Tuition & Fees: Where Does The Money Go?

    Twenty year old Jasmine Jenkins of ‘15 always knew she was going to college. It was never a question of finances, because in her mind college was a necessity. After graduating from Chelsea High School in 2009, Jasmine found herself in Bunker Hill Community College. In her sophomore year at Bunker Hill, she decided to attend a Christian college, but she did not know how that would happen with limited finances. Her church gave her a full scholarship and three months later she enrolled in her first class in Wenham.

    “God called me to attend a Christian college but I didn’t know when or how that was going to happen until He gave me a full scholarship,” said Jenkins. “I am blessed because the Lord made a way for me to have a great opportunity.”

    But not everyone at Gordon College has a similar story. Because each student has a different financial situation, some students feel the stress of financial burdens. Brittany Perkins, former Gordon student, had to leave after her first year at Gordon in 2007 because she could no longer afford the cost of tuition. After leaving Gordon, she enrolled in Salem State University, where she graduated in May ’11.

    “I didn’t get to spend as much time at Gordon as I wanted,” says Perkins. “I might not have gotten a Christian education like I wanted, but I did walk away with friends for a lifetime.”

    With the total amount of a Gordon education, a combination of Tuition and Fees: $30,606; Room and Board: $8,434, according to the Gordon website, that translates to a total of $39,040. In the end, many students want to know where there money goes.

    “How can we make this Christian education available at an affordable cost whilst still keeping up institutionally with the suffering economy,” says Jorge Rodriguez of ’14?

    When looking at prospective colleges, some students say cost is an important factor. Some students feel Gordon tuition and fees are unreasonable. “I think it has hidden charges,” says Luke Miller of ’14. “Courses are very restricting and I wish I could do more with the amount of tuition I pay.”

According to some students, despite their higher cost, other institutions offer more student services, such as a diversified academic catalog.

    “If I didn’t have my scholarship, I wouldn’t pay to go here,” says Vroselyn Benjamin of ’11. “Gordon has a really good Christian environment but its stuff that Gordon lacks, such as really good transportation.”

    Approximately 90 percent of the students at Gordon, according to Dan O’Connell, director of student financial services, receive some type of scholarship or gift aid, which does not include loans. Less than 5 percent of Gordon students receive full tuition, says O’Connell. Last year approximately 14.3 million dollars were given in institutional funding.

    “Obviously there’s new economic realities. We want to help students as much as possible,” says O’Connell. “Right now we are slated to give 16.7 million in institutional funding. That’s a huge increase from one year to the next.”

    Merit-based scholarships are given upon admission, and are based on a person’s GPA and SAT scores. Performance-based scholarships are for people in the music, art, and theater department. Need-based scholarships depend on FAFSA, and are made up of federal, state, and Gordon grants.

    “Whenever you put federal money in a student’s financial aid package, the government is overseeing it,” says O’Connell. “Federal Stafford Loans are almost always part of the need-based package, so we do have some liberty but we always have Uncle Sam watching us.”

    Once students pay tuition, according to Michael Ahearn, vice president for finance and administration, Gordon can redistribute the funds to financial aid, faculty/staff payroll and benefits, debt, and other services such as, printing and travel.

    “It’s Gordon’s resources because it’s money we’re choosing not to collect,” says O’Connell. “We’re giving 35 percent of our tuition fee revenue back into scholarships.”

    Student tuition and fees do not cover all the expenses of the school. Other school fees, according to Ahearn, come from donors, alumni, and related sources of revenue such as services paid to Center for Balance Mobility and Wellness (CBMW). For example, La Vida is not just an academic requirement; many teenagers outside of the Gordon community use the program.

    Because Gordon is a non-profit organization it has a 501C3 status. This means that Gordon has benefits such as tax exemptions and no sales or income tax. As a non-profit, revenue equals expenses and Gordon generally does not make any profit. None of the students’ tuition goes to charity or other non-profit businesses. Gordon has many relationships with other schools and churches but they do not make donations.

    “The federal government frowns upon tax exempt organizations making donations to other tax exempt organizations,” says Ahearn.