(MONEY Magazine) – Eight schools charge no tuition, which may make them the best deals in higher education in the U.S. We have not included them in our value rankings, however, because of the special circumstances described below. -- Annual earnings from a hefty $109 million endowment cover tuition for all 1,027 undergraduates at Cooper Union in Manhattan's gritty East Village. But Cooper is appropriate only for students with very specific interests: It offers majors solely in art, architecture and engineering. -- The Webb Institute of Naval Architecture in Glen Cove, N.Y. accepts approximately 20 freshmen each fall for four years of highly technical schooling in naval design and marine engineering. Earnings on its healthy endowment of $28 million cover the tuition for Webb's 82 undergrads. -- Three U.S. military schools -- the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval and Air Force academies -- provide first-rate educations free to about 4,400 students each. In return, graduates must serve at least six years of active duty. The Coast Guard Academy provides a similar deal for 950 students, who must serve at least five years after graduating. -- In lieu of tuition, two schools require students to pay their way with campus jobs. The 1,835 undergrads at Berea in Berea, Ky. and the 1,540 at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. -- mostly students from local families earning $35,000 a year or less -- spend 10 to 15 hours a week maintaining school buildings, grounds and equipment, running college-owned businesses (such as a furniture factory) or acting as teaching and laboratory assistants.