FREE FRESHMAN YEAR - Getting a college education can be costly. But what would you think of a program that allows you to get college credit online for Free? “Freshman Year for Free” is a new online program developed by Modern States, a New York charitable organization behind the effort. It has funded production of online courses that allow students to prepare for college level examinations for credit in areas such as Economics, Algebra, Sociology and other subjects as well. Steve Klinsky, founder and CEO of Modern States Educational Alliance Philanthropy says this program is open to anyone.
"We all know how expensive college has gotten. There's over $1.4 trillion dollars of student debt in the country. And so what we're doing at Modern States, we've spent years behind the scenes - we've created a website modernstates.org," explained Klinsky. "And if you go to it you'll find a full set of really top quality online college courses, some of the best professors in the country. They're all available totally for free to anybody just by going on the site."
As to any other costs associated with courses like books and materials, Klinsky says there are none.
"They come with free textbooks and readings online, free practice questions, from the college board," explained Klinsky. "And they prepare you for to take an exam that's been around for 50 years called the CLEP exam, the college level examination program exam. And if you take a CLEP exam in a subject like Microeconomics and you pass the CLEP test, there are many universities that will give you credit when you enter for having already finished that course. You're one course closer to graduation."
Klinsky says Modern States will pay the examination costs ($87 each) for the first 10,000 online enrollees but that they must finish the coursework and take the test. He also said that focused online learners can earn up to a freshman year of credit.
"We're calling it 'Freshman Year For Free' because say you take 8 of our courses and pass 8 CLEP exams, you could have a whole year of college done and have just three years left to go" explained Klinsky.
The courses are self-paced and more information can be obtained at modernstates.org
