The Matzav Rant: Tuition and Seminary

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tuitionBy Shmuel Miskin, Matzav.com

In a recent discussion about the exorbitant costs of tuition, a friend of mine questioned why many people who cannot pay full tuition for their children go ahead and pay thousands of dollars to send their daughters to seminary in Eretz Yisroel. It is well known that the cost of sending a girl to seminary overseas is well over $10,000. Why is that money not being used to pay the tuition fees that are owed to the yeshivos and schools that these families’ other children are attending?

A good question indeed.

One acquaintance of mine suggested that the girls truly “deserve the year” in Eretz Yisroel. Many of them, upon their return home, get married and devote years of their lives to supporting their husbands during their years in kollel. The year in seminary, suggested this person, is somewhat of a recognition of the girls’ selflessness. Thus, even if this comes at the expense of the local yeshivos, it is important and worthwhile.

Now, whether one agrees with this understanding or not, and whether it is indeed true or not, there seems to be something inherently hard to understand how parents who cannot afford to pay tuition can indeed send their daughters to seminaries overseas. If one feels that their daughter has a lot to gain by spending time in Eretz Yisroel, then let them send their daughter on a 2-3 week trip there. But to spend over $10,000 for seminary tuition and not to pay tuition to the other mosdos where one’s children attend seems wrong.

Do local mosdos have to suffer and beg for their tuition because some of the parents want to send their daughters to seminaries in Eretz Yisroel? If one cannot afford to do both, then tuition should be paid to the local mosdos and the girls should be sent to a high-quality in-town seminary which is not as costly.          

(c) The Matzav Rant, Shmuel Miskin, Matzav.com


48 COMMENTS

  1. I agree 100% with this posting. Do keep in mind though that another factor in sending a daughter to seminary is the old shidduch question. Does a girl have less of a chance for a good shidduch if she doesn’t have the Eretz Yisroel seminary on her resume? Just wondering.

  2. This is way too general (which may question your true motive)

    Do these parents not pay any tuition, or do they pay two thirds etc?

    Put your rant in perspective and give a FULL overview on semminery- if you are indeed capable

  3. I know families that pay more for the Seminary year ( tuition ,airline tickets ,cell phones etc ) than they have paid in tutiotion for the TOTAL of ALL FOUR YEARS IN HIGH SCHOOL .

    There are many many parents that pay less than 4,000 per year in HS tuition ,yet send to seminary which totals close to 20,000 in tutition and associated expenses .

  4. In many cases it’s the girls themselves paying for seminary. My neighbor ran a backyard camp every summer from the time she was going into 9th grade just so she could go to Eretz Yisroel. She saved up almost $2,000 each summer and was able to pay the whole bill. Her parents only had to pay for the plane tickets and the extra’s which is less than what they would have paid had she attended an american seminary. so we can’t judge because for all we know its not the parents footing the bill.

  5. A Seminary in Israel for only 10 grand – grab it if you can!!!! They are closer to 20 then 10.

    I do not agree with the reason you posted and think that it is not a valid one to send your daughter away.I do agree that it is a sham and a shame that schools loose out of many years of tuition becasue of Seminary.

    I think the bigger issue here is Shidduchim. Today it seems it is harder for a girl who did not go to eretz Yisroel to get the good boys because there must be something wrong with her that she didn’t go. The Shidduch crisis is bigger then the tuition crisis so the rationale becomes I will not pay tuition but I will even borrow money to send to seminary.

    This makes no sense either to me at least – but I think it is the reason people are doing whatever it takes to get their daughter to Seminary.

    Sad.

  6. Here are your numbers .
    In Lakewood ,full tuition is about 5,000 per year . Most parents pay about 3600 or a little more ,because they claim they cant afford more .
    The High Schools struggle to raise the rest .

    Seminary tuition is about 14,000 plus airline tickets and other expenses of about 3,000 at a minimum . Now please do the math .

  7. – American sems for out of towners who don’t qualify for aid will add up to. So parents have to be prepared to spend.

    – Most girls WILL benefit greatly from sem. I don’t believe that our high schools are failing us if the girls have to go to sem. What I was told thirty years ago is still true: if the girls are going for advanced degrees (which they are being urged to now, in 5770, to be able to support)they need to realize that there is a greater sophistication to Torah than they may have got so far. My girls in sem, and this happened to me too, got great hashkafa and formed wonderful connections, teachers and friends.

    – We need more good North American sems with dorms. NOT EVERYONE LIVES IN NY!!! I think we’re going to hear two different kinds of comments, from those who can’t envision life W of the Hudson, and the rest of us. We may not have an “in town” sem, or one that’s a good fit, accredited, etc.

    – If you wonder how we could have the chutzpah to ask for a tuition break while sending our kids to E”Y, the school encourages the girls to apply. I spoke to the vaad hachinuch about my immediate previous point and that we didn’t have much of an option. B”H we saw tremendous hashgacha in how things played out for each of my girls.

    – TO TRUTH: some local federations will offer grants for kids going to E”Y. There are other organizations that offer grants too. There is also MASA. All these have more lenient guidelines than FAFSA (B”H for that !).

  8. Just so you realize – if you send a girl to full day seminary in America it is usually over 7000 and then plus if you want to send them for a few weeks on a tour etc it is around 4000 plus once a girl is home for the year they need much more clothes.
    Also many girls need that year – not everyone, I’ll agree. I have seen, myself included, many girls mature immensely when they were in Israel and it really helps them for life. I think every parent has to decide for themselves and yes one of the questions schools should ask on scholarship form, which every parent should fill out, is other children’s tuitions, including boys in Israel.
    WHere does it say that boys need to go and spend 3 years in Israel and come home every other month?

  9. My parents were able to pay for my high school tuition. I did not go to seminary because I did not wish to. Yes, I’m still single. But I don’t think it’s because I didn’t go to seminary. I happen to believe in the concept of a bashert and G-d.

    I know of girls who scraped and scrimped for their year in seminary, who now wish they had that money now for their own young households.

    Parents have to step up. Who’s the “selfless” one, an untested child or her parents? If a girl is so “selfless” that she will support her husband, wouldn’t she rather start working in her seminary year so they can have a head start, instead of causing her parents financial distress?

    IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE MONEY, DON’T DO IT.

  10. I have a better question about tuition.Forget seminary,there are people who claim they cannot pay tuition,but they have gym memberships,wear fancy expensive clothes,buy the latest gadgets,etc.So what do we do about that////

  11. First of all, let’s get one thing clear: A year in seminary in Israel costs *over* $20,000 once all is said and done. I agree with this post 100%. However, each parent has to make their own decisions – is seminary for your daughter worth it because 1) you need it for the good name of your family and daughter for shidduchim??, 2) your daughter needs a year away from home as she is worked to the bone there (because mommy is working full time out of the house), 3) your daughter MUST do what everyone else is doing, 4) you feel pressure from peers that are also sending their daughters, 5) it’s the only year she gets to blossom on her own before she gets married (as opposed to boys that are away from home much more)…and the list goes on and on…

    IMHO, none of these are good enough excuses to outspend ourselves for the luxury (yes, a LUXURY!) of spending $20,000 on one year in seminary. ESPECIALLY if it takes away from other OBLIGATIONS!!

    Ask yourself – would I (or my daughter) rather $20,000 for seminary, or have that money right after marriage? I think 75% of girls would rather have that kind of money after they are married. If you are the 25% that can afford both…gezunte heit…enjoy seminary….(but please don’t flaunt it in front of those that simply can’t).

  12. i live in a city that does not have a seminary for so it is either to send to Israel or NY, Montreal, etc – also these seminaries are just as expensive as Israel if you don’t live in those cities. I have received scholarship from my local Yeshiva/Bais Yaakov and sent my daughter to seminary in Israel – with scholarship from various sources, and having saved the money since she turned 12 with the goal of seminary in mind. I did not have to charge, barrow, and paid the same thing to my local schools even though I now had one less child in that school. I understand a year in Israel is expensive – but I also feel that if you plan and budget – it is so worth it. My daughter learned, grew and had an experience that will never ever be able to be duplicated!

  13. Today the Ruach in the street is: the one who has the money decides who gets it first.
    As much as this is wrong (ask a shaylah), this is the fact.
    So if one ‘begs, borrows and s…s’ in order to pay for SEM, he really should use it to pay what he owes first (again, ask a shayla). But then again he has the money (simalar to a ‘muchzok”) so He decides.
    If we would understand the concept and ‘Halacha’ that “prias chov” is a mitzvah just like eating kosher and keeping shabbos, maybe things would change. Lets hope.

  14. $5000.00 for full tuition is CHEAP. In Cleveland, full tuition is quite a bit higher. However, something else to also consider. All these girls that are going to seminary for a year and then come back to marry kollel boys ? What is the divorce rate amongst them because the person getting married is not who that person is truly inside? Girls that come back from a year in seminary should have to wait and decompress or “de brainwash” a little before marrying. Perhaps if they were forced to pay for it themselves they would look at it differently. In addition, it teaches a poor lesson to allow a child to go away to anywhere, eretz yisroel or otherwise, if the in town school/yeshiva has oustanding tuition on credit. But these parents are the same people that drive nicer cars, put additions on their homes, go to Florida and Israel a few times a year (or EVER), go on vacation, go to the mountains in the summer buy thousand(s) dollar(s) shaitels, etc.. either way, the messages that are sent are bad.

  15. I’ve heard there are many ways to get scholarships to held fund a lot of the cost of seminary. Would this be an explanation as to how people can afford it?

  16. Things dont always look the way they are.
    Seminaries give grants to the good girls and you can also get grants from the government making it cheaper to go to a seminary in Eretz Yisroel than to stay in America and pay the $5000 in tuition plus boarding costs. Just something to think about….

  17. There are enough problems in our world today. We do not benefit from looking into someone elses cheshbonos on whether or not their daughter really needs to attend seminary Please concern yourself with your own decisions and not your neighbors or friends. We will all be better off.
    A concerned Bubby

  18. Seminary is unecessary. Just my two cents. How about doing something aboutthe high cost of tuition? Maybe public school is an option…..

  19. Why stop at seminary? What about supporting children in kollel while not paying full tuition for younger children? Who’s to say which one is more important?

  20. maybe im from a diffrent world then you guys are from i didnt go to sem in isreal niether did my sister or any of my sister in laws we all got married yes my husband and my brother in law ,and my brotherare learning in BMG and my other brother is a rebbi in a local yeshiva in Lakewood after learning for 7 years in kollel what do you say to that i think we did well for ourselfs without learning in eretz yisroel and trust me back then i wished i could go but my parents explained to me we want to marrie you girls off a year or two later and we B”H MARRIED GREAT LEARNING GUYS!!!!

  21. Many people pay 10-12k per year, per child to send their children to 1st tier, black hat, dormitory yeshivas like Philly or Riverdale.

  22. I do not like the tone of the article. Please get your facts straight before you “rant”. There is something “inherently hard to undertand”, because you did not do the research. You spoke to your “friends and acquaintences” – Did you ask any of the parents who you are ranting against how they can afford to send their daughters to Seminary? I think you should have before ranting on with absolutely no information. I will tell you how these parent do it. You will see that it is not so “hard to understand” once you have the facts.
    As of now, the United States federal government, plus the government of many states have programs that give grants and loans to help pay for college tuition. There are also many private scholarships. High schools and elementary schools do not qualify for any of these grants and loans. Low income people who have trouble paying tuition for elementary and highs chool are usually eligible for full grants. The girls make sure to apply only to those seminaries that are affiliated with a college. Almost all of the money goes directly to the seminary. The girls themselves have money saved up from summer jobs and babysitting, etc. All of the above goes to pay for seminary, and there is very little out of pocket expense left for the parents. All of this does NOT come at the expense of the high school and elementary school tuitions!! Also, the ones who cannot afford it do not visit Israel during their daughter’s seminary year, and their daughter does not come home for Pesach either.

    As a parent of boys, I have no problem with girls whose shidduch resume’s don’t necessarily show Sem in Israel. Why should I think that there is something the matter if the girl did not go to sem in Israel?? There are many good seminaries in America too. Each girl should go to the sem that is best for her!! We parents should stop looking over our shoulder, and just do what is best for our children. That way the kids can grow up healthy and be good husbands and wives.

  23. The reason why seminary supposedly helps Shidduchim isnt really because Bochurim and their beloved Moms and Dads think there is something wrong with the girl – the reason is that they figure they didnt go to sem is that they have NO money – and Hacesef yaaneh Es hakol, so many parents have to look like they have money for people to consider Shiduchim with them. Oilam Hasheker.

  24. I remember hearing the same thing from the administrator of a well known brooklyn school. He said people are three years behind on tuition and they send their daughters to seminaries in Eretz Yisrael where 75% of tuition has to be paid by the June before. Absolutely ridiculous.

  25. Full Tuition is most schools in FR/5T is min 10K per kid. Families are struggling to pay. So Whats the answer bash the rich-why dont they give more money to local mosdos? well why should they-DID ANY YESHIVA OPEN THEIR BOOKS TO THE OUTSIDE FOR INSPECTION? After all just as a gvir inspects his business deals beforehand-why cant he know if the Yeshiva is a job producing factory for son in laws/daughter in laws etc. And dont give me the underpaid rebbeim story….we all agree they should be paid more…..but where is 10,000 times 20 kids avg going?

  26. First of all, many parents do get a good portion of their daughter’s seminary paid through many grants and scholarships.
    Secondly, at least out of town (where I live) the schools ENCOURAGE the girls to go to seminary. If they were so worried about the money they are losing, then why do they almost insist that their girls go? (And the principals send their daughters as well so they do it for their own children.)
    There are plenty of boys who are not judgmental if the girl did or didn’t go to Israel, I know of some wonderful top boys whose kallohs didn’t go- but they had to do a viable alternative in America instead.

    I used to knock the seminaries until my daughter went and came back k’ah with such simchas hachayim, so many terrific friends, and a cheishek to support a husband in kollel (which she is doing now k’ah) that it was worth every penny and even more!

  27. I have no taynos on your neighbor . It is a sad commentary on ourselves as a community that we feel it appropriate for a girl to feel it correct to pay for one year of seminary ,while she couldnt care less about the fact that the school that educated her for four years cant pay her teachers .

  28. The problem goes much further.

    Parents also bring the children back home for Succoth or Passover or both. The parents sometimes also visit their children here.

    Also many students get college credits while learning here thereby saving money for the cost of college tuition. Then they are very happy to send their children to the expensive colleges and universities

    And they have the nerve to ask for a deduction for hardship on their tuition.

    The Yeshiva’s and Seminaries should withold
    any credits til the full tuitions are paid.

  29. First of all, the total cost of sending a daughter to seminary in EY is well over $20,000 including tuition, travel, insurance, cell phone and other incidentals.

    Although it is true that there are government grants available, the remaining costs are still quite significant. Beside for some out of town locations as Chicago where the Federation pays alot bringing the out of pocket cost for parents down to almost zero, most parents are paying far more than they can afford for seminary.

    Let me ask a some questions – How many boys would question why a girl was not in EY when presented with such a shidduch? Perhaps that is a reason many girls are going. Why is no discussion of this at the Agudah convention?

    Maybe the oilem can have some answers.

  30. There are ways to send your daughter to Seminary for basically a tuition price if you can’t afford it through government grants. If you add in food, electricity, water bills for your daughter for a year it costs also. So between that and government grants you can get it’s not that much.
    You want to do what’s right for your daughter. Don’t we work to take care of our children. If she need another year to mature or get more haskofa out of another year this is what’s important right now for her

  31. Firstly, there are scholarships from different organizations, sometimes totaling over $10,000, specifically if going to seminary in Eretz Yisroel. Secondly,as stated above, sometimes the girl herself contributes to the tuition due to her desire to get this once in a lifetime experience. Thirdly, “Lechu vanim shim’u lee, yir’as Hashem alamedchem”. Sometimes, a child must go away from home, to grow in the way the parents yearn for them to grow. Eretz Yisroel can positively affect a girl’s life in a way that she may not grow here. Each parent must ask a Sha’alas Chochom and do what’s best for his daughter’s growth and life. Of course, the tuition one owes must be paid; however the year in Eretz Yisroel for some is not a luxury but an important neccesity.

  32. My granddaughter did a beautiful shidduch. No seminary. Period. Who needs it?? It’s a fad. In my days, the kids who went to England or Israel were kids whose parents didn’t get along at home. Otherwise they stayed home. They went to work. They earned money.

    Lots of lessons and good ones to be learnt in a home where there is a loving mother and father. Life lessons. If there’s no shalom bayis, that’s another issue.

    I’M ALL FOR STOPPING THIS MESHUGAS. Smart parents, boycott this silliness. Your kids will get married anyway. There’s a gutter Gut out there that is mezaveg zivugim. To say, a girl will have a hard time because she didn’t go to seminary, is a chisoron in emunah.

    The little kids sing: Trust in Hashem and you will surely know, Hashem will help you wherever you may go. Time for the adults to start trusting. Stop supporting those Seminaries. They are laughing all the way to the bank. And you are taking out another mortgage???

  33. Many of them, upon their return home, get married and devote years of their lives to supporting their husbands during their years in kollel. The year in seminary, suggested this person, is somewhat of a recognition of the girls’ selflessness

    Appreciation should be shown after the years of sacrifice, not before.

    The above argument could be used to justify Bochrim demanding major cash for support.After all any good bocher definitely did spend many years of Mesirus Nefesh for Limud H’Torah and supported the world with it(cf. Rav Chanina Ben Dosa).Now assuming the above argument is valid, which I’m not, why can’t he demand some recognition?Particularly if the ones he is demanding it from is the ones who are insisting on his accomplishments as prerequisite for marriage.

  34. For many years, there was extensive critical discussion about the problem of people making overly excessive fancy expensive Chasunas, with countless other poor people thus feeling compelled to “keep up with the Jones/Cohens” and thus going tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt in order to also put on overly excessive fancy expensive Chasunas. In response, our Gedolay Torah strongly condemned the problem and issued strict guidelines for proper moderation in making Chasunas and other Simchos.

    This issue of seminary in Eretz Yisroel certainly seems to be a similar type of situation that requires such guidelines: that as great and wonderful as seminary in Eretz Yisroel is, it is not any Mitzva — it is outright wrong — to do it at the expense of not properly paying the local Mosdos HaChinuch that the daughter attends here.

  35. To Comment #2. from Mr. or Mrs. “rockhoundz” and Comment #6. from Mr. or Mrs. “Oy Vey!”:

    Both Matzav and the Yated have posted many excellent articles along with numerous excellent comments and letters to the editor about the Shidduch crises giving many different reasons for the problem.

    Specifically, at http://matzav.com/a-reader-writes-shidduchim-the-best-is-not-always-the-best and the comments there, there was discussed in detail the phenomenon of people wanting only what is “the top of the line,” and thereby wrongly rejecting many good shidduchim.

    In Comment #7 by Mr. “Rosh Yeshiva,” in Comment #12 by Mr.or Mrs. “Emes,” and in Comment #15 by Mr. or Mrs. “HAPPILLY MARRIED” at http://matzav.com/opinion-shidduch-crisis-dont-look-to-the-age-gap, there is brought out a similar problem of people demanding exorbitant money amounts.

    Now, we have added to this problematic picture the problem of countless parents — who do not have anywhere near the financial means for this — being compelled to spend ten or even twenty thousand dollars to send their daughters to seminary in Eretz Yisroel in order to give them the possibility to “get” a “good shidduch.”

    At http://matzav.com/opinion-frum-divorce-rate-is-up in Comment #14, I posted some remarks. They were quite sharp but were what desperately needs to be said about this issue, so I will say them again here.

    The underlying problem of these phenomenon is that of Ga’ava. What do I mean by Ga’ava? Allow me to relate the following.

    I was once privileged to briefly teach Parshas Noach to some children in a local yeshiva ketana. To this day, I have great regrets that AFTER the school year was over and the class was gone, I discovered what would have been an exceptionally superb visual aid for the students: an excellent picture of a modern day contemporary Nimrod.

    I was privileged to stay at the home of one of the rabbonim in the area; at the house was a set of the World Book Encyclopedia along with a number of its year book supplements, which I looked at. I am pretty sure that it was in the volume for the year 1987 that there was an article about divided countries. In that article was a really beautiful photograph. It was of a long, marble floored hallway; its far side wall is covered with a painted mural of an endless stretch of gray mountains against a backdrop of a pinkish colored sky. In the middle of the hall just inches off of the wall mural stands a huge — rising several feet above the peaks of the mountains in the mural — a huge white stone replica of a cube shaped fancy padded arm-chair. In the large white stone arm-chair is sitting a large white stone statue replica of the wicked leader of North Korea. (The same man who in a few years would be boasting that he was going to turn the capital city of South Korea “into a ’sea of fire’!!”)

    Yeap! It was just beautiful! There was no need for a caption on it, for it itself clearly projected its own caption:

    “WHO AMONG THE GODS IS AS POWERFUL AS ME!!!”

    Yeap! As long as our little Mikies and our little Johnies — excuse me, our little Moshies and our little Chaiyimies are taught to be Ba’alay Ga’ava — mean arrogant people, with the word “humility” totally not in their vocabulary, and as soon as one of them can say a little “Chabura” applying a sevara of Rav Chaiyim to a peshat in a Tosafos, he is suddenly a little “Rosh Yeshiva” who can thus parade around the Beis HaMedrosh with the air of: “WHO AMONG THE GODS IS AS GREAT AS ME!!” And of course, of course, of course he WILL get a very, very, very, good, best of best of best shidduch, with one million dollars being on the “low end” of the scale!

    Then, obviously, Chas V’Shalom, their rebbe is not Rav Moshe Feinstein or Moshe Maimonidies or Moshe Rabaynu! Obviously, Chas V’Shalom, their “rebbe” is the dictator of North Korea or one of the dictators of Midevil Europe or one of the dictators of ancient Rome or Nimrod and the like.

    Then, obviously, Chas V’Shalom, we are NOT creating Bnei Torah — we are creating TERRIBLE MONSTERS!!

    And, along with our spending ten or even twenty thousand dollars to send our daughters to seminary in Eretz Yisroel, and along with our putting out one hundred thousand or one million or even two million dollars for the holy, holy, doweries, we also need to spend fiftey thousand or even one hundred thousand dollars for NOSE OPERATIONS! Yes, to make it all perfect, our daughters and our sons, whom we have all raised up to be such superb Ba’alay Ga’ava, need to HAVE SURGERY to move their arrogant noses to up above their heads!!

  36. Not sure why my earlier post didn’t go through.

    To the ranter: you are assuming there are intown possibilities. If you’re west of the Hudson that may not be the case. Even if there is an intown sem it may not be a good fit.

    For parents who don’t qualify for government aid (but need to) US sems will still be a LOT of money, plus expenses. True, the expenses will be less than Israel but flying one’s daughter back home a few times does add up.

    OTOH, there are grants for Israel that B”H don’t have the same income guidelines. Our local federation gave my daughter a grant that more than covered air fare. MASA is another great source, and there may be others, though more modest they do add up.

    What we need in the US are more dorm sems, especially in NY. One daughter would have done really well in NY in a half day program with vocational (not college; nothing beshita, she’s not academic) options in the afternoon.
    Yes, we did have the temerity to ask the school for tuition assistance the years our daughters were in sem (just as we would have had the temerity to ask would we have sent our boys away for high school despite a great local option). As I said to the vaad hachinuch, the school pushes Israeli sems so much, what choice did we have?

  37. Sometimes seminary is paid for with money that is given by relatives friends etc.
    They ONLY give it for seminary in Eretz Yisroel NOT for tuition in the states.
    I am talking from experience.
    The bottom line is dont judge when you dont know the facts.

  38. FOR SOME REASON A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT PAYING FULL TUITION IS AN OPTION RATHER THAN AN OBLIGATION,THEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO BELIEVE IT’S AN OBLIGATION IF THERE IS SOMETHING LEFT IN THE BANK ACCT. AFTER WINTER VACATIONS,PESACH IN HOTELS,SUMMERS IN THE MOUNTAINS ETC.

    THEN THERE ARE THOSE LIKE MYSELF WHO WOULDN’T SPEND A PENNY ON A LUXURY KNOWING THAT THERE MAY BE 1 REBBI OR TEACHER WHO MISSED A PAYCHECK BECAUSE OF MY SELFISHNESS.
    I GREW UP IN A HOME WHERE MY PARENTS NEVER WENT ON VACATION WE NEVER WENT OUT TO EAT BUT WHEN IT CAME TO TUITION THERE WERE NO EXCUSES AND NO SKIMPING.I’M NOT SAYING THAT PEOPLE WHO GENUINELY NEED A BREAK SHOULDN’T GET IT,THEY SHOULD,BUT THERE ARE CERTAINLY TO MANY PARENTS WHO ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE SYSTEM,AND MANY PARENTS LIKE MYSELF WHO ARE STARTING TO RESENT IT.
    WHAT THE SOLUTION IS?????THERE IS NONE!
    BECAUSE THERE WILL ALWAYS BE THOSE WHO FEEL THAT THEY HAVE AN ENTITLEMNT.

  39. you said”I think the bigger issue here is Shidduchim. Today it seems it is harder for a girl who did not go to eretz Yisroel to get the good boys because there must be something wrong with her that she didn’t go. The Shidduch crisis is bigger then the tuition crisis so the rationale becomes I will not pay tuition but I will even borrow money to send to seminary”

    My sisters went to Intensive in Bais Yaakov of Boro Park.Not for financial reasons my parents felt that my sisters would gain tremendously from the mechanchim there Rabbi Dishon,Rabbi Young ect.Baruch Hashem my parents were able to financialy to send to Eretz Yisroel.As far as shidduchim goes as it doesn’t matter which Seminary a girl went to- in town, out of town.There are so many different types in every Seminary.My sisters have told me that in their grade most of the girls who went to Seminary in NY,Montreal, Lakewood ect. got married faster than most of the girls who went to Seminary in Eretz Yisroel!when I was in Shidduchim it didn’t me whether or not the girl went to Seminary in America, England or E”Y!

  40. When the yeshiva that I was associated with charged $6000 a year with meals 3 times a day, seven days a years. And they only charged $3,500 for the needy students if they parents were able to pay or else the student did work study.
    However the girls Seminarys were charging $10,000 to $13,000 per year with rearly ever any discount on the tuition. Some of these seminaries onlu supplied meal on one Shabbath a month claiming the the girls need to learn how to cook and therefore they should start now.
    Most of the seminaries are family run for profit and they work as a business with the tuition based on supply and demand.
    Another point the ask for a registration non returnable fee of hundred of dollars. A school that can only accept 65 student will accept hundred of application. Also if the student is aked to leave or need to leave for personnal or medical reasons the tuition is not refunded.

    There should be guidlines from the Gadolim on how much profit should be permitted and how these school operate.

    Yaacov

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