Elite universities offering free online classes

Carnegie Mellon University

The Pittsburgh-located university was founded in 1848 by Andrew Carnegie as a technical school and merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in 1967 to become its current iteration.

Through its Open Learning Initiative, CMU offers low-cost courses and also has an “Open and Free” section that allows students to access courses material for free.

Duke University is located in Durham, North Carolina. Of its online program, the university said: “Through online learning, Duke seeks to offer flexible global learning opportunities to a wide set of students throughout their lives.”

Duke University’s free courses are on Coursera, a popular online learning platform. Free classes are on an audit basis, allowing you to access content, but you won’t be submitting assignments for a grade or earning a certificate.

Harvard University

Harvard is the oldest higher education institution in the U.S. The Ivy League school is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Online learning website edX hosts Harvard’s free courses. These self-paced courses are free on an audit basis, but a certificate can be awarded for a fee. Each course will provide information on how much time is required, the difficultly level, and information on instructors.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Known for its academic focus on engineering and computer science, MIT is a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based school. In 2001, the institute decided to place nearly all of its course content online.

Known as OpenCourseWare (OCW), the site contains material from 2,400 courses. OCW doesn’t require any registration and courses are categorized by topic, department, and MIT course number. Each course contains lecture notes, readings, and assignments.

Stanford University

Stanford University, located near the Bay Area in California, is a top school often known for its proximity to Silicon Valley. Since 2011, Stanford Online has been the university’s online collection of courses.

According to its website, “…Stanford offers more than 100 unique, free online courses or MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in service to the world, for lifelong learning and self-enrichment.

University of California, Berkeley

UC Berkeley is a public university that serves as the flagship campus of 10 universities within the University of California system. The school is included on U.S. News & World Report’s list of Best Colleges, making it a top college.