As the cost of college education continues to skyrocket and the current model of higher education resists changing its traditional model, some educational entrepreneurs are working to reduce barriers to entry for prospective college students with financial struggles.
One such intervention, labeled the “Freshman Year for Free” program, formally launched in the summer of 2017 and has had more than 30,000 registrants. Steven Klinsky, founder and CEO of the New York-based New Mountain Capital, began the “Modern States” online learning platform that provides advanced placement courses and College Level Examination Program courses free of charge.
Klinsky personally endowed a fund for “Freshman Year for Free,” reimbursing the exam fee of $85 for those who take the corresponding AP or CLEP test to gain college credit. As the courses are free and open to all, and the test fee covered, Klinsky gives students the opportunity to begin earning credits before they even step foot on campus.
Modern States is “a philanthropy intended to increase global access to high quality education … it may also provide a critical ‘road back’ for students who have left the traditional US college system” and can be an “on-ramp” to college for those facing financial challenges, according to its website.
A similar call for free online learning began in 2012 with the advent of the MOOC, or “massive open online course.” MOOCs inspired predictions that open online access to information would revolutionize learning as we know it and nudge the stultified system of higher education toward change.
Yet, as MOOCs did not offer credit to higher educational institutions, they were largely utilized by professionals looking to hone skills or individuals seeking to study something new, not by low-income students seeking a way into college.
Klinsky’s intervention takes the original concepts of MOOCs to the next level, as more than 2,000 traditional colleges and universities offer credit to students who take AP or CLEP tests.
The user-friendly, Netflix-resembling Modern States platform offers 16 AP courses and 32 CLEP courses, ranging from foreign language to “Information Systems” to “Analyzing and Interpreting Literature.” A downloadable textbook, tests, quizzes, and interactive web exercises are available for each course, in addition to videos of professors from schools such as Purdue, MIT, Rice, Boston College, and others.
The Wall Street Journal and Marketwired have both provided favorable reviews of the Modern States platform. Thus far, about 70 percent of course-takers have passed their CLEP exams.
