Yavapai Community College initiated a tuition free scholarship program beginning in the fall 2019 for full-time students who complete their degree in two years | Yavapai to expand program to some CTE next year | Most of tuition is paid via Federal Pell program
Starting in fall 2023, Northern Arizona University (NAU) will implement a new financial aid initiative to cover tuition expenses for every Arizona student who is admitted to the university and has a household income of $65,000 or less. To qualify, students must be Arizona residents. They also need to meet NAU admission requirements and have a household income of $65,000 or below.
NAU students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year to determine their family income. If they qualify for FAFSA, the Federal Government grant program will most likely be used to pay most if not all the tuition. However, it is unclear how much tuition might not be covered by FAFSA.
Online students won’t qualify for the NAU tuition free program regardless of where they live.
According to Anika Olsen, NAU’s vice president for enrollment management, this is the first financial aid program that’s applied to both Flagstaff and statewide locations. She told the Arizona Republic newspaper that she expects it will appeal to community college students who had wanted to transfer to NAU but didn’t due to costs.
The current requirements for the Yavapai Community College Promise Program appear below as described by the College on its web. The College is expanding this program to cover some Career and Technical Education programs next year.
The Yavapai Community College Promise is a financial aid program offering Yavapai County residents who complete their high school diploma or Graduate Equivalency Degree (GED) an opportunity to earn a tuition-free degree at Yavapai College, if they complete the degree within seven semesters after graduation. It provides eligible students a last dollar scholarship, meaning the scholarship will cover tuition not otherwise covered by Federal, State, Yavapai College, or other 3rd party (egs. high school, Yavapai College Foundation, Tribe, employer) grants, discounts, or scholarships.
Provides tuition reimbursement when eligible students complete their degree within seven semesters of their high school or GED graduation
Does not reimburse other related expenses including, but not limited to, books, course and program fees, or other cost of living expenses such as transportation, food, and housing
Reimburses eligible students for the tuition they paid to Yavapai College after all other gift aid has been credited toward tuition. “Gift aid” is defined as Federal, State, Yavapai College, or 3rd party grants, discounts or scholarships. In other words, Yavapai Community College will reimburse qualified students for any out of pocket expenses they incurred to pay for Yavapai Community College tuition.
When the student completes an Associate Degree, the Yavapai Community College Promise Scholarship will reimburse up to 61 credits of the tuition paid by the student.
Courses must have been paid for by the student or the student’s family, not any other source including Federal Government, State Government, Yavapai Community College, or other 3rd party (e.g., Yavapai College Foundation, high school, Tribe, employer)
Courses must have been taken from YCC (reimbursement does not apply for transfer credits) after high school graduation or GED completion
No reimbursements for repeated courses
No reimbursements for Developmental Education credits
Credits are reimbursed at the rate paid, not the current rate
Aerospace Science majors and courses are not eligible (including Fixed Wing, Rotor, Unmanned, and Air Traffic)
Students are responsible to pay all their expenses up front (tuition and fees, books, cost of living). Payment plan options are available.
Yavapai Community College will be training the next generation of dispatchers at their first Public Safety Dispatcher Academy, June 6-17 at the Northern Arizona Regional Training Academy (NARTA). The training will take place on Yavapai Community College’s Prescott Campus.
Yavapai Community College has posted its summer credit class schedule. According to its registration website, it will offer a total of 241 summer credit courses. Of those classes, 93 will be face-to-face classes in the District and seven face-to-face classes off campus. 
However, that was not the case with the self-evaluations distributed at the April 2022 meeting to Board members and apparently College president Dr. Lisa Rhine. 
The Arizona Auditor General’s office reported on the 2021 audit it conducted of Yavapai Community College at the Governing Board meeting April 12. The Auditor gave the Community College high marks for the excellent cooperation of its staff in helping with the report. Moreover, it found no irregularities in its audit of 2021.
These additions come at a time when the Administration has been constantly preaching to the public at various meetings, especially those in the Sedona/Verde Valley area, that it will only invest in projects and programs where it is demonstrated by production of reliable data showing an educational and/or community need. The absence of data showing need, the administrators claim, is why, for example, it is not planning to expand and enhance the nursing program in the Verde Valley. The absence of need is why it did not build a 30,000 square foot Career and Technical Education Center on the Verde Campus; only a 10,000 square foot structure (versus 104,000 square foot CTE facility on the Prescott side). And on and on and on.
Yavapai Community College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society Chapter received a fourth-place ranking out of 1,290 other national and international chapters for the award of the Most Distinguished Chapter at the national convention in Denver earlier this month.