Before Xavier Daniels started at Austin Community College last fall, he was hoping to get an associate degree and go into the music industry. Getting a bachelor’s wasn’t entirely off the table, it just wasn’t his main goal.
But that’s changed.
“Now that I’ve gone through the process of being here in college and thought about it a lot longer, a lot harder," he said, "I’m more avid about going to a four-year."
Daniels is one of thousands of local high school graduates who participated in the first year of ACC’s free tuition pilot program. Through the program, eligible students can attend the college for free for three years — or five if they pursue one of the four bachelor’s degrees ACC offers.
Daniels, who graduated from Leander High School, described the opportunity to go to college for free as a “blessing.”
“A lot of my classes have a creative aspect to it and so because of that I need to be in a space where I can be creative, where I have the freedom to not have to worry about other things,” he said. “Not having to worry about tuition costs is just one more thing that can open up that space for me.”
Pamela Ortiz said the program gave her the flexibility to figure out exactly what she wants to study.
“I got to experience what my minor was, and I didn’t personally like it. I still have the credits for it, and I still am grateful for taking those classes,” said Ortiz, who also graduated from Leander High School. “But it has also guided me to taking what I actually want, which is communications.”
Ortiz, who had always planned to transfer to a four-year university, said she's excited she’ll have to pay for only two years of college.
“I’m better off paying half of what I’m going to pay for college now,” she said.
An increase in enrollment
ACC administrators were hoping the pilot program would make college more accessible and affordable. The school's vice chancellor of institutional research and analytics said it's done that and more.
“We saw students raising their educational aspirations as a result of this program," Jenna Cullinane Hege said.
She said for the last couple years, about 3,300 or 3,400 students enrolled in ACC right after high school. During the last academic year, that shot up to about 5,000, marking a more than 40% increase in the number of direct-to-college students. That figure was double what ACC had been anticipating, she said.
“I think one of the reasons for that is that ACC designed this program as what’s called a ‘first-dollar program,’ which means you get to keep your financial aid,” Cullinane Hege said.
Instead of having to spend any of that money on tuition, students can use the aid for other expenses such as textbooks, housing, transportation and child care. Cullinane Hege said that helps remove barriers preventing students from focusing on their education. So far, she said, it seems to be working — 80% of students remained enrolled from the fall to the spring semester, which is slightly higher than the usual persistence rate for direct-to-college students.
"To see an increase in persistence at the same time that you open access is a really powerful combination," she said.
That is also higher than the fall-to-spring persistence rate for the college overall, which is 73%.
ACC also saw increases in the number of students from every racial and ethnic group it tracks.
“We did see a particularly high uptick among Hispanic students," Cullinane Hege said. "53% of our incoming students who took advantage of the free tuition program were Hispanic."
Is free tuition sustainable?
ACC had expected about 3,600 students to take advantage of the program, amounting to essentially $7.5 million worth of scholarships. But, with just over 5,000 students participating, that figure turned out to be $10 million.
The executive vice chancellor of finance and administration said the $2.5 million difference wasn’t a problem, though, especially because there was an overall increase in enrollment.
“We grew almost 15% this year in total. The free tuition only made up about 4 or 5% of that increase,” Neil Vickers said.
To accommodate more students, he said, the college had to spend more money on faculty.
“We did end up with about $5 million extra cost in our faculty line items," he said, "but again the vast majority of that wasn’t because of the increase in free tuition."
Vickers said the pilot, which is set to last five years, has had a “net neutral” impact on the budget, which currently is running a $20 million surplus. Some of that surplus, he noted, will be used to continue to ramp up the program.
“We’re very confident about the sustainability of our current model,” he said.
Vickers said if the pilot program is considered successful, the question becomes: How can ACC expand it? Making tuition free for all students is one of Chancellor Russell Lowery-Hart’s goals.
ACC could get more funding from the state through House Bill 8, Vickers said, which would allow the school to offer free tuition to more students. The law, which was passed in 2023, changed how Texas funds community colleges; it's now based on student outcomes, such as how many transfer to a four-year institution or complete a certificate.
In the meantime, though, Daniels is encouraging others who are eligible for the program to take advantage of it.
“If you don’t have a full-ride scholarship to a four-year already or if finances are an issue, if you’re weighing your options and considering even not continuing education — I think ACC is definitely the best option for a lot of people out there,” he said.
