MIT For Free: Take College Classes Online At No Cost

For many aspiring students, getting into a top-flight university such as MIT, Yale, or Princeton is a lifelong dream. Unfortunately, that dream never becomes a reality for many of those eager pupils. Grades, finances, or any number of other obstacles can get in the way.

With the front door firmly shut, very few people ever think about going around to the back. Surprisingly, the good news is that a number of educational institutions already offer courses to pretty much anyone -- for free.

So, what's the catch?

Most of the classes can't be taken for credit and will not count toward a degree. (Source: news.com)

Still interested? Check out this list of offerings:

• University of Washington: Courses about literature, music, mythology, and more.
   
• Michigan State University: Learn Sign Language.
   
• Covenant Seminary: Brush up on your theology.
   
• Whatcom Community College: Go beyond 2 + 2 = 4 with a variety of math classes.
   
• Carnegie Mellon University: Biology, Economics, Statistics, French, and more.
   
• Portland State University: Take a Swedish Language course and learn how to say "Swedish meatball" in its native tongue. Also, build up your hunger with a Hungarian Language class. (Okay, I promise I'll stop with the bad jokes now!)
   
• Brooklyn College: Learn Italian. Viva Italia!
   
• California State: Converse in Mandarin Chinese.
   
• University of Arizona:: Discover how to speak Turkish.
   
• University of Washington School of Medicine: Save a life by learning CPR!
   
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Enroll in various health-related courses. Missouri Southern State University: Want to become a U.S. citizen? This class will prepare you for the actual INS naturalization test you'll need to take.
   
• University of Puget Sound: This uniquely-named school will teach you the ins and outs of Linear Algebra.
   
• University of North Carolina: Terrorism, Disaster Planning, and Crisis Leadership.
   
• New York University: Free online math textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials, and videos.
   
• Tufts University: Fill a cavity with Dentistry or save lives with other medical and nutrition courses.
   
• Hampshire College Open your mind with Cognitive Science.
   
• Sofia Project: Creative Typography, Physical Geography, Webpage Authoring, and more.
   
• Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary: These free virtual seminary courses make it easy to take an immediate vow of poverty.
   
• ERI: A massive 52 classes in Human Resources Training.
   
• University of Michigan: Internet Law.
   
• MIT: A huge variety of courses can be found here.
   
• Berkeley: American Cyber-culture and Astronomy are just two of the many fascinating subjects available.

Miscellaneous Resources

• Brighton Young University: Discover your Family History and Genealogy.
   
• University of Pennsylvania: 25,000 free online books. No library card required.
   
• Library of Congress: Articles, photographs, and essays.
   
• Annenberg Media: Free videos.
   
• Core Documents of U.S. Democracy: Direct online access to basic Federal Government documents. (Source: lifehacker.com)

Remember: you're not too old to learn!