Many colleges - public and private, two-year and four-year - will accept students who have not graduated from high school or earned equivalency degrees. According to a survey by the U.S. Education Department in 2003-04, there are more than 300,000 students nationwide without high school diplomas attending colleges. This accounts for 2 percent of all college students, 3 percent at community colleges and 4 percent at commercial, or profit-making, colleges. This phenomenon is fueling a debate over whether the students should be in college at all and whether state financial aid should pay their way.