Go to college for free online

It may not be common knowledge, but it's possible to get an education from top-flight universities without paying a dime in tuition.

Many distinguished academic institutions--including MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins, to name a few--offer free courses online, according to Lifehacker. Some have conducted gratis online classes for some time, but a rising number have begun podcasts of lectures and tutorials that will likely enhance their popularity.

There's one important catch: Most of these courses cannot be taken for any type of degrees or credentials. But remember, Bill Gates was a Harvard dropout.