CoSTS OF SEMINARY EDUCATION

Fifty years ago nearly 100% of the costs of seminary education were covered by regional and national benevolence. Today about 20% of income comes from the "wider church--the ELCA and synods." The remaining 80% comes directly from alumni/ae, friends, congregations, and other sources.

Coupled with this shift in the sources of income in the last 50 years, the cost of a seminary education has significantly increased. For the 2007-2008 academic year, student tuition is $10,890 (M.Div./M.A., 9 classes). However, this amount represents one-third of the actual cost incurred by LSTC to educate that seminarian.

Who Pays for Seminary Education?

by Janet Boden

(from the Epistle, Fall, 2006)

In LSTC’s Finance Office there are two locked black and silver metal boxes each labeled with a rectangular black sign with white capital letters directing people as they make payments and deposits for the office to record. PAYMENTS ALL ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE is on the left and DEVELOPMENT - FOUNDATION ONLY is on the right.

All tuition, rent, and other account payments go into the accounts receivable box. All contributions from the ELCA, synods, congregations, and individuals go into the development box. How LSTC keeps its doors open, pays its faculty and staff, develops new programs, and prepares people for ministry is as simple and as complicated as those two black boxes and the revenue streams they represent.

Don’t students pay for their own seminary education through tuition?

Like any other institution of higher learning, tuition covers only a portion of the cost of educating students. Unlike colleges, universities, and other graduate programs, seminary tuitions cover a much smaller fraction of the actual cost.

2005-06 tuition at LSTC for master of arts and
master of divinity students was $9,612. In 2006-07 it is $10,350. This figure is more than double what it was 10 years ago and is a significant source of income for the seminary. However, the amount of tuition is only 1/3 of the actual cost of educating a student.

The ELCA calculated LSTC’s 2004-05 annual cost per student at $32,000, just below the $33,000 average for all ELCA seminaries. Actual revenue from tuition was only 25.5% of LSTC’s income in 2005-06.

Although LSTC’s tuition is reasonable compared
to other graduate programs, it can still present a significant barrier to those who have recently graduated (with the student loans to prove it) and to secondcareer candidates for ministry who now have children, a mortgage, and other financial responsibilities.

“If we don’t get students in their 20s, we may
not see them until they’re in their 40s,” said Dorothy Dominiak, LSTC’s director of admission and financial aid. “They begin to earn a living, accumulate the larger debts of adulthood such as a mortgage, car payments, children to support, and can’t think about seminary until their 40s and 50s.”

Read the full Epistle article from Fall, 2006

This webpage was last modified on June 5, 2007

In 1950, 100% of the seminary's income came from the wider church. The graphic above illustrates the broader origins of the 21st century seminary funding.

More links:

Supporting your Seminary
Read the Epistle article from Winter, 2007

Office of Vocation, Admissions and Financial Aid