Forget the Ivies – Cooper Union as Prestigious and Tuition-free to Boot

In today’s challenging economy, every student would do well to consider a tuition-free college. In the case of tiny Cooper Union, high-achievers interested in art, architecture or engineering have just such an option.

Believing that a high-quality education should be free, Peter Cooper founded the school in 1858. Housed in Manhattan, CU is one of the most selective schools in the country.

The smallish school is home to 900 plus students. About half are in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering with another 40% divided between the “Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture” and the School of Art. CU also has a very small number of graduate students in the fields of architecture and engineering.

Roughly 220 students form the freshman class at Cooper Union each year. They are selected from nearly 3,000 applicants with the greatest selectivity coming in the colleges of architecture and art. That 8% selection rate ranks them as selective as any school including Harvard.

Though tuition-free, the school estimates that students will need about $19,000 per year for fees and living expenses. Those costs are broken out as follows: mandatory student fees of about $1,600 per year, room and board at about $14,000, books and supplies at about $1,000-1,800, and other general living expenses totaling about $2,000-3,000 per year. Students must also prove they have medical insurance coverage or they must purchase the school’s health insurance services fee of $1,629/year.

Still, with a current yearly tuition valued at $33,000, those who attend CU for four years receive more than $130,000 in total tuition savings.

Interesting Focus

While the school offers a very limited menu of major options, the course of studies is not so limited. In fact, students must take core courses in the humanities and social sciences, requirements that give the school a bit of a liberal arts flavor.

Another critical component of the school is the opportunity for students to obtain hands-on experience within the city. Students have access to a number of city agencies and cultural institutions as well as the opportunity to gain valuable experience within one of the offices or studios of the many professionals who live and work in New York.

The grounds of Cooper Union are also steeped in tradition. Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech outlining his views on slavery on the Great Hall on the CU campus. Since that time, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, William Taft, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have spoken there as well.

And in 1866, Mark Twain made his debut on the East Coast with a lecture in the same hall at the school.

Flickr photos courtesy of Watz and Rollingrck.