Full-ride TMS scholarships now more accessible than ever 

During the 2023-24 school year, TMU announced the new TMS policy that the seminary would offer free tuition to graduates of TMU. In the fall of 2024, through the MacArthur Trust scholarship, several new students from TMU began their time at the seminary free of charge.

Josh Powell, then a senior at TMU, first heard of the scholarship from a friend in December, 2023.

Powell, the son of missionaries to Lebanon, had been pursuing a path toward medical missions through a degree in kinesiology. With his goal of getting a doctorate in physical therapy, an extra four years of seminary with added cost “didn’t make much sense” to him.

When Powell heard that the MacArthur Trust scholarship was offered to all TMU students, not just to Bible majors, it opened a door he thought had been shut to him.

“It fully changed my decision to go,” Powell said. “I wasn’t even planning to go until then.”

The MacArthur Trust scholarship is a non-competitive scholarship that opened in 2021, offering complete coverage of tuition for students who apply and meet the qualifications.

“It’s not that you graduate from TMU and immediately you're free,” said Shiloh Noorthoek, a first year student in the Master’s of Divinity program at TMS. “You do have to do an application process, but you’re basically guaranteed if your GPA is above a certain point.”

Noorthoek’s plan was always to go to seminary immediately after graduating from TMU, even if he did not get a full ride scholarship.

“But it definitely was a benefit for sure,” Noorthoek said, “because you’re able to meet rent, actually eat food, and not starve.”

Powell, now in his first year at the seminary, noted that the scholarship is open to all students applying, not just graduates of TMU. The change in policy toward TMU graduates did not close the door to graduates of other universities.

However, “TMU students that apply are higher up on the priority list for receiving it,” Powell said.

A benefit of this is that the seminary is supporting students from a back-ground that they know and that has been “well-vetted,” where professors are giving referrals for former students who are applying to the seminary.

“Obviously as a benefactor I stand by their decision,” Powell said, “But I think it’s a good thing that it’s not exclusive to TMU students..”

John Stone, the director of the TMU and TMS libraries, sees the bigger picture of the seminary’s scholarships, not only the connection forged with TMU through this prioritization.

“As far as I understand, their long term goal is to be able to fund all of the tuitions for incoming students,” Stone said. “And then the students would be responsible for basically room and board.”

The seminary lists 25 scholarships on their website for both incoming and returning students, including the MacArthur Trust scholarship, the Richard Mayhue scholarship, and the Tyndale Center scholarship—all of which offer full-tuition coverage.

Jimmy Odoch, a second year student from Uganda, expressed his gratitude to the seminary for how they provided for him and many other students to come to the seminary when they otherwise would not have been able to afford it. Odoch benefits from both the MacArthur Trust scholarship, which covers tuition, and the TMAI Partnership scholarship, which covers the cost of living in California.

“It’s basically because of people’s generosity that we have all these guys studying free of charge,” Odoch said. “Not only do they sponsor students in terms of tuition, but they help come alongside you with living expenses, depending on the kind of scholarship that you’re in.”

Noorthoek recounted a recent time when seminary students gathered to write cards thanking donors for their generosity.

“One man in particular said that ‘This scholarship helps my family eat.’” Noorthoek said. “Sometimes it comes to school or food. So to have school taken care of is a huge blessing for them.”

According to Stone, TMS has a large donor base that enables the seminary to provide for the needs of their students in such a tangible way.

“It’s a wonderful investment because you’re able to actually invest directly in the students’ education,” Stone said. “In a sense you’re wooing them to come under very good circumstances.”

There is a slight danger that people will take the decision to go to seminary lightly as a result of the decreased cost, Noorthoek observed.

Odoch offered another concern. If a student unsure of his calling got the scholarship, attended the seminary, then quit halfway through because he realized seminary was not for him, the scholarship funds that could have helped another student would have been lost.

“But then again that’s how life is,” Odoch said. “Life is a series of discoveries. Sometimes it looks as a puzzle. So you can’t blame yourself for spending money on a student who never finished seminary… they still get a lot of good in maybe their short time at seminary that can help them impact the world positively.”

The pros for Odoch far outweigh the cons.

“I think that’s the beauty of the scholarships—many people are being entrusted with biblical truth so that they may advance this same teaching elsewhere when they’re done with seminary,” Odoch said. “I can but say that I am super thankful for the very many generous people that I have never met or might never get to meet who have generously provided to the seminary, that we be trained and that truth be passed on from one generation to the other.”