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College Fit

Best Places to Walk on Campus

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It's time to explore some beautiful parts of my university, and this is my list of paths and walkways you definitely need to check out on your tour.

EWU

1. The path behind Tawanka. I usually never walk this way, but once in a while I take the long way to class. The trees overhang the pathway in this area which gives it a nice and cozy view. Plus there’s a secret garden just to the left of the path.

EWU

2. The grassy area between Senior and Showalter. I personally forget how awesome this area looks because I always stay on the opposite side of campus. This location, however, puts the rest of campus to shame with this historical and very beautiful landscaping. The open lawn jumbled with trees creates a beautiful pathway to walk through or have a picnic!

EWU President's House

3. In front of the president’s house. The president’s house and the landscaping surrounding it really highlights our amazing campus. It’s also pretty cool to think that the president lives just a few feet from some of your classes.

EWU School House

4. The main path in front of the school house. The one-room school house is something many students, including myself, pass every day, but we rarely give it a second thought. The historic building is sometimes open for tours, and it reminds us of EWU’s roots as a teaching college.

A Springtime Photo Tour of Campus

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When I visited EWU's campus, it was windy and rainy and the middle of winter. I wan't even certain students went outside if they didn't have to. I should have visited in the spring.

@alexa3723

After being cooped up indoors during the winter, campus comes alive once the snow melts. Students take advantage of the awesome weather to get some fresh air and enjoy the fact that EWU has four real seasons.

@jslemm11

Students work on homework between classes or sit in the sun to energize themselves for the rest of their day. Taking a break and getting some good Vitamin D helps refresh and rejuvenate the mind and body.

@vitorolsouto

Some students participate in slack lining. A slack line is tied a foot or so above the ground between two trees and students tight rope over the grass. Plus jumping. And turning. And laughing a lot. No one has to worry about feeling ridiculous if they want to give it a try. It’s like being Tigger: no one judges you for being bouncy.

After classes, some students throw a Frisbee in the large grassy areas around campus. If you’re not into Frisbee, you can try whiffle ball instead. Groups of students get into teams and have a blast outdoors pretty much any time the sun shines.

@vincehamilton1

College campus radiates inspiration. Especially after winter, students want to get outside and change things up a bit. Seeing other students enjoying their college experience definitely helps enhance mine.

Admitted Student Day: The Things You Missed About Admissions

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You can become an Eagle today!! Apply now!

In April, EWU hosted one of the largest admissions events in over 10 years, Admitted Student Day. We filled the two largest auditoriums on campus, nearly filled a third, and an estimated 1,000 people took part in the day-long event.

For those students looking to make their college decision, the day provided more than just information. Dr. Tony Flynn, a hilarious guest speaker and professor of English who teaches 20th century British and American literature, started the day off with the number one thing you needed to know about be successful in college. (Hint: it’s easier than you think. Send us an email if you’re still curious.)

Most of the day was filled with sessions which covered dozens of topics including financial aid, admissions, jobs after college, and more. Students also had the chance to attend academic fairs, to speak with department counselors, to devour delicious food, and to tour residence halls. To top it off, we had wonderful weather!

So how can apply or confirm if I missed Admitted Student Day?

There are two things you’ll need to do.

First, you should visit campus. I’m an EWU student worker in the Visitor Center, and I know that visiting campus matters whether you’re looking at EWU or anywhere else. In fact, I don’t think you can pick the right campus without visiting it first. If you missed Admitted Student Day, or if you’re planning for fall 2015, you need to take a tour.

Second, it means it’s time to take your next steps toward confirming to college.

At EWU, there are eight steps in the enrollment process after you’ve been admitted. You may already be a couple steps in, or maybe you are starting at step one, but either way, here is a link to our enrollment guide.

Let me break down some of the key steps.

If you haven’t applied yet, scroll down to the last paragraph and go from there!

  • The most important step of all, confirm to EWU!
  • Once that’s done, the next step is to confirm your housing plans. Here’s a link to our Housing and Residential Life page to answer any questions you may have. (You’ll need your official university email for this.)
  • Next, we talk financial aid. You may have already received your financial aid package, but if you haven’t, keep your eyes peeled and check your EagleNET account. Financial aid might seem like scary stuff, but if you have any questions about how the financial aid process works, our Financial Aid Office will be more than happy to help.
  • Finally, if you’ve confirmed EWU, confirmed housing, and confirmed your financial aid package, the next step is to sign up for firstStep. A summer academic orientation event, firstStep is your opportunity to familiarize yourself with the campus and to register for classes.

Now you may be asking, what if I’ve missed all these deadlines, or have yet to apply to college, but I finally decided I want to go to a four-year university? Don’t worry. Don’t stress. You can still apply now for fall, and we’d be more than happy to walk you through those steps as well. Contact our Admissions Office for more information. It’s never too late to start something big!

 

College Application Playlist

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Everyone needs good vibes in the last few days before a deadline, so we've put together a college application playlist to tell you how we feel about your application and to give you some motivational melodies this Valentine's Day weekend.

Fair warning: all links lead to YouTube. Good news: none of the links take you to a song that’s hard to listen to. Except that one.

The College Application Playlist

We’ve got 15 songs for the Feb. 15 deadline. Good luck with your application, and we’ll see you on the other side!

  1. One Direction: What Makes You Beautiful (Having a strong academic focus makes you beautiful to us.)
  2. Bruno Mars: Just the Way You Are (You don’t need to change for EWU.)
  3. The Doors: Hello, I Love You (We love it when you apply!)
  4. Tegan and Sara: Come a Little Closer (By closer, we mean “on campus for a tour.”)
  5. Aretha Franklin: Respect (We give every application the respect it deserves.)
  6. Depeche Mode: Just Can’t Get Enough (We get thousands of applications each year, but we can always handle more.)
  7. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: Home (EWU is home to nearly 13,000 students, and we’re happy you want to be one.)
  8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Maps (You can find a map for your campus visit right here.)
  9. Etta James: At Last (We still love you even if you’re applying at the last possible moment.)
  10. Bright Eyes: First Day of My Life (College is always a great new adventure, and we hope you love the journey, wherever it takes you.)
  11. The Jackson Five: I Want You Back (Hundreds of EWU students come back for master’s degrees, online classes, summer classes, certificates, and second bachelor’s degrees. Those folks have a special place in our hearts.)
  12. Richard Marx: Right Here Waiting (Our staff is definitely right here waiting to read your application.)
  13. Adele: Make You Feel My Love (As a sign of our love, we’ll send you dozens of emails until we receive your completed application.)
  14. Hunter Hayes: I Want Crazy (We actually want “crazy hard-working and crazy fun-loving”, but this was as good as we could do.)
  15. Mates of State: Palomino (There’s no pun here. We just like this song.)

Deadline Reminder

Your application for admission, your scholarship application, and your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) are all due at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 15. Good luck!

P.S. EWU’s FAFSA code is 003775.

Waitlisted in California?

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EWU with WUE is the best out-of-state value of all Washington state universities

You may have seen the news: 472,000 students have been waitlisted for community colleges in California.

To put that number in perspective, that’s bigger than the entire population of cities like Kansas City, Atlanta, Minneapolis, St. Louis or Oakland. It’s almost as many people as the entire state of Wyoming. In fact, it’s bigger than a handful of countries in the world, including Iceland and the Bahamas.

Put another way, you could take all those waitlisted students in California and create 38 universities the same size as Eastern Washington University.

Why is this happening?

There  are a few big reasons.

  1. Lots of smart students in California want a college-degree because it means a chance for more and better jobs. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, only 3.8 percent of college graduates over the age of 25 are unemployed. In comparison, the unemployment rate for the whole country is 7.7 percent.
  2. Even as more people want to go to college, the California state government is cutting its budget for colleges and universities. That means California colleges can’t admit all the qualified students who want to attend.
  3. Many of these students are low-income and first-generation, and it’s often harder for them to find cost-effective alternatives.

WUE in Washington state can help

Thankfully, some schools do have room for students, and EWU is one them.

If you’re a student from California, you should know that EWU offers the Western Undergraduate Exchange program to all students from California and 13 other states.

You might also want to know that EWU is the best value of all Washington state universities for out-of-state students.

University 2012-13 WUE Tuition & Fees
Eastern Washington University $11,306
Central Washington University $12,890
The Evergreen State College $20,383
University of Washington (Bothell) $29,466
University of Washington (Seattle) $29,938
University of Washington (Tacoma) $29,457
Washington State University* $25,382
Western Washington University* $19,152

 

*WWU and WSU don’t award WUE to all eligible students.

All qualified students should have access to college

A greater percentage of first generation and low-income students call EWU home than any other campus in Washington, and we’re still accepting applications.

Students need to find the college that’s the right fit for them, and EWU might be that place.

 

Should I take classes at a school that isn't regionally accredited?

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Normally we wouldn’t tackle this sometimes prickly question in a public forum, but we’ve been seeing more applications from students who took course credits at schools without regional accreditation. In many of these situations, those credits don’t transfer to EWU.

Sometimes students wonder if it’s a for-profit versus nonprofit issue, but it’s actually much more than that. After all, we accept transfer credits from a quite a few for-profit institutions. Instead, it’s a question of accreditation.

Accreditation is the way a school shows it has high academic standards, and generally speaking, there are two types of accreditation.

  • Regional accreditation. This is the gold standard of accreditation. Schools with regional accreditation are typically non-profit universities and community colleges with a focus on academics, and it’s usually easy to transfer credits from one regionally accredited school to another. Examples include Eastern Washington University, Texas A&M, Harvard University, and Spokane Community College.
  • National accreditation. Nationally accredited schools are mostly for-profit schools with a focus on vocational, career, or technical programs. There are many groups that offer national accreditation, but they all have different focuses and different levels of stringency as to what qualifies as “high quality.”

Why doesn’t the four-year university I want to attend accept credits from nationally accredited schools?

You’ll get quite a few answers to this question, but the answers tend to look like the ones below.

  1. National accreditation agencies are typically newer and haven’t yet built a track record of success.
  2. Schools with national accreditation often offer courses that regionally accredited schools do not, which makes transferring credits complex or impossible.
  3. Some nationally accredited schools have less stringent admissions policies, and that makes it harder for regionally accredited schools to accept credits from those schools.
  4. Depending on the accreditation agency (the group that decides if a school gets accredited), national accreditation can be much less rigorous than regional accreditation.
  5. Some national accreditation agencies have conflicts of interest that make unbiased accreditation difficult to achieve.
  6. In some cases, unethical practices at for-profit institutions have hindered efforts to make national accreditation more trustworthy.

But back to my original question: should I take classes at a nationally accredited school? 

Maybe.

  • Do you want to go to graduate school?
  • Do you plan to transfer to a regionally accredited school?
  • Does your future employer have a bias against credentials from nationally accredited schools?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you’re probably better off attending a regionally accredited school from the very first day you step into a classroom.

Moreover, students who attend nationally accredited for-profit schools tend to have higher debt levels, higher loan default rates, higher unemployment rates, lower salaries, and lower bachelor’s degree completion rates.

Remember: the State of Washington is pretty much the best state for transfer students, and EWU is one of the best transfer schools. For example, earning your AA degree at an approved community college in the state guarantees your admission to EWU and most of the state’s four-year universities. Better yet, college-level coursework at these 34 community colleges will typically transfer to EWU and any of the other four-year, public universities.

No other state has a such a robust, healthy system, so in many cases, it makes more sense to start you degree at a regionally accredited community college and transfer to a school like EWU.