Nathan Spicer

A year before I enrolled at St. Augustine's Flagler College, I attended Mercyhurst College, a private, liberal arts school in Erie, Penn.

Pennsylvania's lottery system is designed to assist senior citizens, unlike Florida's, which is intended to improve education. Consequently, Mercyhurt's annual tuition ended up around $32,000. And that was in-state tuition. 

My brother chose to attend Marietta College in Ohio, a choice based on the college's reputation for providing tremendous assistance to those with learning disabilities. Ohio's lottery benefits education, but that still didn't help my brother, who was not eligible for a scholarship, meaning our parents had to support his five years of schooling. After factoring in out-of-state dues, his tuition ends up roughly equivalent to Mercyhurst's.