Josh Moody
October 20, 2026
The institutions are known for giving students hands-on experience with a tuition break for their labor. But high costs and complexities of the model have constrained the sector.
Sterling College was a place where students learned by doing.
They helped grow and cook the food they ate, tended to livestock, maintained campus grounds, tutored students at a nearby K–12 school, and worked in various other roles, trading their labor for a credit on their tuition at the small work college in rural Vermont. Local media reported that students tended to graduate with about half the debt load compared to the national average.
When Sterling College closed in May, it left only nine remaining federally recognized work colleges in the nation.