Students who want to transfer from Cabrini University to St. Joe’s this coming academic year will again be guaranteed admission and a tuition match as long as they are in “good standing” at Cabrini, according to the St. Joe’s website.
Cabrini announced June 23, 2023 that they would be closing in May 2024.
St. Joe’s welcomed 120 Cabrini transfer students in fall 2023 and is set to welcome additional students in fall 2024.
Five days after Cabrini’s announcement, St. Joe’s announced an agreement to match Cabrini’s tuition. The offer was extended to Cabrini students who transferred in spring 2024 or who will begin at St. Joe’s in fall 2024, said Kevin Gfeller ’20, assistant director of public relations for the Office of Marketing and Communications.
Gfeller said tuition for the first year for students who transfer from Cabrini will be the same as or less than it was at Cabrini and added that all credits they earned at Cabrini will be accepted at St. Joe’s.
Cabrini’s unaided tuition for the 2023-24 academic year was $34,800, without financial aid, while St. Joe’s unaided tuition for the same year was $51,140.
Gfeller said after their first year, Cabrini transfer students’ matched tuition will increase by the same rate as the rest of the St. Joe’s community. For example, if the tuition at St. Joe’s increases by 3%, Cabrini students’ $34,800 tuition will also increase by 3%.
“Cabrini University students who enter Saint Joseph’s as new transfer students will be awarded SJU grants and scholarships, along with any federal or state aid they qualify for, to ensure that they are paying the same (or less) net tuition and standard fees as they paid at Cabrini that initial year,” Gfeller wrote in response to written questions from The Hawk.
For students who wish to live on campus, housing and dining costs at St. Joe’s are more expensive, though, as Haley Howat ’26, who transferred to St. Joe’s from Cabrini during fall 2023, was told after visiting the financial aid office.
“She just said, ‘They’re gonna price match you to their standards,’” Howat said. “‘It’s just a better school than Cabrini was, and more expensive.’”
But Jeff Isaac ’25, who transferred to St. Joe’s from Cabrini in fall 2023, said the tuition match program has been helpful for him.
“I really do appreciate how [St. Joe’s] did come up with a tuition match because I know how expensive it can be to come here, especially on such short notice, which made the experience a lot better,” Isaac said.
Daniel Paradise ’25, who also transferred to St. Joe’s from Cabrini at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, said that while the Cabrini’s closure was disappointing, St. Joe’s offerings made transferring worth the risk.
“That [Cabrini’s closure] was a big blow,” Paradise said. “And, for a little while, I was considering doing the fall semester at Cabrini, but then the announcement came out for the tuition match. St. Joe’s had already been my second pick back when I was looking at colleges in high school, and seeing that and knowing that taking another semester probably wouldn’t be the best idea in terms of prospects, I knew I had to take the chance.”
Paradise said the tuition match was a large part of his decision to attend St. Joe’s.
“I was worried about potentially needing to get loans because the scholarships that I had at Cabrini were really effective at reducing the price,” Paradise said. “The tuition match was a very big part because it was really just a layer of security that made me feel a lot more confident in the decision to come here because [it] meant that I could afford it.”
