Higher education is higher than ever … cost-wise that is. Tonight Jeff and I received an email from Multnomah’s president that tuition rates will be raised 4% next year to $423 per credit hour. That means that one semester of classes (16 credits) will be $6,768 or more than $13,500 for the year. Jeff’s is a 3-year degree and mine is a 2-year degree. Yeah, do the math. Seminary totals around $65,000 for the Patterson family and that’s before books and transportation and regular living expenses. Ouch. Now, obviously this is a choice, I’m not complaining here. We consider ourselves incredibly privileged to even have the opportunity to set foot on Multnomah’s campus. We love it there. We wouldn’t trade it for anything. But it definitely has a cost.
We have also been blessed by generous scholarships. My dad asked me the other day what he thought I’d received in total academic scholarships through my undergraduate and graduate studies. I’d guess it’s around $52,000 total. Now THAT is something to be thankful for!!! Thank you God for generous Foundations like the Ford Family. Jeff has also received scholarship dollars. We both graduated from OSU absolutely debt free. Thank you, God!
So anyway, I bring all this up because rising tuition costs and the rising inability of students to obtain education loans is a hot topic right now. (Click here for an interesting article on this topic) Tonight the news ran stories of Ivy League schools offering free tuition to students holding 4.0gpas who come from families making 100K/year or less and free tuition AND free room and board to students with the same average from familys under 65K/year. Wow! Many state schools offer free tuition to students with certain academic standing within that state. But more and more the cost of higher education is prohibitive for a larger number of students. When my dad was in college, he worked part time and was able to pay for school with that income. To do that today is impossible. The cost of school continues to skyrocket while salaries stay the same.
So, Jeff and I went ahead and took the plunge and took out school loans this past year to pay for seminary. Before that, we had both worked full time and paid as we went, with the help of scholarships. But adding a son to the mix, as well as the desire to finish seminary before we retire (!), means finding other means. But now, as we listen to the news, consider the catastrophic housing market (the money we plan to pay for school with is invested in houses), we’re considering that perhaps school debt is not the wisest decision … especially for a degree that will place us in a lower paying vocation than we’ve ever had before! (When Jeff left his engineering job to go to seminary the guys asked him, “Wait, you’re paying how much money to go to school so that you can get a career where you make less money than you do now?!” I don’t blame them; it doesn’t make much sense.) But I will say this, even if we decide that we have to go back to the slow route–and Jeff has to plod through seminary at a snail’s pace in order to pay the bills, it is still the most lifechanging experience we have ever had. School is not the same as experience, and I know that much of ministry is learned through the hard knocks of rubbing shoulders with the dirty greasy realities of life, but the practical, wise, humble, biblical instruction and mentoring that we’re receiving is invaluable–no dollar sign could ever describe its worth.
So, while I am sad about the rising cost of seminary, and sad to know that it may mean that we can’t continue on for as long as our heart desires (I would LOVE to go back and get an Mdiv which would mean that perhaps someday I could teach at such an institution and Jeff would LOVE to go back someday and get a DMin which would do the same), I am thankful for every ounce of wisdom, every prayer at the beginning of every class, every class discussion, every conversation with professors and students, and every moment I’ve walked hand in hand with my husband across campus. I’m thankful for the godly, humble men and women who have gotten their hands dirty and waded into life’s messes with us. I guess what I’m really grateful for is God. Thank you God, for my college and seminary experience. It’s been anything but merely cerebral … it’s been devotional and formational. Thank you God for it. Wherever you take us and whatever you have for us, I’m thankful. Help Jeff and me and our fellow students take what You’ve given us and distribute it to a lost world with loving and healing hands. Thanks, God. Amen.