> Both the College of the Ozarks and Berea College rely on a stream of non-tuition funding to pull off the work college model. This includes a mixture of privat

> Both the College of the Ozarks and Berea College rely on a stream of non-tuition funding to pull off the work college model. This includes a mixture of private donations, Pell Grants and sustaining funding from hefty endowments. > [...] Berea’s $1.6 billion endowment covers around three-quarters of the college’s operating expenses for its approximately 1,600 students. College of the Ozarks has an endowment just shy of half a billion dollars; its endowment-per-student ratio is one of the highest in the country. > Relying on this type of funding does limit the number of students that can be enrolled each year and can make the schools particularly vulnerable to changes in the economy. So the students don't really need to work as part of the model. It's more of a "Large endowment and private donations enables colleges to not charge tuition". But I do think that work experience is important for college students. Even if your work experience isn't directly related to your field of study, just having stood behind a cash register, gives you a lot of maturity when facing the job market after graduation.