When I was looking at colleges, I was gung-ho on the Ivy league, MIT, Harvey Mudd, Stanford, and the like. I just assumed that they all gave full rides to smart people. When I found many didn’t even give merit-based age, it seemed reason enough not to give them a dime for an application fee.

I did find that there were a number of public schools in Texas that were eager to give you free rides if you had decent grades. As I recall, if you are a valedictorian you get your first year’s tuition free at any public university in the state. If you top that off with a full scholarship from the school and a national merit scholarship, it is possible to make a profit going to school. A guess all that hard work doesn’t have to go to waste.