Scholarships bring UW, WSU within closer reach

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: June 8th, 2007 01:22 AM (PDT)

In recent years, tuition increases at schools around the nation have significantly outpaced inflation. Public universities have had to ask students to foot more of the costs of their education. As a result, a UW undergraduate will pay 40 percent more this fall than he or she would have just five years ago.

The declining affordability of higher education has a direct effect on student ambition. Even UW’s tuition, well beneath the median cost of a four-year school, is out of reach for many families. It’s estimated that every year, 6,000 to 8,000 Washington high school students who are academically eligible to go to college don’t because of costs.

That’s where the Husky Promise program — and Washington State University’s Cougar Commitment program — come in. Both universities will for the first time waive tuition and fees for all low-income students next year.

Students who qualify for State Need and Pell grants will receive the scholarships, provided they submitted their applications on time. Generally, that means that a student from a family of four with an income of $46,500 of less would be able to go to school tuition-free.

At UW, the Husky Promise program is expected to cover about 5,600 students — roughly 20 percent of the school’s undergraduates. The good news for Pierce County: 450 of those students are expected to attend the University of Washington Tacoma.

The program already seems to be working. Admissions officials are citing an increase in the number of low-income students expected to attend UW. For some students, the scholarship may have simply made UW a more viable option than private schools, which in the past could offer more generous financial aid packages. But for other students, the scholarships may have been the reason to shoot for college at all.

This is just the first year. The students who will get free tuition next year are likely serious students, judging by their acceptance into two schools with increasingly competitive admissions standards.

But as the programs continue and younger low-income and lower middle-income students figure out that they can work rather than pay their way into the state’s top public universities, the programs just might become the incentive that struggling students need.

Originally published: June 8th, 2007 01:22 AM (PDT)