Just so you know, this is a conservative school which typically doesn’t charge tuition opting instead for education financed by the work of their students.

Kevin Murphy of Reuters reports.

Missouri college no longer accepting students who take out loans

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A private, four-year Missouri college is so concerned about mounting debt of college graduates in the United States that it no longer will take students who insist on taking out loans.

The policy on loans set by College of the Ozarks, an evangelical Christian school of 1,400 students located in a rural area near Branson, Missouri, may be a national first, according to Roland King, vice president for public affairs at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

College of the Ozarks is unusual, however.

All students work on campus, and they do not pay tuition, said Jerry Davis, president of the southwest Missouri four-year school.

Ninety percent of each entering class at the college must demonstrate financial need, according to the school’s website, which says that tuition is covered by credits for campus work, along with any federal and state aid and a college scholarship, if necessary.

“We are basically just trying to look out for the students’ interests,” Davis said. “Kids nowadays are not very sophisticated with money. Debt is a big problem all over the country.”

About two-thirds of all undergraduates at four-year colleges in the United States take out loans, finishing with an average debt of $22,656, according to FinAid.org, a widely- cited resource on school financial aid.

Americans now owe more than $1 trillion in student loan debt, and the level of delinquency on the debt is rising.