It's been seven weeks since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico with 150 mph winds and feet of rain. The Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), the largest public university system in Puerto Rico, is open but some services are interrupted, leaving 58,000 UPR students with uncertainty about their educations and the future. To help students bounce back, multiple colleges across the U.S. are accepting Puerto Rican college students, tuition-free.

Trees block the main entrance, leading to the historic clock tower, at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, after Hurricane Maria on September 22nd 2017. Pablo Pantoja/Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

New York University

On Thursday, New York University (NYU) introduced the Hurricane Maria Assistance Program, which will provide 50 Puerto Rican students with free tuition, free housing, health insurance and a meal program for the 2018 spring semester. "The situation in Puerto Rico is obviously something that we've all been watching with great concern over the last several weeks," NYU president Andrew Hamilton told the New York Times. "We're pleased to be able to do this."

Tulane University

Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, was one of the first universities to offer this kind of assistance to Puerto Rican students. On October 13th, Tulane announced that it would offer Puerto Rican college students a tuition-free guest semester. Jeff Schuffman, Director of Admission at Tulane shared in a blog post, "After Katrina, universities and colleges around the world took in our students with open arms; it's now our turn to pay it forward and assist students in need."

Cornell University

Cornell University announced on October 30th that up to 58 students from UPR will be accepted to attend Cornell for the spring 2018 semester for free, including tuition, room and board. "These young people, and nearly everyone in Puerto Rico, have gone through a terrible trauma," said Cornell President Martha E. Pollack. "This is our way of reaching out to them and our university colleagues in Puerto Rico to show we stand with them and their families during this difficult time in their academic, professional and personal lives."

Brown University