Resurrected Antioch College offering free tuition

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YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Antioch College, a small private college in Ohio that has resurrected itself after closing in 2008, says it is offering free tuition for four years.

The Yellow Springs school announced this month that improvements in its endowment and annual fund have allowed it to expand its offer to all students who enroll in the next three years.

Tuition is $26,500 a year, bringing the four-year value to $106,000. The application deadline is Feb. 15.

"We don't want economics to be an impediment to a high-quality liberal arts education," Antioch President Mark Roosevelt said. "By providing four year, full-tuition scholarships, we make attending Antioch College a realistic option for the best and brightest students, regardless of their family's economic situation."

Roosevelt said the college still faces significant financial challenges, but has enough resources to "comfortably invest in students" while the administration continues to fine-tune its financial model.

CBS' MoneyWatch reported Friday some students may even avoid the annual $8,628 in room and board costs or pay a reduced price.

Antioch College, originally founded in 1850 and long known for its work cooperative program, attracted 35 students into its inaugural freshmen class in 2011 and is working to bring in another 65 to 75 students this fall with a goal of reaching a student body of 300 by 2015.

"We are a 160-year-old start-up institution with a lot of history," Cezar Mesquita, Antioch's dean of admission and financial aid, told MoneyWatch.

The school, which counts the late civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, actor Cliff Robertson and "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling among its long list of illustrious alumni, is offering a dozen areas of concentration, ranging from environmental and health sciences to languages and social sciences.

The first-year class had an average unweighted high school GPA of 3.56 and an average ACT score of 27, which equates to about a 1,250 on the SAT.

The offer apparently is attracting interest. The school's Web site was unavailable Saturday night "due to increased site traffic associated with the recent announcement regarding full-tuition Horace Mann Fellowships."