{"id":2892,"date":"2025-08-20T13:18:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/?page_id=2892"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:38:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:38:52","slug":"free-college","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/free-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Community College"},"content":{"rendered":"

MassEducate and MassReconnect programs allow all Massachusetts residents who have not yet earned a bachelor\u2019s degree to attend college at no cost. This means that all course-related tuition and fees for eligible courses (applied after all other state and federal aid and grants) are free\u2014and ou may qualify for an allowance of up to $600 per semester or $1200 per academic year towards books, supplies and expenses.<\/p>\n

Eligibility<\/h2>\n

To be eligible for free college, you must:<\/p>\n

<\/span>Complete the FAFSA<\/div>
\n

If you are not eligible to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and are an approved “High School Completer”<\/a> under the Massachusetts tuition equity law, you can complete the Massachusetts Application for State Financial Aid (MASFA) and still attend for free.<\/p>\nComplete the FAFSA <\/i><\/a> Complete the MAFSA <\/i><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Apply to GCC<\/div>
\n

You must also enroll in an approved program of study\u2014college is only free if you are completing a degree or certificate.<\/p>\nExplore Programs <\/i><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Apply Online <\/i><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Reside in Massachusetts<\/div>
\n

You must have physically resided in Massachusetts for at least one year as of the start of your first enrolled term.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Take at least six credits a semester<\/div>
\n

To receive the benefit, you must enroll in at least six credits (usually two classes) per semester in an approved program of study leading to an associate degree or certificate.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Maintain satisfactory academic progress<\/div>
\n

Link here<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Next Steps<\/h2>\n

Ready to get started with free college?<\/p>\n

\n

New Students<\/h3>\nApply Online <\/i><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>
\n

Current Students<\/h3>\nComplete the FAFSA <\/i><\/a> Complete the MAFSA <\/i><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MassEducate and MassReconnect programs allow all Massachusetts residents who have not yet earned a bachelor\u2019s degree to attend college at no cost. This means that all course-related tuition and fees for eligible courses (applied after all other state and federal aid and grants) are free\u2014and ou may qualify for an allowance of up to $600 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2897,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2892","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 16:50:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"pp_notify_user","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2892"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2903,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2892\/revisions\/2903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}