[Lawtan]

Umm...aren't laws slowly making community colleges public/cheaper (possibly "free" in the "your raised taxes pay for it" manner)?
And yeah, there are several merit and charitable-based scholarships, where you have to submit information (like justifying you are a twin, or Amerindian, or high school GPA) and you will be measured against other applicants.
Then there are lottery-style (fully random, and competitive, but free), or commission-style (submit an essay/artwork, and they get the art...but you get funding and exposure), internship based (where you apply to work with a company in the hopes that you get college paid off while they have a potential/certain new employee)...similar with military (but they try to trick you to get more privates than paying graduated folk...if you have to deploy before or during college, they may not have to pay if you die...)

Then there are the loans...