Man at ASU campus questions universities’ $35,000 tuition, claiming college is ‘free as long as you don’t enroll’

A man walking around Arizona State University’s campus is making the case that college can be free if you don’t enroll, questioning why students pay roughly $35,000 a year to attend. His argument comes in a TikTok posted by Joshua that has drawn hundreds of comments.

“College is free as long as you don’t enroll,” he says. “And I’m being dead serious.” He then claims he “just realized you can walk in any lecture and sit down” because “no one checks.”

He says one lecture hall holds 400 students and that the professor doesn’t know half of them. Those students are “paying, like, 35 grand a year for the exact same seat, same professor, the same slides,” he argues. He also points out that ASU publishes class schedules and room numbers, meaning someone could “just pick one and walk in.”

The catch with his campus hack

The clip ends with a jab at traditional courses. “Claude can make a better course than this,” he says. He doesn’t show himself entering a classroom or attending a lecture, though. The footage stays on him as he walks around campus, so viewers only hear his account of how easy it is to sit in on a class.

Public class schedules and room numbers don’t necessarily mean visitors can attend. ASU’s visitor conduct rules allow for removal from campus and other penalties for unauthorized presence. Under Arizona law, certain cases of knowingly entering or remaining unlawfully on property can also amount to third-degree criminal trespass, a class 3 misdemeanor. Whether that applies depends on the circumstances.

The $35,000 figure also speaks to the broader cost of higher education. Tuition varies by residency, degree program and enrollment status, while the total cost of attending college can include housing, meals and other expenses. For many students, those costs can add up over several years, leading some to talk openly about their student debt.

Under the video, one of the most liked comments makes the point most directly. “College education is free, but the paper isn’t you don’t get credit for not paying,” it reads. The comment has more than 2,900 likes.

Another commenter points to a legitimate alternative: auditing a class. “A lot of people do this on the up and up and it’s called auditing a class… you just don’t get any credit for it towards a degree,” the user writes. Auditing generally involves a school’s procedures or permission, unlike simply entering a lecture and hoping the professor doesn’t notice.

A third commenter thinks the approach works best at larger schools. “Only works with large colleges,” the user writes, echoing the creator’s claim that a professor might not recognize everyone in a 400-student lecture hall.

The comment that best summed up the debate received more than 8,900 likes. “You’re not paying to learn, you’re paying for the piece of paper,” it reads. The idea gets at a long-running question about the cost of a college degree and whether it’s justified, particularly when students are weighing what they learn against the credential they receive.