At its Fall 2019 meeting, the Seminary’s Board of Trustees voted to approve a proposal for the creation of the Student Aid Church Partnership Program.
This new aid program will coexist with the Seminary’s current Student Tuition Waiver Church Partners Program. Whereas the latter program encourages church courts (sessions, presbyteries, denominations, etc.) to partner indefinitely with the Seminary at an institutional level, the new program encourages sending church courts to support individual students during the course of their studies.
The new program is detailed in part below. For full information about our tuition, fees, scholarships, and financial aid, please visit gpts.edu/tuition-aid or contact us at info@gpts.edu. To support our scholarship programs, please visit gpts.edu/donate.
The Student Aid Church Partnership Program
This program encourages corporate expressions of Christ’s church (congregations, sessions, consistories, presbyteries, classes, synods, assemblies, associations, and denominations) to partner with the Seminary to aid individual students in covering the cost of studying in a classroom environment. The program is designed to benefit both resident students and distance students. Under the terms of the program, the Seminary will match the support of the student’s sending church body up to 1/2 of the cost of tuition and fees for individual students.
If the church body pledges to cover 1/2 of a student’s financial burden of attending in a given year, the Seminary will cover the other 1/2 of the student’s financial cost of attending in a given year, eliminating the student’s financial burden for attending the Seminary. As of this semester, the full cost per-credit-hour (tuition and fees) for resident students is $230. The full cost per-credit-hour (tuition and fees) for distance students is $280.
Churches may elect to contribute more or less than 1/2 of the student’s cost of tuition and fees. For example, if the church contributes more than 1/2 of the total of the student’s cost of tuition and fees for a given year, the Seminary will cover 1/2 of the total of the student’s cost of tuition and fees, and the additional funds can be used for other expenses (the student’s remaining balance, future coursework, books, etc.). Conversely, if a church contributes 1/4 of the total of the student’s cost of tuition and fees, the Seminary will likewise contribute 1/4, reducing the student’s burden to 1/2 of the original cost of tuition and fees.
The program arrangements will remain in place as long as two conditions are met: the student remains enrolled in a degree program and the church continues to fulfill an annual commitment. For more information about this program and other details about tuition, fees, scholarships, and financial aid, please visit gpts.edu/tuition-aid.
