ProCon’s Free College Quiz
- Question: Which of the following is a common argument in favor of free college?
- Answer: All of these are common arguments in favor of free college.
- Question: Which 1862 act of the U.S. Congress spurred the founding of colleges dedicated to “agriculture and the mechanic arts”?
- Answer: The Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862 provided grants of land to states to finance the establishment of colleges specializing in the “useful arts” of agriculture, mechanics, mining, and military instruction; the schools often included A&M in their names (for agricultural and mechanical).
- Question: Which name is commonly given to the group of eight colleges and universities in the northeastern United States noted for its high academic standards, selectivity in admissions, and social prestige?
- Answer: The eight Ivy League schools—Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell—are among the most prestigious institutions in the world.
- Question: Which school, founded as New College in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States?
- Answer: Created to train clergy, New College was renamed Harvard after its first large benefactor (John Harvard) in 1639; Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
- Question: According to a 2022 poll, what percentage of Americans support free four-year college?
- Answer: According to the 2022 Education Next Survey of Public Opinion poll, 61 percent of Americans support free four-year college and 66 percent support free two-year college.
- Question: Which of the following is a common argument against free college?
- Answer: All of these are common arguments against free college.
- Question: What are HBCUs?
- Answer: With the help of the U.S. government, HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) were founded mainly throughout the South after the Civil War to help formerly enslaved people adjust to freedom.
- Question: How much U.S. student debt was owed in 2024?
- Answer: In spring 2024 U.S. student debt totaled $1.8 trillion.
