tuition increases of 30% due to the financial difficulties in that state, and other states have made large increases as well.  If you don’t have AP classes in your high school, you can speak with you school administrators and see if you can attend a class at a nearby school that does offer them.  It is also possible to purchase books that prepare students for these tests and just work from those.  You will have to put in the time and effort to really know the material, however.  This is not a strategy to be used by someone who wishes to skate by, however.  The tests will be tough, but they are not impossible.  A good strategy for a high school student would be to take two AP classes and two AP tests in their junior year and do the same thing in their senior year.  You will be taking classes anyway, so doing this will allow you have the credits of a college sophomore when you first show up on campus.  Also, there is no requirement to leave school after just three years if you don’t want to.  You might wish to use a year for foreign study or to work and save money to pay for the rest of your education.  In that way you can still graduate with your class.  Not every college has the same rules when it comes to accepting AP credits, and the above are only general guidelines.  Be sure to check with the admissions department of the colleges you are interested in and make sure you understand their particular requirements and rules.  The AP web page at collegeboard.com/ap has all the information you need to get started.

For Everyone Else

The CLEP, or College Level Examination Program, is a program that offers college credits for passing examinations.  For each test you pass it is possible to obtain from 3 to 12 college credits.  People of all ages can take these exams, and 2,900 colleges participate in the program and offer college credits.  Each college has its own criteria with regard to what constitutes a passing score on the tests, so be sure to find out the policies followed by the college you are interested in.  Up to 60 credits can be earned, and that is well over one year’s worth of credits.  The cost for taking each exam is currently $72 (this will be $77 in July, 2010), but the potential savings are in the tens of thousands.  There are exams in 33 different subject areas, and some examples are accounting, marketing, introduction to business law, and trigonometry, to name several.  More information can be found at the college board web site at collegeboard.com/clep, including all the colleges that participate, how to obtain study guides, and much more.

It is also possible that some college credit can be earned by students who pass tests in high school IB, or International Baccalaureate programs.  With the costs of attending college at levels that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago, using the above strategies to get one year of college for free is worthy of serious consideration.