The following press release was sent from Thomas Aquinas College on August 10.
According to newly released data from the California Student Aid Commission, Thomas Aquinas College alumni have a 0.0 percent default rate on their student loans — a testament to the College’s affordability, the generosity of its benefactors, and the character of its graduates.
Nationwide, the student-loan default rate stands at 8.8 percent. Of the 443 public, private, and proprietary colleges and universities in California, Thomas Aquinas College is one of only seven whose graduates receive federal student loans but do not default on them. Among those seven institutions the College has the second-highest percentage of students receiving aid and the second-highest graduation rate.
In keeping with Catholic social teaching, Thomas Aquinas College has been committed, since its founding, to maintaining affordable tuition rates and never turning away students on the basis of financial need. Thanks to faithful benefactors who contribute regularly and sacrificially, the College is able to meet the needs of the 70 percent of its students who receive financial aid. Moreover, so as to ensure that graduates do not leave campus overburdened with debt, the College routinely caps individual student borrowing at $16,000 over four years.
“The absence of defaults here tells you a lot about our benefactors. It is their generosity that allows our students to graduate free of crushing debt,” says Director of Development Robert Bagdazian. “Of course, our default rate also tells you something about our alumni, and we are very proud of them.”
The economic philosophy of the folks who run Thomas Aquinas College is a practical, principled and highly moral model that, as far as I know, stands alone among colleges in the United States of America. This is yet another of the many reasons Thomas Aquinas College is the pride of our beloved Ventura County. If more Catholics knew about Thomas Aquinas College, ultimately our great country would gradually become a more godly nation, and the entire world would be blessed by those effects. God bless Thomas Aquinas College, and God bless all Catholic families who help their children attend this outstanding Catholic college.
I wonder where John Paul the Great is placed in this scenario? May God bless John Paul the Great with generous benefactors and God bless them for helping good solid Catholic schools thrive and for parents who can have that dream come true for their child to be able to attend.
Thomas Aquinas College is a jewel of Southern California. Their magnificent Chapel near Santa Paula in Ventura offers TLM and Novus Ordo in Latin daily. I attended a Solemn Mass there and it was amazing.
I could have spent days reading in their magnificent library. That campus and Chapel is certainly worth driving to. Congratulations TAC and keep producing Holy Catholic men and women. Many vocations have come from this college, including Fr. Berg, superior of FSSP.
It is high time that the US Catholic Church establish a charitable endowment for supporting true Catholic Education in all phases of authentic Catholic Values It’s time to get out of the joining in with “Politically” run charities like “Catholic Charities” disgracing themselves supporting and wasting money supporting “Care”. Too many of the secular charities with very elusive and less than descriptive titles manage to eat up the grants given from Catholic Charities. This is not “rendering to God, that which is God’s” to cooperate and share our assets.
When I lived in Santa Paula in the 1960’s, there were sixteen different churches, some of which offered GREEN STAMPS if you chose to attend their Sunday services-and that’s no joke. It is very warming to know that now St. Thomas is so nearby to offer the stamp of truth to those instructed. Please God, truly reward those who sincerely attend, Deo Gratias.