FREMONT, Ohio — The bounce-back from the pandemic hasn't hit everyone the same.
People are still making tough financial decisions, like whether or not to attend college.
Terra State Community College has a program incentivizing prospective students to choose community college.
On average, the price of attending college for a four year degree could cost you anywhere from $25,000 to $54,000 depending on where you go, according to the 2021 report "Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid."
If you attend community college for two year degree you could be looking at $25,000 in tuition and fees.
Either way, the mounting reality and financial burden of today has many opting out.
"There's concerns about price pressures. Whether it's gasoline, the cost of groceries, the cost of child care, things like that," Cory Stine, Senior V.P. for Innovation and Strategic Planning at Terra said. "Terra State and other community colleges have resources to help through financial aid, through scholarships, and schools do have some CARES Act funding available to assist students recover from COVID."
Terra State Community College is offering a free tuition raffle to promote Terra's goal of getting their enrollment back up to pre-COVID levels and relieving some of that financial pressure.
Currently, Stine says they are dead-even with total enrollment this time last year.
Cory hopes the raffle and Titan Shop's Follett ACCESS program offer for free books and online courses is enough of a push to get some local people into the classroom who were on the fence before.
Stine said, "What we'd like to do is encourage students if they've thought about going back to school, whether it's at Terra State or any of their local community colleges in the area, please contact the school, reach out, we're here to help you figure things out."
Any full-time student who registers for classes by July 31st will be automatically entered into this contest. The raffle drawing will be held the first week of August.
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