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EWU
Waitlisted in California?
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
I’m admitted, but where’s my financial aid?
It’s the time of year when students worry less about admissions and more about financial aid, and because you’ve got questions, we’ve put together some answers.
But First … You’ve Got Time
Relax. Do some yoga. Find your inner Zen.
You have until May 1 to confirm your admissions to EWU. In fact, you have until May 1 to confirm your decision to attend any Washington state university, so there’s no pressure on you to make a choice based on incomplete information.
The one exception to the rule: if you’ve been asked to send more information, send it as quickly as possible. This is a federal requirement and we will not be able to make your award until the information on your FAFSA is verified.
Look for EWU Financial Aid Awards in April
Check your Eagles email often. (Setting up your Eagles email was Step 4 in the enrollment process.) It’s the fastest way to see if we’ve sent your award.
If you haven’t received notification by the end of the month, give us a call.
Why Does EWU Send Awards in April?
Well, there are few good reasons, and the biggest is that EWU doesn’t send preliminary awards.
Other colleges sometimes get caught in a “bait and switch” situation by offering estimated awards. Unfortunately, many of these estimated awards end up being less than stated after your FAFSA information is verified and corrected.
EWU works hard to avoid that problem and to provide the most accurate information possible.
How Can I Estimate How Much EWU Will Cost to Attend?
There are three ways.
- Use EWU’s net price calculator.
- Compare overall tuition and cost via our website.
- Compare net prices in the table below. The data comes from the White House Score Card. The net price is what average undergraduate students pay after grants and scholarships (financial aid you don’t have to pay back) are subtracted from the cost of attendance.
University Net Price Eastern Washington University $10,587 Central Washington University $13,775 The Evergreen State College $11,686 University of Washington—Seattle $8,739 Washington State University $15,485 Western Washington University $13,086
What If I Still Have Questions?
Give us call at 509.359.2397, chat with us online, or send an email to admissions@ewu.edu. We’re here to help, and we can point you in the right direction
New look, new website
If you’re new to EWU Admissions, carry on as if everything is normal. But if you’ve been to the site before, you’ll notice some big changes.
- A new look. We’ve updated colors, fonts and images. (Lots of red! Go Eagles!) The new-look website is also made from 100% real EWU student. Whether you’re looking at the admissions website, an EWU poster in your high school or an EWU admissions piece you picked up at a college fair, every picture is of a real EWU student who volunteered to represent the university this year. That’s school pride, and it’s pretty cool.
- New content. You can take advantage of new content especially for transfer students, international students and returning students. We’ve even broken out the freshman student section so that there’s less confusion. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, let us know!
- A new way to get around. We’ve explored hundreds of college admissions websites, and most of them have one thing in common: it’s hard to find the information you’re looking for. In fact, they usually have too much information. With the new design, it’s easier for you to get where you’re going by keeping choices simple. It’s even easier on a mobile device, too.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll see new content on a regular basis, and we hope the information helps you see if EWU is the right fit for you.
Thanks for browsing, intrepid college adventurer, and as you plan your future, remember that we’re never more than a click away.
Should I take classes at a school that isn't regionally accredited?
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.
- National accreditation agencies are typically newer and haven’t yet built a track record of success.
- Schools with national accreditation often offer courses that regionally accredited schools do not, which makes transferring credits complex or impossible.
- Some nationally accredited schools have less stringent admissions policies, and that makes it harder for regionally accredited schools to accept credits from those schools.
- Depending on the accreditation agency (the group that decides if a school gets accredited), national accreditation can be much less rigorous than regional accreditation.
- Some national accreditation agencies have conflicts of interest that make unbiased accreditation difficult to achieve.
- 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.
Closing the freshman application May 15
EWU has received a record number of applications for Fall 2012, and to keep class sizes small, we’re closing the freshman application May 15.
If you will be applying for admission as a freshman, you need to submit your application before May 15. You still have time!
The application for transfer students and international students is still open.
How do we feel about closing the application?
Awesome. This is the fourth straight year of record growth at Eastern. With close proximity to jobs and internships in Spokane, it’s easy to identify the value of a academically rigorous school that also has the state’s lowest tuition. Compared to other state universities, students can save nearly $5,000 on total costs and fees every year at EWU, and that’s pretty impressive. You can buy a lot ramen with that kind of savings.
We pride ourselves on providing access to higher education for as many students as possible, and we wish we could offer every interested student the opportunity to pursue a four-year degree. Yet it’s important for us to keep class sizes small, too, and to continue to provide the exceptional value and learning experience that students have come to expect from EWU.