Posted on by Dean Clancy

A list of colleges that don’t take federal money

In order to preserve their freedom and independence.

The following colleges in the United States, in order to preserve their liberty and independence, do not accept grants from the federal government or participate in any federal financial-aid or student-loan program.

  1. Aletheia Christian College (Idaho)
  2. Bethlehem College & Seminary (Minnesota)
  3. Boyce College (Kentucky)
  4. Christendom College (Virginia)
  5. Crown College (Tennessee)
  6. Faith Bible College (Maine)
  7. Grove City College (Pennsylvania)
  8. Gutenberg College (Oregon)
  9. Hildegard College (California)
  10. Highlands College (Alabama)
  11. Hillsdale College (Michigan)
  12. Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary (Tennessee)
  13. Mount Liberty College (Utah)
  14. New College Franklin (Tennessee)
  15. New Saint Andrews College (Idaho)
  16. Patrick Henry College (Virginia)
  17. Pensacola Christian College (Florida)
  18. Principia College (Illinois)
  19. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Kentucky)
  20. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Texas)
  21. Weimar University (California)
  22. Wyoming Catholic College (Wyoming)

Government aid comes with government strings, whether it goes directly to a school or directly to its students. To avoid these strings, a school must decline aid, both to itself and to its students, meaning it must decline to participate, or facilitate its students’ participation, in government funded or sponsored loan and grant programs.

Most of the schools on the list refuse state and local aid as well as federal.

The list only includes traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions (no online or purely digital entities).

To submit updates or corrections to this list, please contact us.

Updated 1 Nov 2024

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89 Replies to “A list of colleges that don’t take federal money”

  1. Congratulations to all on this list! It is heartwarming to see that liberty is flourishing in these small corners of our still somewhat free country.

    Reply

  2. check with Sattler University in Boston MA. it is a new start up that was offering free tuition last i knew.

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    1. Government aid comes with government strings, whether it goes directly to a school or directly to its students. To avoid these strings, a school must decline aid both to itself and to its students. That is, it must decline to participate in government-sponsored student loan and grant programs. This is what the above-listed schools do.

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      1. I wonder if someone could provide a list of the “strings” attached with government funding. When I try to explain it to others, I can only guess. I only know a couple – one of them being the government mandate for contraception being covered in the insurance of the employees. What other compromises does a college have to make?

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    3. Title IX was adopted as part of the civil rights act of 1965. The original intent of Title IX was to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex in education. Like any Federal program run by unelected bureaucrats it has grown to encompass far more than was originally intended. The Justice Dept. provides a manual on understanding Title IX that runs to over 400 pages. Title IX now governs nearly every aspect of higher education from admissions to athletics – schools who withdraw from federal funding are free from Title IX compliance. They are not free to violate the Civil Rights act or any other law but they are free to operate their admissions policies, financial aid policies, hiring policies, athletic programs as they and their boards determine is in the best interest of their students NOT according to a one size fits all set of federal rules.

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