Costs
One of the primary objectives of the school is to provide a quality academic and training program for pastors at an affordable and reasonable cost. With the cost of Christian higher education sky-rocketing at an alarming rate, the school is determined to operate on a low-tuition rate scale that would enable most students an affordable program with no debt. In addition, since pastors are identifying potential students from their own churches, the importance of churches sponsoring and supporting their own students financially will be emphasized, with a cost affordability that appeals to the churches. We suggest that both the student and sponsoring church take ownership of the cost of the student’s program, by forming a “50 – 50” agreement that the church and student would each pay half of the student’s tuition costs to complete the program.
As an incentive and encouragement to pastoral students in the program, a student’s wife may register for and attend many of the courses free; please consult with the NSTM Dean and course instructor to see if a particular course is available for wives to register. In addition, there is room for a limited number of church lay person students that will be allowed to take some of the courses for credit as well.
Students may register and make tuition payments for courses by completing the Course Registration Form on this website. All registration forms and tuition payments should be mailed to: Northeast School of Theology & Ministry, 2293 Grand Central Ave., Horseheads, NY 14845. All tuition payment checks should be made out to: Northeast Fellowship - memo: NSTM tuition payment.
Tuition costs at the school will be:
Tuition rate for residential courses (45 total credit hours): $100 per credit hour.
2 credit hour courses = $200 per course ($100 per course for audit students)
1 credit hour courses = $100 per course ($50 per course for audit students)
Tuition rate for internship courses (3 total credit hours): 50% rate ($50 per credit hour)
Based on the tuition rates and the suggested relationship of students & churches to pay for the student’s education, the following chart demonstrates per semester, per year, and total program costs:
| Tuition Cost Chart for Students & Churches at NSTM: $100 per credit ($50 per credit – internship) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Fall Term | Winter Term | Spring Term | April Module | June Module | Summer Internship | Total Year Cost |
| 1 | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $1,200 (12 cr) |
| 2 | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $50 (1 cr) | $1,150 (11 cr) |
| 3 | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $50 (1 cr) | $1,150 (11 cr) |
| 4 | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $300 (3 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $100 (1 cr) | $50 (1 cr) | $1,150 (11 cr) |
| Total Cost for the 48 credit program over 4 years: | $4,650 (48 cr) | ||||||
Notes on tuition costs for students & churches:
Full tuition payments for each student’s semester bill must be paid by the 1st of the month prior to the start of the semester (August 1 for the Fall term; November 1 for the Winter term; February 1 for the Spring term; March 1 for the April module; May 1 for the June module)
Since the Fall, Winter, Spring terms cover a period of 3 months, the student / church would only be paying an average of $100 per month for the student’s tuition costs – only $1,200 for an entire year of education, split into 3-4 payments. The purchase of student textbooks for each course will be about $100 per course.
In comparison, the average rate of tuition in most Bible colleges & seminaries is about $350 per credit hour, or a total of $16,800 for 48-credit hours, compared to the NSTM cost of $4,650.