Academic scholarships can be carried throughout your time at Phoenix Seminary, and can even increase if your GPA rises to the next level of scholarship. The simplest way to pay for seminary is to be diligent as you pursue academic study. Academic scholarships are applied to a student’s net semester tuition balance after all other internal or external scholarships or grants have been applied.
50% off net tuition
Requires a student to have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and to be enrolled in at least three courses for the fall OR spring semester.
Read full description HERE.
25% off net tuition
Requires a student to have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher and to be enrolled in at least two courses for the fall OR spring semester.
Read full description HERE.
25% off net tuition for Doctor of Ministry Students.
Requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
25% off net tuition for Master of Theology Students.
Requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Starting Fall 2022, Phoenix Seminary will begin offering an updated Academic Excellence Scholarship model for current and future students. The update has been made in an effort to provide simplicity and flexibility for students. Additionally, the updated model incorporates a reduced tuition rate for the summer semester for students, regardless of GPA or credit load.
Simplification and Clarity
Moving to a semester course requirement for Academic Excellence Scholarships will reduce confusion on where students stand as it relates to eligibility. The previous model often caused confusion for students who had to regularly calculate how many credits they need to take each semester to stay on track for the annual credit requirement.
Flexibility
Students have said the previous pace required to meet annual requirements, especially for the President’s Scholarship, was sometimes overwhelming. The updated Academic Excellence model is customized for how most students pursue theological training. It will match your pace of study. In semesters when students can take on three or more courses, they’ll be awarded the President’s Scholarship (50%). In semesters when students can only take two courses, they’ll be awarded the Dean’s Scholarship (25%). If a student takes a leave of absence (LOA) or can only take one course during a semester, they will still be eligible for an Academic Excellence Scholarship in the following semester as soon as they’re able to take the required amount of courses.
Reduced Summer Rate
Because the Academic Excellence Scholarships will move to a semesterly model, there will be no summer course requirements in order to qualify for the scholarship. Eligibility for the Academic Excellence Scholarships will only be based on cumulative GPA and the courses enrolled for a spring or fall semester. Therefore, in the summer, Phoenix Seminary will offer a rate of $262/credit hour for students in eligible programs (MDiv, MABTS, MAM, MAC, and Grad Diploma). This will allow students the advantage of taking summer courses at a reduced rate at the current level of the President’s scholarship. We hope this will encourage you to make progress on your degree during the summer months.
These specialized scholarships are provided for students with specific ministry goals. They carry different requirements for GPA and credit load. Each year in the spring, Phoenix Seminary opens up applications for the distinguished scholarships. Both current and incoming students are encouraged to apply. These scholarships are awarded for an academic year starting with the Fall. These applications are typically accepted from April 1st to May 1st and then are reviewed by the scholarship committee prior to being awarded to students.
Phoenix Seminary partners with local churches to help lower the tuition costs associated with formal seminary training. Students participate in leadership at their local church, and grow both academically and experientially, benefitting their local church in real time. Based upon a supporting church’s contribution under this program, Phoenix Seminary will fund up to 10 percent of a student’s total tuition.
We recognize that the ministry of married couples is a team calling. To encourage the spouses of students to participate in Phoenix Seminary classes and activities, spouses of students seeking a degree at Phoenix Seminary may enroll in credit or non-credit courses with no cost for tuition, provided that the spouse benefitting from the Partner in Ministry grant is taking the same amount or less credits than the paying spouse. The regular admissions process still applies to students interested in taking advantage of the Partner in Ministry grant.
Phoenix Seminary is grateful for those men and women who serve or have served in the military. To show our appreciation, Phoenix Seminary has scholarships available for active, reserve and National Guard service members and veterans. Contact the enrollment team at enrollment@ps.edu to learn more.
All Phoenix Seminary’s credit programs are eligible for VA benefits. Only courses which count toward the degree will be included in the certification of enrollment. The VA’s progress requirements are the same as those stated in the Academic Standing and Academic Probation sections of the Student Handbook (see page 100). To begin the certification process, a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) must be submitted to your Student Services Advisor prior to enrolling in classes. Phoenix Seminary will inquire about each veteran’s previous education and training, and request that the student obtain transcripts from all prior institutions, including military training, traditional college coursework, and vocational training. Previous transcripts will be evaluated and credit will be granted, as appropriate.
To apply for federal education benefits, review VA education benefits programs and determine which benefit you are eligible to receive based on your military service or transfer of benefits from your parent to you. All students (veterans and veteran dependents) must complete an application with the Department of Veterans Affairs. This application will start the process for you to receive your federal education benefit. Once you receive your VA Certificate of Eligibility(CoE) in the mail, you will submit this to your Student Services Advisor. The certification letter from the VA will state what federal education benefits you are able to receive.
All veterans and veteran dependent students that will be using VA education benefits must apply for them at vets.gov.
Please be sure to submit VA Certificate of Eligibility(CoE) and the Request for Enrollment Certification sheet to your SSA. Specific questions can be addressed to Deborah Crane at dcrane@ps.edu.
Credit for military schooling is evaluated upon receipt of Form DD 214, Service Separation Certificate, a Joint Services Transcript (JST) or a transcript from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF). Only work that has received an upper-division baccalaureate recommendation by the American Council on Education (ACE) can be awarded credit. This work, however, is transferred and recorded at the lower-division level. Foreign language credit taken through the State Department, Department of Defense, or Defense Language Institute is assigned the recommended ACE credit. Applicability toward degree requirements is determined by the Dean’s office in the college/school to which you have been admitted. Regardless of whether or not you anticipate receiving credit, these transcripts are required if you plan to use any VA educational benefits for which you are eligible.
Students accepted for admission may apply for Direct Loan financial assistance. Phoenix Seminary certifies federal Direct Loan assistance on the basis of need, regardless of sex, age, disability, creed, or national origin of the applicant. Need is defined as the difference between a student’s cost of education and the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) as calculated by DOE with the FAFSA application. To receive federal Direct Loan assistance at Phoenix Seminary, the student must:
In order to maintain financial aid eligibility, students receiving VA or Title IV benefits are required to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress [SAP]. Maintaining SAP is both a qualitative and quantitative measurement.
For financial aid eligibility, a leave of absence [LOA] does not extend the time period allowed for degree program completion. Rather, the time limit is calculated from the date of initial matriculation (which is the first semester a student enrolled for classes). The Financial Aid Office will evaluate SAP at the end of each payment period. If satisfactory academic progress is not met in a given semester, a Financial Aid Warning will be issued.
Financial Aid Warning
A student who fails to meet SAP at the end of a payment period may continue to receive Title IV aid for one payment period. If the student is not meeting SAP at the end of the Financial Aid Warning term, the student will be ineligible for financial aid until it is determined that SAP is being met.
Financial Aid Probation
If a student is not meeting SAP after the Financial Aid Warning term and becomes ineligible for financial aid, the student may file an appeal. If the appeal is approved, the student will be placed on Financial Aid Probation and furnished with an academic plan for one payment period. If the student is not meeting SAP at the end of this probation period, the student will be ineligible for financial aid until it is determined that SAP is being met.
Reinstatement of Financial Aid
At the end of the probation period, the financial aid office will review the student’s academic progress. If it is determined that SAP is being met, the student’s eligibility for financial aid will be reinstated. The financial aid office will notify the student in writing of the reinstatement within two weeks of this determination.
The Appeal Process for Unsatisfactory Academic Progress
A student determined to be ineligible for financial aid because of unsatisfactory academic progress may appeal in writing to the Academic Administrative Committee and the Administrator of Financial Aid, indicating reasons why the minimum academic requirements were not met and why aid should not be terminated.
The committee’s decision concerning the appeal will determine whether the student’s eligibility to receive financial aid will be reinstated. The student will be notified of the decision within three weeks of receiving the appeal. The decision made by the committee is final.
Provisional Admittance
Any student who has been provisionally admitted due to outstanding required official transcripts or other required documents will be ineligible for financial aid until the provisional condition(s) has been satisfied.
Academic Probationary Admittance
Any student who has been admitted with an academic probationary requirement will be ineligible for financial aid until the requirement has been satisfied.
Delinquent Student Loans
Students who are reported by the National Student Loan Data Service as being in a delinquent or default status on their student loans will be ineligible to register for classes until the delinquency or default status is resolved AND NSLDS shows student in an approved status. A student who is enrolled less than half time must be in an approved status with their outstanding student loans. The NSLDS data base is updated each semester and all students are entered for monitoring by the NSLDS.
The student will be eligible to register in subsequent semesters when NSLDS reports student in an approved status. Any student who is delinquent on a student loan will be ineligible to receive any Seminary financial aid via loans or scholarships until all loan issues have been resolved.
Definitions
Employee Compensation Prohibition
No employee of the School or “school‐affiliated organization” (as defined in 34 CFR
682.200(b)(5)(i)(A)(8)) shall accept or solicit anything of other than nominal value from a student loan lender. “Nominal value” means a total retail value of not more than ten dollars ($10.00) as calculated over a 12‐month period, or as defined by a School policy consistent with applicable federal and state law. This paragraph shall not prohibit School employees from conducting non‐student lending business with any lender or accepting or soliciting anything of other than nominal value in any activity unrelated to student loans.
Lender Advisory Board Restrictions
A School employee shall not accept any remuneration or reimbursement of expenses for serving as a member of or otherwise participating on a student loan lender’s advisory board or committee, consistent with applicable federal student loan requirements.
Financial Relationship Prohibition
A person employed in the financial aid office of the School, or who otherwise has direct responsibilities with respect to educational loans or other financial aid, shall:
Institutional Compensation Prohibition
rates for, or access to, a lender’s other financial products and (3) printing costs or services.
Notwithstanding anything else in this paragraph, the School may accept assistance as contemplated by 34 CFR 682.200(b).
calculated in relation to the volume of loans received by the lender from students of the institution.
Preferred Lender List Requirements
Promotion of Preferred Lenders Prohibited
The School shall not allow a lender included on a preferred lender list to use the name, emblem, mascot or logo of the School or other words, pictures, or symbols readily identified with the School, in the marketing of private educational loans to the students attending the School that implies the School endorses the private educational loans offered by the lender.
Master Promissory Notes
The School shall inform borrowers of the procedure(s) for completing the Master Promissory Note or other loan agreement with the lender of the borrower’s choice, whether or not the lender appears on the School’s preferred lender list.
Lender Restriction Prohibition
The School shall not restrict borrowers to any particular type of lender (e.g., those that process loans electronically).
School as Lender
If the School participates in the School as Lender program under 20 U.S.C. § 1085(d)(1)(E) and has an agreement to sell student loans to another lender, it must (a) disclose the existence of the agreement to the borrower and provide contact information for the lender who will be purchasing the borrower’s loan and (b) require that any lender to whom the loans are sold honors the loan terms and benefits the School advertised to borrowers.
Private Loans a Last Resort
The School shall not certify student eligibility for a private educational loan without first informing the borrower that (a) federal financial assistance (including grants and loans under Title IV) may be available and (b) federal loans may provide more advantageous terms to the borrower than private loans.
Opportunity Loans
Staffing Assistance from Lenders
The School shall not request or accept from any lender any assistance with call center or financial aid office staffing, including in‐person school‐required initial or exit counseling, except as permitted by applicable federal student loan requirements. The School shall ensure that any lender employees on campus are accurately represented as such and not misidentified as School agents or employees. While lenders may provide professional development training to financial aid administrators and participate in financial literacy outreach activities, lender employees must clearly disclose the name of the entity preparing any written materials and may not promote the lender’s products.
Implementation
* For the purposes of this Code, “Remote interest” is defined as: “the ownership of less than three per cent of the shares of a corporation for profit, provided the total annual income from dividends, including the value of stock dividends, from the corporation does not exceed five per cent of the total annual income of such officer or employee and any other payments made to him by the corporation do not exceed five per cent of his total annual income.” See generally, A.R.S. § 38‐502(e). Arizona Student Loan Code of Conduct.
Military Tuition Assistance (TA) is awarded to a veteran under the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire period for which the assistance is awarded. When a student withdraws from some or all his/her courses, the student may no longer be eligible for the full amount of TA funds originally awarded. When the student withdraws, the School Certifying Official will amend the student’s certification in VA-Once. At that point, the VA will contact the student and the SCO by letter confirming the changes. In compliance with the regulations issued by the Department of Defense, Phoenix Seminary will return unearned TA on a proportional basis through at least 60% of the period for which the funds were provided. If this results in an unpaid tuition balance, payment would be the responsibility of the student. If a student stops attending due to a military service obligation, Phoenix Seminary will work with the affected service member to identify solutions that will not result in a student debt for the returned portion.
Phoenix Seminary’s Schedule of Return for Unearned Tuition Assistance:
16 Week Term
Before or during Week 1=100% return
During Weeks 2-3=75% return
During Week 4=50% return
During Weeks 5-10=40% return
During Weeks 11-16=0% return
Summer 10 Week Term
Before or during Week 1=100% return
During Week 2=75% return
During Week 3=50% return
During Weeks 4-6=40% return
During Weeks 7-10=0% return
All students in eligible programs (MDiv, MABTS, MAM, MAC, and Grad Diploma) will receive a 50% tuition discount for any courses taken during the summer semester ($262.50/credit hour). This discount will not be dependent on the number of courses a student is enrolled in or on a student’s current GPA.
If you need to take a Leave of Absence for a semester, this will not affect your eligibility to receive an academic scholarship during the semester you return to take classes. As long as you have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 for the President’s or a 2.5 for the Dean’s, and as long as you’re enrolled for the required amount of courses for that semester, you will automatically receive the scholarship.
Academic scholarships will be applied to your net tuition balance each semester after all other internal or external scholarships or grants have been applied. For example, if you've also been awarded a Distinguished Scholarship, that award will be applied to your tuition balance first, and then the Academic Scholarship discount will be applied to your net tuition balance.
Academic Scholarships can also be combined with the Church Partnership Grant.
Additionally, Academic Scholarships will cover only the cost of tuition for credit courses. All non-credit courses, general fees, and books are not covered by this scholarship. This scholarship will not result in any refund or tuition credit for students who are fully funded by other scholarships.
If you need to take a lighter load one semester, you are welcome to do that. For that semester, you will simply be awarded the Dean’s 25% Scholarship. If you’re able to take three classes the following semester, you will receive the President’s 50% Scholarship again.
If you started your degree program before the Summer 2021 semester...
You are able to advance to the President’s Scholarship if you are able to earn a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above. Once you have reached that, you will be eligible for the President’s Scholarship the following semester provided that you enroll in at least three courses.
If you are a DMin student and you have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above from your previous institution (incoming students) or at Phoenix Seminary (current students), you are eligible for the Shepherd’s 25% Scholarship. This scholarship applies toward all required credit courses for the DMin program.
If you are a ThM student and you have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above from your previous institution (incoming students) or at Phoenix Seminary (current students), you are eligible for the Provost’s 25% Scholarship. This scholarship applies toward all required credit courses for the ThM program.
Six months after leaving school or dropping below half‐time enrollment, most students begin repaying their federal student loans. The following link will discuss repayment and strategies to help you plan effectively. https://www.mygreatlakes.org/educate/knowledge‐center/repayment‐strategy.html
Financial planning is recommended for all seminary students, our goal is to avoid a level of debt that is not feasible with your expected future earnings. Always review your current level of indebtedness, debt to income, and federal loan balances to be prudent in planning your future payments. The NSLDS student loan repayment calculator can help you plan more accurately. Review this link: “Student Loan Simulator” https://studentaid.gov/loan-simulator/. You are also encouraged to complete the financial awareness counsel offered by the Department of Education, Federal Student Loans. The link for this is: https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/financialAwarenessCounseling.action?execution=e1s1
If you have questions about Academic Excellence Scholarships, please contact your Student Services Advisor at enrollment@ps.edu.