Seminary is paid for in one of three ways: by the credit hour, by a flat rate per year, or by a church that funds its own students. What you end up paying depends on which model the school uses, how many years you take, what the degree costs beyond tuition, and how much of it your church carries. This guide works through each of those, using Faith Bible Seminary's published fees as the worked example because those are the figures we can stand behind.
The short answer
There is no single price for seminary, and we will not invent an average. Schools publish their own fee schedules, and the honest way to compare them is to ask the same three questions of each: what is the rate, how many credits does the degree require, and what conditions attach to the rate. The table shows the three pricing models you will meet.
Model | How it is priced | What to check |
|---|---|---|
Per credit hour | A rate per credit, multiplied by the credits in the degree, plus fees per class or per term. FBS: $250 per credit for M.Div. students not in ministry; $310 per credit for the MABC. | The number of credits. An 86-credit degree at the same rate costs more than twice a 39-credit one. |
Flat rate per year | One tuition figure per year regardless of credits. FBS: $2,000 a year for M.Div. students in a church internship or full-time ministry. | What the rate requires. At FBS, outside employment prevents a student from receiving the lowest rate. |
Church-funded | A church pays part or all of the cost for its own student, often as part of an internship. FBS asks churches with enrolled interns to contribute $1,200 a year, and partnering churches hire the intern part-time and provide housing and a stipend. | Who is paying and what they expect in return. "Free" usually means a church or donors are carrying the cost. |
The three ways seminaries price a degree. Faith Bible Seminary's figures are from its tuition page; the M.Div. uses the flat-rate model for students in ministry and the per-credit model otherwise, and the MABC is priced per credit.
Put together, the seminary's own figures look like this. An M.Div. student in ministry pays $2,000 a year in tuition. An M.Div. student who is not pays $250 per credit hour for an 86-credit degree. An MABC student pays $310 per credit and $65 per class, approximately $12,935 for the 39-credit program. Everything else in this guide is detail on how to think about those numbers and the costs that sit around them.
Tuition versus total cost
Tuition is the number schools print largest, and it is rarely the whole bill. Four other costs belong in the budget. The first is fees. At FBS the M.Div. carries a $40 application fee, an annual technology fee of $100 for local students or $350 for distance students, and a $50 graduation fee; the MABC carries a $50 application fee, a $65 administration fee per class, a $200 distance module fee per class, and a $50 graduation fee. Small lines, but they add up.
The second is books and software. M.Div. students are required to have a Windows laptop with Logos Bible Software (Platinum) and Microsoft Office; MABC students need a computer no more than three years old and reliable broadband. Software prices are set by the vendors and change, so get a current quote before you enroll rather than guessing. Textbooks are on each syllabus, which arrives four weeks before the class starts.
The third is where you live. The M.Div. is a church-embedded program: students must be active members of a church in the Lafayette area or be willing to relocate, because one or two days a week are in class and three or four are in a church internship. Moving a family is a cost even when a church provides housing. The MABC asks much less of you geographically. The whole program requires five weeks in Lafayette, three in June and two in January, so the travel line is five trips over four or five years.
The fourth, and often the largest, is income you give up. The M.Div. expects a full three-year commitment of 50 to 60 hours a week, year-round, with no outside employment except special exceptions. That is the trade the program is built on. The student's work is ministry, several Faith Church internships are partially paid, and in return the tuition is $2,000 a year. Count that trade honestly, with your spouse, before you count anything else (Luke 14:28).
What seminary graduates owe
"The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender" (Prov. 22:7). Solomon's observation is not a prohibition, but it is a warning, and it has a particular edge for a man heading into pastoral ministry. A graduate with large loan payments cannot say yes to a small church that pays a small salary. He cannot stay in a hard assignment when a better-paying one appears. The debt makes decisions for him.
The seminary's position on this is in its tuition page introduction, and it is blunt: FBS believes that you cannot have an effective ministry if you are swimming in debt. The first of its three core values is Lower Cost, which it explains as minimizing student debt so that graduates remain available for ministry. M.Div. applicants are expected to be relatively debt-free when they enter and when they leave. That expectation is unusual enough to state twice: the seminary wants to know your debt before it admits you, because it has designed the program so that you leave without adding to it.
We do not publish national figures for what seminary graduates owe, because we cannot vouch for anyone's numbers but our own. If you are comparing schools, ask each one directly what its graduates typically borrow and whether it tracks the figure at all.
Scholarships
Seminary scholarships generally come from a school's donors, from a student's own church, or from a church body the school belongs to. Most are partial and most have conditions, so read them before you count on the money.
FBS offers two, both for MABC students, both due October 15 each year, and both limited to what the seminary can fund in a given year. In the Leadership in Counseling Matching Program, if your church or ministry agrees to pay $500 a year toward your tuition, FBS matches it with $500 from its scholarship fund, for $1,000 a year, disbursed at $250 per semester. You must take at least three classes a year, your personal or family income must not exceed $75,000, and you cannot already be receiving tuition help from your church. The Joyful Journey Podcast Scholarship, funded by listeners to that podcast, pays 50% of class tuition each semester for women students who take at least two classes a year and whose income does not exceed $75,000; students may apply annually.
There is no M.Div. scholarship. The $2,000 ministry rate is the M.Div.'s form of support, and the seminary says so on its FAQ page: it does not offer direct financial support, and students actively involved in ministry or a church internship are eligible for the lowest tuition rate. Forms and eligibility details are on the scholarships page.
"Free" seminary
Some seminaries advertise free tuition, and the word deserves a question rather than a cheer. Teaching costs money. If the student does not pay it, someone else does: donors, a sponsoring church, or a denomination with a budget for it. None of those is a bad arrangement. All of them come with expectations, and the student should know what they are before accepting the gift. A church that funds a man's degree usually expects him to serve that church, or churches like it, afterward.
FBS is not free, and it does not describe itself that way. A Faith Church intern pays $2,000 a year in tuition, his internship is partially paid, and the church contributes $1,200 a year ($100 a month) toward the cost of his training. For a student from a partnering church, that church hires him part-time for three years and provides housing and a stipend so that he does not have to work outside his studies and the church. The cost is real. It is shared among the student, the seminary, and a church that has decided this man is worth training.
VA benefits
Faith Bible Seminary is a VA-recognized institution, and veterans benefits are accepted. That is the extent of what the seminary publishes, and we will not go further. Which benefits you are eligible for, how many months of entitlement you have, and what they pay toward a graduate program are determined by the Department of Veterans Affairs and depend on your service record. Start with the VA, then contact the seminary office at (765) 448-1986 or seminary@faithlafayette.org so that your enrollment can be certified.
Working while you study
Paul worked with his hands in Thessalonica so that he would not be a burden to the church there (2 Thess. 3:8), and plenty of seminary students have done the same. Whether you can depends on the program's design, and the two FBS degrees are designed differently.
In the M.Div., students may work, but outside employment prevents a student from receiving the lowest tuition rate, because that rate is reserved for students whose work is ministry or a church internship. In practice the program leaves little room for a second job: 50 to 60 hours a week, year-round, for three years, split between one or two class days and three or four days in the church. A student who needs outside income should talk with the seminary before applying, since the seminary handles exceptions case by case.
The MABC assumes you are working. One of the seminary's three core values is Value Time, balancing full-time work with academic requirements. Five courses are online and run eight weeks, with lectures that can be attended live or watched later; students take up to three classes a semester and never more than two at once; the whole degree asks for five weeks on campus. A pastor, or a nurse who counsels at her church, can finish it in four to five years without leaving that post.
How your church can help
"Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches" (Gal. 6:6). The principle runs the other way too. A church that has recognized a man's gifts for pastoral ministry has a stake in his training, and FBS has built the M.Div. around that stake rather than around the student's ability to borrow.
There are three concrete ways a church takes part. A church with an enrolled intern or full-time minister contributes $1,200 a year, $100 a month, toward the cost of his training. A partnering church goes further: it hires its own man as a part-time intern for three years, provides housing and a stipend, and directs his practical ministry training with guidance from FBS. The seminary will not supply an intern to a church other than Faith Church, because the right candidate is a man the church already knows and has watched (1 Tim. 3:1-7). And for the MABC, a church that pays $500 a year toward a student's tuition triggers the seminary's $500 match through the Leadership in Counseling Matching Program. If you are a pastor reading this on behalf of someone in your congregation, the church internship page explains the partnership and how to apply.
Finding an affordable accredited program
"Affordable" is only meaningful next to a published figure, so hold every school to the same questions. First, who accredits it, and is the accreditation current. FBS is accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education Commission on Accreditation, with initial accreditation on February 20, 2019, and reaffirmation in 2024; it is approved by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and participates in SARA, the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements.
Second, what is the rate, what does it require, and how many credits is the degree. Third, what transfers in. FBS may accept graduate-level credits from other institutions toward either degree, up to 40% of the program, when the course is very similar in content and carries equal or greater credit hours; the registrar evaluates and approves transfers before you enroll, so you know your remaining requirements from the start. M.Div. students who already know Greek or Hebrew can test for advanced standing.
Fourth, what happens if you have to withdraw. Every school has a refund schedule, and it tells you how much risk you carry in a hard semester. The seminary's schedule is summarized in the last section of this guide and in full on the tuition page. A school that answers all four questions in writing is one you can budget for.
A three-year budget
The seminary publishes line items, not multi-year totals, so the figures below are derived: we have multiplied its published fees by the length of the program. They are labeled that way on purpose. Check them against the tuition page, which is the current source if anything differs.
M.Div., local student in ministry or an internship | Published fee | Three years (derived) |
|---|---|---|
Tuition, ministry rate | $2,000 per year | $6,000 |
Technology fee, local students | $100 per year | $300 |
Application fee | $40, once | $40 |
Graduation fee | $50, once | $50 |
Total, derived | $6,390 |
Derived figures, not seminary-published totals. Each line is a published fee from Faith Bible Seminary's tuition page multiplied by the three-year length of the M.Div. Books, software, housing, and living costs are excluded.
A distance student in ministry replaces the $100 technology fee with $350 a year, which raises the derived three-year total to $7,140. An M.Div. student who is not in ministry pays $250 per credit hour instead of the annual rate; across the 86-credit degree that is $21,500 in tuition alone, again a derived figure, before technology and graduation fees. The gap between those two paths shows how the seminary is designed. The ministry rate is the program, and the per-credit rate is the exception.
For the MABC the seminary itself publishes an approximate total: $12,935 in tuition and administration fees for the 39-credit, 13-course degree, from 39 credits at $310 ($12,090) and 13 classes at $65 ($845). Add the $50 application fee and the $50 graduation fee, any distance module fees at $200 per class, and the travel for five residency weeks in Lafayette. An extension fee of $500 a year applies after year six, which is worth knowing if you plan to take the degree slowly.
What FBS costs
For the record, here are both fee schedules exactly as the seminary publishes them.
Master of Divinity | Amount |
|---|---|
Application fee (non-refundable) | $40 |
Annual tuition, full-time students in a ministry internship or full-time ministry | $2,000 per year |
Tuition, students not in a ministry internship or full-time ministry | $250 per credit hour |
Annual technology fee, local students | $100 per year |
Annual technology fee, distance students | $350 per year |
Church contribution, churches with enrolled interns or full-time ministers ($100 per month) | $1,200 per year |
Auditing (does not count toward the degree) | $125 per credit hour |
Graduation fee | $50 |
Master of Divinity fees, from the Faith Bible Seminary tuition page.
Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling | Amount |
|---|---|
Application fee (non-refundable) | $50 |
Tuition | $310 per credit hour |
Administration fee (non-refundable) | $65 per class |
Distance module fee | $200 per class |
Auditing (does not count toward the degree) | $100 per credit hour |
Extension (required after year 6) | $500 per year |
Graduation fee | $50 |
Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling fees, from the Faith Bible Seminary tuition page. Full 39-credit degree: approximately $12,935 in tuition and administration fees.
If you withdraw from a course, the refund depends on the week. For eight-week courses the seminary refunds 45% of tuition in week one, 40% in week two, 35% in week three, 30% in week four, and nothing from week five on. For 15-week courses it refunds 90% in week one, 80% in week two, 70% in week three, 60% in week four, 50% in weeks five and six, and nothing from week seven on; the residency week of a module counts as the seventh week. Refunds are posted as a credit on the student's account, applied to future charges, and refunded at the end of the semester if unused.
Transfer credit can lower both the time and the cost: graduate-level courses very similar to an FBS course may count for up to 40% of either program, with the registrar's approval before enrollment. None of this is individual financial advice. It is the seminary's published policy, and if you want to know which rate applies to you, or how a transfer or veterans benefits would work in your case, the seminary office at (765) 448-1986 will walk you through it. The M.Div. guide, the biblical counseling guide, and the church-based seminary guide cover the programs themselves.
Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.