2024 Most Affordable Colleges in Nebraska

When applying, keep in mind that you don’t always have a choice about whether to live on campus. Peru State College students, for instance, must live in a residence hall for the first two years unless they are living with their parents or have their own family. That means you’ll need to take a close look at school policies and run some numbers to see what campus living might cost after your aid package comes through. Most college websites feature a net price calculator in their financial aid section. Here’s the one for Central Community College.

If you’re planning on free housing, you may have to work for it. One of the most common ways is by becoming a resident assistant, but if you decide to become an orientation leader at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for instance, you’ll get a free room and meals for two months during the summer. That doesn’t help much for the academic year, when you may have to rely on financial aid to get through. If you’re an undocumented immigrant, however, the College of St. Mary has a full scholarship, including room and board, just for you. UNO and UNK are both working on similar awards. If you don’t fall into that category, consider looking at on-campus housing costs from a different perspective. One reason some students choose to live off campus is that they can’t find a place to stay cheaply during the summer and winter breaks without signing a year lease. University of Nebraska at Omaha settles that problem by primarily using full-year housing contracts.

Depending on your college, you may or may not get institutional support should you choose to live off campus. Many campuses will at least advertise meal plans specially designed for commuters so they can get a discount without having to eat every meal on campus. The one at Peru State, for example, is based around weekday lunches, when commuters are most likely to be around, and eliminates weekend meals. University of Nebraska at Omaha goes a step beyond by trying to help you find an actual place to rest your head with its housing listing service. If you don’t see anything on your school’s website, call the student affairs office, but keep one resource in your back pocket: Housing.NE.gov is a state-specific housing search site in the vein of CampusRent.com or MyApartmentMap.com. Considering Nebraska has one of the lowest average rental rates in the country, you should find plenty of options in your budget on this site, but a break-glass emergency option is probably not too far down the street. Find the exact address at HomelessShelterDirectory.org

Nebraska is the only state in which electricity utilities are completely owned by the public, meaning they are nonprofit. However, Nebraska ranks seventh in per-capita energy consumption, offsetting potential savings. If you live off campus and are getting nervous just looking at your electricity or gas bill, you might qualify for government assistance, assuming you make less than the allowable income. The Nebraska Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) focuses on subsidizing heating costs in the winter, but those with young children or a medical condition can also qualify for cooling subsidies in the summer. Then again, your bills might be lower if you just had better insulation or windows, so take a look at the Low Income Weatherization Assistance Program. Again, there are income restrictions, but eligible residents will have a technician fix their home’s problem areas for free, resulting in a lower monthly bill. If you don’t qualify, look at your utility company’s website. Most likely, it has a section on cutting costs, as explained here by the Nebraska Power Association. Nebraska Public Power District, which provides electricity to 600,000 Nebraskans, has 10 calculators for forecasting how much your bill might be, depending on, for instance, what temperature your water heater is set to.

University of Nebraska Medical Center runs healthcare clinics, including in the dental and mental health realms. Most are clustered around Omaha, but there are a few elsewhere in the state. Of those, circle the dental clinic as the most likely place to grab big savings — it charges lower rates because students work on your teeth, though a professional is always on hand. Find more cheap and free clinics at the Nebraska Dental Health Division. Not in Omaha but need healthcare? No worries — odds are, your campus has a health center with cheap rates. Wayne State College’s student health office has a mixture of paid and unpaid services. Essentially, seeing a nurse or physician’s assistant (PA) is free, as are any over-the-counter medications, while labs, X-rays and prescriptions cost money. Northeast Community College has similar services. And most schools, including Mid-Plains Community College, have free counseling, even if they don’t advertise a campus health clinic. For serious issues, the counseling center might refer you to outside treatment, at which point you can look into clinics in your area. If you’re underinsured or uninsured and just need vaccinations to attend college, you might be able to get them for free. Call a provider listed in the State of Nebraska Immunization Clinic Directory. But if you’re already sick and don’t want to use the campus clinic, try FreeClinicDirectory.org.

The starting point of your child care search should be the college you’re attending. That’s because many colleges have early childhood education programs, meaning your child will receive care and instruction based on the most recent research and pedagogies. There are variations to what’s on offer: weekly rates vary and age limits might be anything from two to nine or zero to 13. Each of the colleges in the Nebraska university system has a child care center with student discounts: UNL Children’s Center, UNO Child Care Center and UNK Child Development Center. State colleges also recognize the importance of child care for students — just look at Charon State’s Child Development Center Laboratory or Peru Day Care. If you can’t get your kids into campus-based child care, leaf through the provider directory at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. At most child care centers, you can bring the cost down further by qualifying for the Child Care Subsidy Program. Apply here.

Each college has a transportation program, which is usually advertised on its website. Depending on where you attend, though, you may end up peddling a bike or lounging in a bus. Hastings College pushes the former, letting students borrow bicycles and zoom around campus and town with its Bronco Bikes program. UNL has something much bigger. Its buses crisscross Lincoln to shuttle students around its three campuses. You need a pass, the cost of which is automatically covered by student fees. Likewise, UNO students can get around Omaha for free via the MavRIDE program on Omaha Metro. They can also take campus-based shuttles to and from the parking lot to classes.

Kool-Aid may be the official soft drink of Nebraska, but you shouldn’t be substituting it for meals. Colleges across the state recognize hunger as a problem affecting many students. Some of them have even set up food pantries, including University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Maverick Food Pantry and University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s OpeN Shelf. If that’s not an option on your campus, you can find a food pantry off of it at Food Bank for the Heartland. One place you can go that will definitely be there is a WIC clinic, where you can get free groceries for you and your baby. Surf to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for details. Then apply here.

Warren Buffett is Omaha’s most famous denizen, but the third-richest person in America doesn’t mind living in this low-key city with a reasonable cost of living.  here’s plenty of space, so there are lots of houses on the market to rent or buy at an affordable price. Gas prices also trend below the national average, but not as much. That hardly matters for University of Nebraska at Omaha students, who can take their transportation costs to $0 by using Omaha Metro for free. They, along with enrollees at Omaha’s other colleges, including Creighton University and Metropolitan Community College, may also want to avail themselves of the medical and dental clinics run out of University of Nebraska Medical Center. Speaking of MCC, if you’re planning to go there, Avenue Scholars can prepare you academically and financially.

Where to Go for Help in Omaha

The state’s largest city is packed with organizations that help people of all ages, many of whom are looking for some support as they earn a degree. Here are a few places to look:

• College Possible Omaha has a presence in eight area high schools. Its mission is to get low-income students into college by helping them raise their standardized test scores, apply for admission, and snag financial aid.
• Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership is about connecting people without much money with the resources they need. The primary way it does this is through its emergency assistance program, which provides support via utility bill payments or food distribution at its pantry.
• Heartland Family Service has too many programs to mention but include mental health counseling and hardship assistance for people who need food, utilities, clothing or other essentials to make it through an unforeseen crisis.
• Omaha Housing Authority oversees the government’s housing voucher program, through which low-income residents can rent apartments and houses that would otherwise be out of their price range. It also owns properties at a dozen other locations in the city. One advantage of being in an OHA program is eligibility for a college scholarship and access to GED classes and after-school programs for youth.

There’s more out there. United Way of the Midlands can help you connect with other social services in Omaha.

With a low cost of living, Lincoln is the type of town you may want to stay in after you graduate, especially if you like football. Though it’s best known as the home to the University of Nebraska’s main campus and the five-time national champion Cornhuskers, Lincoln also makes room for two smaller private colleges — Union College and Nebraska Wesleyan University — as well as Southeast Community College. Students at any of these colleges will appreciate the affordable rental rates. UNL students can also get around the capital on school-run buses, saving money on transportation.

Where to Go for Help in Lincoln

As the state capital, Lincoln has no shortage of social service agencies covering everything from higher education to medication. Here are four worth contacting if you’re worried about your ability to afford a postsecondary degree:

• Community Action Partnership for Lancaster and Saunders Counties does just about everything it can to help low-income folks. It maintains Head Start centers for kids, provides individualized financial literacy training for adults, matches education savings through the Individual Development Account program, prepares taxes for free, gives housing tax credits through the Lincoln Action Program Housing Development Corporation, mediates disagreements between tenants and landlords, and even finds time to dish up hot meals five nights a week at The Gathering Place.
• Lancaster County General Assistance Office is the primary portal to accessing government programs for low-income residents. This includes the primary care and mental health services at the county health department and the Lancaster County Community Mental Health Center, respectively, food assistance through SNAP, and rent and utility subsidies.
• Lincoln Community Foundation publishes 50+ scholarships each January for students from Lancaster County. Hop on and apply in the first half of the year before they disappear.
• People’s Health Center caters to people who are avoiding the doctor’s office or dentist’s chair because they’re more worried about the bill than their health. The center accepts Medicaid and also uses a sliding scale that charges you an amount based on what you can afford.

To get a comprehensive look at the nonprofit and government organizations offering social services to Lincoln students and their families, turn to the community resource guide put out every year by the Center for People in Need.

Bellevue, which you can see from Omaha on a clear day, comes with mostly the same cheap amenities one gets from its better-known neighbor. Students at the eponymously named Bellevue University will therefore benefit from cheap housing, though rent in Bellevue is usually a little higher, which opens up the possibility of living in Omaha proper. That might mean using the Omaha Metro to get back to campus, but Bellevue doesn’t have an arrangement with the public transportation system, so you’ll have to pay for the privilege.

Where to Go for Help in Bellevue

If you’re in need of social services, you might consider looking in Omaha, as many of the nonprofits there have a coverage area extending into Bellevue. However, since Omaha and Bellevue are in different counties, there are some unique options for aid in the latter:

• Sarpy County Human Services runs a general assistance program. Essentially, if you qualify based on income, it can step in to pay your utility bill, give you a voucher for groceries, or cover your rent for a few months.
• Southeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership is entrusted with being the local face of government grant programs. It runs Head Start centers for preschoolers, administers the state’s weatherization program, teaches financial literacy, and runs a food pantry for people in fiscal emergencies, just to name a few services.

There’s more in the Omaha area generally and Bellevue specifically. See what’s on tap at United Way of the Midlands.