‘This is perfect’: Tuition-free college offers pathway to degree for working Nevadans

Mikahyalah Scott always wanted to be a nurse, a passion she said she developed through taking care of her elderly mother as a young girl.

After getting her GED at 16, Scott said she earned certifications to draw blood and run EKG tests and started what would become an 11-year career as a medical assistant.

But as a single mother in Las Vegas, the 31-year-old said the necessary demands and cost of attending a nursing school became too much, seemingly flatlining any hopes of obtaining her dream career. It wasn’t until Scott started taking classes through University of the People, a tuition-free online college, that she said she found an affordable path to becoming a nurse.

Scott is one of more than 170,000 students in 213 countries taking classes at University of the People, according to university founder and president Shai Reshef. Over 20,000 of the school’s students are in the United States and 200 students are in Nevada, he added. Reshef said many of the U.S. students cite the high price of higher education as a leading factor for enrolling at University of the People.

In Nevada, yearly in-state undergraduate tuition and fees at UNLV and University of Nevada, Reno, sit around $10,000 for the 2025-26 school year. At Nevada State University, those same annual expenses cost nearly $7,300. A full bachelor’s degree at University of the People, however, costs around $6,500.

With only a handful of degree programs and teachers volunteering their work, the school runs a lean operation funded entirely by student course assessment fees and philanthropic donations, according to Reshef.

The university offers programs in business administration, health science and computer science, as well as master’s degrees in education and information technology. Reshef said these degree programs were chosen because they give students better odds at finding a job once they graduate.

“They’re coming to us, in many cases, where they’re married, they have a full-time job, they need to manage an education in between their regular life, so we want to ensure that we teach them what they need to succeed and nothing but that,” Reshef said.

Teaching the classes are roughly 1,500 volunteer professors, Reshef said, from young Ph.D.-holders eager to start educating others to tenured professors at esteemed universities.

Scott said she enrolled in the university’s health science associate’s degree program and is striving to earn her degree by the end of the year. With the head-start she is getting by taking online classes, Scott said she could be done with nursing school and become a registered nurse by this time next year.

“I’ve been to community colleges where I’ve obtained some college credits, but it still wasn’t convenient for me as a mother or a full-time worker,” Scott said. “You’re going to get your money’s worth.”

Flexible offerings

Since University of the People class materials are always available for students to access, the flow of the classes gives students the ability to finish assignments in their own time.

Scott said coursework consists of weekly readings and regular homework, discussion questions and quizzes to evaluate one’s understanding of the material. The format allows her to complete her degree during breaks at her job and in the evening before she falls asleep.

“It’s very structured and organized and kind of self-explanatory, so it’s very easy to understand,” Scott said.

The added flexibility the university offers is helping Colombian-born dancer Sergio Alvarez carve a career path after he hangs up his ballet shoes.

After coming to America on a dance scholarship in 2009, the 37-year-old said he moved to Las Vegas in 2015 to join the Nevada Ballet Theatre, met his wife in the dance company and had a child. He’s able to complete coursework while walking dogs, during rehearsal breaks and after putting his daughter to bed.

Alvarez said he is studying through University of the People to earn a bachelor’s in business administration by 2028 so he can find work when his body can no longer keep up with his rigorous ballet regiment. He said he hopes to use his degree to join the business-side of a ballet company.

“Age is hard, so you start thinking more about what is going to be next. Especially with family, you are like, ‘How am I going to support my family?’” Alvarez said.

As an immigrant with no other family in the United States to support him, Alvarez said University of the People’s low-cost model made it affordable for him to earn a degree without accruing a mountain of debt. In Nevada, an estimated 365,400 student loan borrowers owe an average of $34,756 in student loan debt, according to the Education Data Initiative.

“All the young people that I went to college (with), they all ended up with this huge amount of debt, and that was one thing that kept me away from trying college,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t have to get in debt to get a degree, and I was like, this is perfect.”

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.