A Good Conservative College That's Free? Yes, It Exists
But admissions are competitive.
I was looking through a list of conservative colleges for one I might feature and I saw the words “College of the Ozarks charges no tuition.” I confess my initial reaction was that it must be a second or even third-tier kind of place. Without proper funding, what else could it be? It just sounded too good to be true. I was wrong. This is a college that young conservatives, particularly those with limited means, should definitely consider.
Is It Really Free?
The college doesn’t actually say that it charges no tuition as such, but that every student gets a “tuition scholarship.” The way this works is that every student is required to work 15 hours a week (plus 40 hours for two weeks) to help pay their own way and the rest is made up for by state and federal grants and the college’s own generous donors. Students must nonetheless come up with funds to cover housing and food, fees, and books. Still, this is a pretty sweet deal. How many colleges can say their students typically graduate debt-free? This one can.
So is the College Any Good?
College of the Ozarks scores high marks in all the top ranking lists. US News ranks it at #3 overall among Midwest Regional Colleges, and #1 in undergraduate teaching in that same group. Niche ranks it in the top 10%-20% of all colleges in America across a variety of measures. The Wall Street Journal included it in its 400 Best Colleges in the US list, essentially the top quartile out of 1,700 US colleges.
College of the Ozarks offers an impressive range of majors — chemistry, biology, math, English, history, art, music, as well as a variety of professional concentrations such as accounting, engineering, computer science, etc.
It also offers something few colleges can boast: its work/study model means that students necessarily graduate with a significant amount of work experience. These aren’t just drudge jobs but include everything from working in the print shop, power plant, to the college’s radio station, etc.
A Good Choice — for the Right Person
This is explicitly a college with a Christian mission. “The mission of College of the Ozarks is to provide the advantages of a Christian education for youth of both sexes, especially those found worthy, but who are without sufficient means to procure such training. The vision of College of the Ozarks is to develop citizens of Christlike character who are well-educated, hardworking, and patriotic.”
This will sound dreamy to most conservatives, but those not into this dream should look elsewhere. Also, parents, this is not a place to send your kids to reform them into fitting this mold. Online comments from the students themselves reveal that those who want this patriotic Christian vision really, really like it, describing it as being part of a family of like-minded people; those who came just to get a good deal are sometimes unhappy with the college’s culture.
The college also goes by the nickname Hard Work U, a title taken so seriously it appears prominently on the college’s website. Students are expected to work 15 hours a week while taking a full load of classes. It takes a person committed to their education and to self-improvement to crank this out for four years. But the result is impressive, and as far as I am concerned makes the place even dreamier.
The college is located in Point Lookout, Missouri, an unincorporated community near the cities of Branson and Hollister, which is to say a rural area in the Ozark Mountains. Fans of the outdoors and open space will consider this a plus; those seeking the sensations of urban life will not.
This is a small college, with only about 1,500 students, so it’s a good place for an intimate college experience, but not a good place to find a party scene or the kind of large-scale athletics offered by state colleges or universities. This graphic from Niche sums up the place nicely:
Admissions are Competitive
If there’s a catch to all this it’s that admissions are competitive. The college only accepts 21% of applicants — that’s a lower acceptance rate than that of Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, and many other top-name schools. It’s a further confirmation, of course, that this college is something really special — anything that’s a good deal has a lot of people trying to get it.
Their ideal candidate: “At College of the Ozarks, we're looking for high-achieving and hard-working students who don’t have the financial resources to pay for a private, Christian college education. In addition to demonstrating financial need, prospective students should be in the top half of their graduating class with a preferred high school GPA of at least 3.0. They should also seek to obtain our preferred score of at least 20 on the ACT or a 1030 on the SAT. Most of our students' grades and test scores are well above these standards [average SAT is 1159]. We pay particular attention not only to these grading and testing factors, but also to the types of courses taken in high school and their levels of difficulty.”
Additional Information and Alternatives
The college’s website offers extensive information and is nicely organized. Take particular note of the application timeline. You can also find a lot of useful information — particularly when comparing this college to others — at Niche, USNews, and PrepScholar.
Additional lists of conservative colleges may be found at PrepScholar and CollegeValuesOnline. A short list of libertarian colleges may be found at CollegeJaguar. Reason published a list of colleges where student free speech is taken seriously, generally a good indication that the college is at least not a left-wing hellhole.
Lastly, this post would not be complete without mentioning what I think is the best and most explicitly conservative/libertarian college in the US: Hillsdale College. I posted previously on this one. However, it’s not cheap and admissions requirements are very challenging. Failing that, College of the Ozarks is one to definitely consider.
