Ep 40Seminary: Can We Afford to Go? Can We Afford Not to Go?
There were four or five things my daughters had to pay for, and we only covered tuition
Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald & Mrs. Ahuvah Heyman
Seminary: Can We Afford to Go? Can We Afford Not to Go?
with Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald & Mrs. Ahuvah Heyman
The things that we that are important in our lives we find ways to do. Things that are not important to our lives we usually give up on. We have to decide what is the value of seminary.
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Quotes
“There's an incredible amount of expenses in our lives that have to do with peer pressure and keeping up with other people's expectations.”
“I was taught by my rebbe that a better school is a school that's better for your child.”
“Finding a way means either finding a way to finance it or finding a way to say no.”
“I'm not allowed to make a wedding that I can't afford. I'm not allowed to send my kid to a school I can't afford.”
“Educating your children about money cannot start when they're in 12th grade and they want to go to seminary.”
“We weren't mean, we weren't obnoxious, we didn't withhold the opportunity, but we also didn't give them a credit card.”
“You can be a Beis and a Gimmel student and be an aleph plus person.”
Takeaways
- 1 Seminary in Israel ran about $25,000-30,000 a year in tuition in 2022-23, plus flights, about $500-600 for insurance, and $100-200 application fees. Rabbi Greenwald says some of that is higher than necessary, but the market sets it.
- 2 The biggest costs for a seminary are rent or the building (close to $1 million a year for his) and staff salaries. Unlike high schools, seminaries can't fundraise because people see them as optional.
- 3 Parent visits jumped from about 10% of families to around half after COVID, at about $4,000 per trip. Rabbi Greenwald calls it a spoiled-children expense that also unsettles the girls.
- 4 Rabbi Greenwald: seminaries are service providers that compete. If parents can't afford one, they should not send, and seminaries shouldn't be blamed for families' debt.
- 5 Most seminaries give tuition breaks, even popular ones. About 80% of girls earn 32-36 college credits during the year.
- 6 His own daughter paid much of her tuition from babysitting since ninth grade and summer jobs.
- 7 Mrs. Heyman: outside the top 1-2% of families, these costs are a heavy burden that can't last. For most girls, seminary is a want, not a need.
- 8 Her daughters paid for their own flight, phone, spending money and insurance from years of work. None ever called home out of money.
- 9 Her fifth daughter skipped seminary, worked, and got married first. Seminary is not a shidduch requirement. Build 'aleph plus people, not aleph plus grades.'
- 10 She proposes one universal seminary application and a shared tuition-assistance form, and cutting intrusive questions like which yeshivas a girl's brothers attend.
- 11 Rabbi Greenwald challenged anyone to open a cheaper seminary that still delivers. He welcomed a planned $14,000-a-year program for 300 girls and offered to help.