This Philadelphia University Is Offering All Eligible Community College Grads Half-Off Tuition

Drexel University is offering graduates from accredited U.S. community colleges 50% off tuition.

The university announced May 14 that it was expanding the Drexel Promise program — extending discounted tuition to all eligible community college graduates. Previously, the program, which began in the fall of 2023, only applied to eligible community college graduates from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Over 350 students applied for the renewable scholarship within its first year, and over 120 accepted the offer. All Drexel Promise recipients must be full-time, on-campus students with a 2.0 cumulative GPA.

Our goal is to expand access to the Drexel education, Dawn Medley, Ed.D., Drexel’s senior vice president for enrollment management, said in a press release.

Our experiential education model has proven to be one of the best ways for students to prepare to be leaders in their careers, so it’s incumbent on us [to] provide opportunities for more students to earn a Drexel degree.

Tuition before financial aid for first-year, on-campus students at Drexel is $20,014 per quarter or $60,042 per year.

Eligible students are automatically considered for the Drexel Promise program. They should just indicate on their application that they have earned or will earn an associate degree from a qualifying community college. No other forms or applications are required.

Students don’t have to come straight from community college. Students who earned associate degrees before fall 2023 also qualify. However, students who earned an associate degree while in high school through dual enrollment are not eligible for the Drexel Promise.

Students aren’t required to complete the College Scholarship Service Profile or Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Still, Drexel encourages students to apply, so they can receive federal and state funding to help cover the remaining tuition and fees. Students can apply for the fall 2024 semester on a rolling basis through August.

We view this program as the next step in the process of inviting more students to bring their life experiences to Drexel and continue learning from the real-world experiences we provide as part of our unique curriculum, April Torgun, director of transfer admissions, said in the press release.

As a result of sharing these experiences, our university continues to evolve to better prepare students for their career path after graduation.

While most free tuition programs extend to in-state students, Drexel is one of the few to offer reduced tuition to community college grads from all states.

These colleges offer at least free tuition to qualifying students from any state, though most are for students whose family income is making under a certain threshold: