Financial Aid
If becoming a Waldorf teacher is your planned path, please complete our Grades Teacher Training application or Early Childhood Teacher Training application by June 1, 2024.
It varies from year to year, but often half the students in a class ask for financial aid. The amount we have from AWSNA is around $20,000, split between loans and grants. So the more your school can provide, the farther we can spread the funds. Students may receive both loans and grants, If the school is willing to match the grant amount.
AWSNA Requirements
In exchange for receiving the loan, applicants must agree to the following: State that you intend to be hired as a three-quarter to full-time teacher in an AWSNA or WECAN-member school for at least three consecutive years, immediately following graduation from the program. For each year that you teach three-quarter to full-time at a qualifying member school, the loan will be converted to a scholarship by AWSNA, up to the entire loan balance. Applicants who begin teaching prior to graduation may have these years of teaching retroactively applied towards the three years of service, as long as one of the three years occurs in the year immediately following graduation.
If you do not meet the requirements as stated above, or should you fail to complete the teacher training, the loan you received must be repaid in full at 1% interest per month over a 12-month payment plan as described in the Teacher Education Fund loan contract. For this reason, you must be in a secure financial position to receive an AWSNA loan should you have to repay it. If you have given less than the full three consecutive years of teaching after graduation, the years you have served are converted to scholarship and the remainder of the loan must be repaid as described in the Teacher Education Fund loan contract.
Application Process
No financial aid is given for Period A.
An email will go out in April to new and continuing students with a link to our Financial Aid application.
Sound Circle Center will need proof of income in the form of a copy of that portion or your latest tax return that shows taxable income. We don’t need your whole tax return.
If you are applying for an AWSNA Grant, we will need a letter from the school where you are employed stating how much they are willing to match towards tuition. We also need the name and email address of the person at your school whom we may contact if questions arise and to whom billing may be sent (the school matching funds go to SCC).
Financial Aid applications are accepted April 15-May 15.
Financial aid awards will be announced by June 15, to be reflected in the enrollment agreement payment schedule.
Please be sure to fill out the application completely – we need all the information requested, including the letter from your school – and submit it by the deadline to be sure your application will be considered. If you are not on time, it slows the process for everyone.
If, after you have read through the information on the SCC website, you have questions or need clarification, please be in touch so that we can answer any questions you may have: businessmanager@soundcirclecenter.org.
Thank you and congratulations on taking your first steps towards becoming a Waldorf Teacher!
To apply for your AWSNA Loan or CPT (Currently Practicing Teacher) Grant please see the links below.
Application Process:
AWSNA offers two channels of financial assistance to people training to be Waldorf teachers in member institutes:
Teacher Education Loans Program, in which funds that are borrowed from AWSNA can be forgiven if graduates of education programs teach three-quarter to full-time in AWSNA- or WECAN-member Waldorf schools. This option is for those who are not already teaching in an AWSNA- or WECAN-member school.
Currently Practicing Teacher (CPT) Grants Program for people already teaching in AWSNA- or WECAN-member schools as they pursue their training, in which the school pledges a certain amount towards the training of their teacher and AWSNA contributes to this pledge.
Please visit the AWSNA Teacher Education Loans and Grants page for more information.
Paying Tuition
SCC is a small organization with part time faculty, one full time Business Manager, and a part time Bookkeeper. Being able to pay our staff and other bills depends on timely tuition payment from students. We do not have a large cash reserve to tide us over if income is not received according to the payment schedules in the students’ contracts. It saves time and money for us if students can pay using credit or debit cards, bank transfers or other automatic payments, set up at the time the first payment is due.
If your financial situation changes, please contact the Business Manager immediately. We will do our best to help you weather the situation. If you fall behind two payments, you may not attend class until payment is made.
