Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between MinnPost and Open Campus, with support from Ascendium Education Group, and co-published by The Chronicle.
Minnesota this year has wiped out tuition bills for thousands of students applying to its public colleges. But big costs remain for some families.
That’s because affording college requires paying for more than just tuition. North Star Promise, the state’s new free-tuition program for families earning less than $80,000 a year, is advancing in making college less expensive for low- and middle-income families. But it doesn’t mean college is suddenly affordable.
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Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between MinnPost and Open Campus, with support from Ascendium Education Group, and co-published by The Chronicle.
Minnesota this year has wiped out tuition bills for thousands of students applying to its public colleges. But big costs remain for some families.
That’s because affording college requires paying for more than just tuition. North Star Promise, the state’s new free-tuition program for families earning less than $80,000 a year, is advancing in making college less expensive for low- and middle-income families. But it doesn’t mean college is suddenly affordable.
Eating and sleeping at the state’s public colleges come with a hefty price tag. At the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, on-campus housing and food cost $13,856 a year. At Minnesota State University at Mankato, that rings in at $12,420. There are also other costs, such as transportation and textbooks, which the tuition-only awards don’t cover.
More than 16,700 students are receiving North Star Promise funds this fall, surpassing the state’s goal for the program’s first year. The state pitches the program online with slogans like: “Going to college doesn’t have to mean going into huge debt.” “No tuition. No fees. No kidding.”
The reality that families can receive these funds and still struggle to pay for college limits the impact of the program, said Steven Roenfeldt, a pathways coordinator for St. Cloud Area School District 742.
Roenfeldt advises about 200 seniors each year on college and career options. Many of them are from low-income households. They will make their college decision based on whether they can live at home and eliminate housing costs.
“The incentive for our students to go beyond our community is not provided in the North Star Promise. They’re not saving any money,” he said.
At St. Cloud State University, which Roenfeldt’s students often attend, on-campus housing and a meal plan cost $10,596 each year.
Dennis Olson Jr., the state’s higher-education commissioner, said in an interview that legislators focused on creating a program that would be sustainable and predictable from a budget standpoint.
Olson said he recognizes “there are going to be additional costs associated with going to college, beyond tuition and fees,” but the program’s flexibility is something of which he is proud. He called the program an “incredible first step” and said he expects efforts to build upon it.
The state tried to get ahead of confusion about the program by tabling at the state fair and college events around the state, holding virtual info sessions for families, and financial-aid advisers through specifics of what promise funds cover and don’t cover.
Jeff Salinas-Jenni, a junior studying communication studies at Minnesota State University at Moorhead, said he knows of students who mistakenly thought that North Star Promise covers housing. He feels the program has been talked about on campus as “free college for everyone.”
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“But really, it’s not quite that,” he said. “It’s free college for folks that meet a certain income threshold, and even then, it’s not free college so much as free tuition, because college has other cost factors in there, as well.”
Salinas-Jenni, 32, lives off campus and took three courses this past semester. This lowers his costs, compared to other students. For the fall semester, he owed about $3,447 in tuition and fees, which was fully covered by state and federal grants, including North Star Promise.
Salinas-Jenni also qualified for supplemental state funds known as North Star Promise Plus. The award equals 15 percent of the value of a student’s Pell Grant — federal funds for low-income students — and isn’t restricted to tuition. It can be put toward housing, food, and other expenses.
Salinas-Jenni received about $232 in those supplemental funds this fall, according to his account statement. He took out several thousand dollars in federal loans to help cover other costs.
“I am grateful for the program and the help it provides students like myself,” he said in an email. “However, I think it is important to raise awareness of the hidden costs of college that come with housing, meal plans, and fees.”
Paying for College
North Star Promise isn’t the only state program available to help students pay for college in Minnesota.
There’s a state grant that goes toward cost of attendance for students from low- and moderate-income families, with maximum awards ranging from $7,845 at a public two-year college to $12,345 at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities or a private four-year college. (North Star Promise doesn’t apply to students attending the state’s private colleges.)
There’s also a tuition program for American Indian students that provides funds before any other grants or awards are applied, a setup known as “first-dollar.”
North Star Promise works in reverse: As a last-dollar program, it kicks in to close whatever gap remains between a student’s tuition bill and the aid they’ve already received.
Minnesota’s 18 private colleges have warned the Legislature that Minnesotans who attend private colleges “with the same kind of financial needs” are left behind by North Star Promise. They’ve called on lawmakers to “prioritize financial-aid fairness” in the next legislative session.
State Sen. Omar Fateh, a Democrat who helped create the program, told MinnPost in an email that expanding North Star Promise to include private colleges remains too expensive.
The state distributed more than $900,000 to tribal and private colleges this year for grants to defray unexpected expenses and has invested $6 million over the next two years to support emergency grants at the state’s public colleges.
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A ‘Hole in the Middle’
About two-dozen states, including Michigan and Washington, have some version of a promise program, according to the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Last-dollar programs like Minnesota’s are the most common type, said Michelle Miller-Adams, a senior researcher at the institute.
North Star Promise is simpler than some promise programs in a few key ways.
For example, it doesn’t have an age limit or requirement for people to stay in the state after graduating, restrictions that can limit its effectiveness, Miller-Adams said.
The program’s structure means it benefits mostly families making between $60,000 and $80,000 per year. Families with incomes lower than that tend to receive Pell Grants and other state funds to cover tuition. In contrast, families with higher incomes don’t qualify.
It’s free college for folks that meet a certain income threshold, and even then, it’s not free college so much as free tuition, because college has other cost factors in there, as well.
“There’s always this hole in the middle,” Miller-Adams said. “College is so expensive that it winds up where people are earning too much money to qualify for Pell Grants, but not enough money to really afford college.”
Isaac Ecklof, 19, is a freshman at Minnesota State University at Moorhead. After graduating from high school in Olivia, Minnesota, he took a year off to work and save money for future schooling, which he thought would likely be a trade school or two-year college.
After hearing about the North Star Promise, he decided he wanted to attend a four-year university. He receives nearly $4,200 per semester in North Star Promise dollars but doesn’t qualify for the unrestricted supplemental funds. He quickly realized he’d have to use savings to pay to live on campus, something the university generally requires for freshmen. Housing and food cost about $11,000 a year.
“It sounds like most people, even [those] who have the North Star promise, have to take out loans,” he said.
Isaac Ecklof, a freshman at Minnesota State University at Moorhead, is tapping into his savings to afford living on-campus.Craig Lassig/MinnPost
Those other costs are something the state’s Office of Higher Education was aware of when getting the word out about the program, said Keith Hovis, the office’s communications director.
The team focused on making their messaging as simple as possible, without being misleading. That meant pushing back when, during tests of the messaging, some suggested billing the program as “free college.”
“I was very vocal [in] saying that is not true,” Hovis said. “Tuition needs to be there because if you say ‘free college,’ a person is automatically going to assume that includes any costs associated with college.”
North Star Promise and North Star Promise Plus are forecasted to cost about $73.6 million this fiscal year, according to projections released in November.
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North Star Promise Plus is funded for three years, Olson said. Depending on the availability of funds in the future, he said, state leaders will reassess whether to change the percentage of Pell dollars that it matches.
The program is one way state officials are working to increase the number of Minnesotans pursuing degrees. The state has a goal that 70 percent of adults will have a college degree or certificate by the end of next year. In 2023, about 63 percent of adults had one, according to the state’s Office of Higher Education.
Minnesota State credited North Star Promise as one of the factors that helped drive a systemwide 7.7-percent enrollment increase this year.
How North Star Promise Works
There isn’t a special application process for North Star Promise. A student completes the FAFSA — the free application for federal student aid — and then, if they’re eligible, receives North Star Promise dollars from the in-state public colleges they apply to.
The exact amount they receive will vary, depending on their family income and what other aid they qualify for. The projected average award for this fiscal year is $2,110, according to a report the state sent the Legislature in February.
There’s been some interest in raising the income threshold of the program so more people can be eligible. Among the supporters: Students United, an advocacy group led by students who attend Minnesota’s seven state universities.
The current limit was designed to help “a majority of students in need of financial aid,” said Olson, the higher-ed commissioner.
Fateh, the state lawmaker, said the Legislature should expand the program, which could include raising the income eligibility threshold or gradually phasing out award amounts, instead of having a hard cutoff for families earning more than $80,000.
“Longer term, we want to see both more Minnesotans obtaining degrees — and fewer of them graduating with student-loan debt,” he wrote.
The passage of the program came during the 2023 session at the Legislature when Democrats controlled the Senate, House, and governor’s office and were able to push through a slew of progressive legislation.
The next session will have a divided Legislature — with a tie in the House, Democrat control of the Senate, and a Democrat governor, Tim Walz. That could make it more challenging for the program’s income ceiling to be increased. Still, Fateh said he will push to see it funded at the “highest level possible,” pointing to the success he’s seen so far in the first year.
Opening Students’ Eyes
Roenfeldt, the pathways coordinator for St. Cloud Area School District 742, thinks the program’s messaging encouraged students who might not have thought of college before to consider it.
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“Just the idea of the North Star Promise incentivized them to think, ‘There is help for me, paying for schooling after high school,’” he said.
Billing the program as “free tuition” is useful marketing, Miller-Adams said.
“It’s very interesting to see that many of the students using these scholarships already had their community college covered through Pell Grants, but they didn’t know that. So by saying, ‘Hey, it’s tuition-free,’ and putting that ‘free’ message up front, you can bring a lot of people into the process,” Miller-Adams said.
Kara Cleveland decided to return to college after learning about North Star Promise. She now attends the U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities.Tony Nelson, MinnPost
North Star Promise brought Kara Cleveland, 33, back to college. She had taken a break after getting her associate degree in 2014 because she didn’t want to take out loans. She saved money in the hope that one day she could get her bachelor’s degree — but working as a realtorwasn’t enough.
“It wasn’t stacking up nearly as quickly as I was hoping,” she said. “My dream of going back to school seemed like it was more of a 10-year plan than a five-year plan, like I had originally hoped.”
That changed when she found out about the North Star Promise from someone at a party. She is now attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities part time and studying psychology. She lives off campus and received about $1,920 this semester in North Star Promise and Plus funds.
The state is expecting to spend $260,000 through June 2025 marketing North Star Promise, including through paid social-media ads, radio commercials, and digital signs at libraries and grocery stores.
In rural areas like Melrose, in central Minnesota, the state relies on relationships between counselors and students to help get the word out.
“Just like any other program, unless they actively follow an account or know … to follow along with it, I don’t think most students would know about it,” said Shelby Sawyer, a guidance counselor at Melrose High School. Staff at the school have pitched North Star Promise during financial-aid events and helped students promptly complete the FAFSA.
After the legislation creating North Star Promise passed last year, the Office of Higher Education put together a toolkit — translated into Hmong, Somali, and Spanish — and sent it out to high schools, colleges, and other community groups. “Continuing your education can help you go further and do more in life, especially without the burden of debt to hold you back,” the toolkit says.
Olson said the office is still hearing from students and families who are learning of the program for the first time.
“We continue to build that marketing strategy and that communication strategy even as the program gets off the ground,” he said.
Hawo Mohamed is a senior at Apollo High School, in St. Cloud, Minn. Awareness of North Star Promise among her friend group varies.Bill Kelley, MinnPost
Hawo Mohamed, a 17-year-old senior at Apollo High School, in St. Cloud, learned about North Star Promise at a college fair in Minneapolis. Awareness among her friend group varies.
“One group of friends, perfectly clear, they know what they’re doing” she said. “Other group of friends [are like], ‘What the hell is that?’”
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Mohamed’s father has a college degree. His experience opened her up to the idea of college.
“So many other people don’t have that kind of opportunity, don’t have that kind of support,” Mohamed said.
She hopes to attend the University of Minnesota in the fall.
Clarification (Dec. 16, 2024, 4:18 p.m.): This story was updated to include specifics on Minnesota's in-person North Star Promise outreach and to clarify that public university students are also eligible for emergency grants.