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Where does it all go?

Haley Kyger, Reporter

August 1, 2012

The Patriot reveals how John Carroll spends your tuition money.

When parents pay for their students’ tuitions, they trust their money is being put to good use, but where does it all go?

The tuition price for next year will be set at $14,250. This will be a 4% ($550 dollar) increase from last year’s tuition price.

According to President Richard O’Hara, about 75% of tuition goes to compensation benefits for employees. The other 25% goes towards the supplies teachers need for the school year, electricity, maintenance, financial aid, etc.

“The tuition is hard to predict because the budget gets set in January of the preceding year,” O’Hara said.

An idea of the tuition price is based off the expenses of the prior year. Then, those prices go to O’Hara, Principal Madelyn Ball, and Director of Finance Kay Nichols. After that, the tuition is finalized for the next year. Finally, the price is sent in and approved by the board of trustees.

When trying to finalize the price of tuition, financial aid increases the price. The school has a net tuition revenue to achieve, but when trying to reach that price, they have to estimate how much scholarships and financial aid they are giving each student and evenly add that on to the tuition. According to O’Hara, although there are no “full ride” scholarships, $1,000,000 in tuition assistance and funded scholarships is given out each year to about 35% of the student body.

In the end, enrollment mostly affects the price of tuition, so it’s difficult to predict. “Final answer: enrollment has changed a lot over the past five years. Deadlines aren’t when they used to be and now people are being more open about options and selecting out of six schools, instead of only two or three,” Director of Enrollment and Marketing Jesse Roberts said.

Roberts explained that the enrollment isn’t finalized until May.

“Overall, schools’ enrollments have gone down, and ours has followed that a little bit. Our incoming class size has dropped from 200 – 240, to about 150 – 170 in the past four years,” Roberts said.

Haley Kyger is a reporter for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.