In my glorious undergraduate years (back before I could grow the few scraggly facial hairs I now call a beard), I met hundreds of alumni who came back to campus to reconnect with the school they had called home. One of them told me that when he had gone to school, tuition had been just $25. I didn’t believe him.
“Oh, not for the whole year,” he said. “That was for a semester. It was $50 for the year.”
Amazingly, this is completely true … and it’s not like we’re talking about an era before electricity or running water. People had cars. Rock and roll. Sliced bread even. It was the golden era of education, and for a long time in the United States, tuition to most state universities was free or next to free. In fact, it wasn’t until 1956 that Eastern started to charge tuition at all.
Things have certainly changed. Governments pay less for education than ever before, and that forces students and their families to pay more.
Eastern has always focused on providing the best possible education to its students and to making that education available to as many students as possible. That’s why we’re the best educational value in the state of Washington, and it’s why students who study here save thousands of dollars in tuition and fees compared to other public schools in the state.
One of the ways students can reduce tuition is a program called WUE.
WUE is an acronym for Western Undergraduate Exchange, and it’s pronounced so that it rhymes with “chewy” or “screwy.” Repeat the acronym fast enough and you start to sound like an ambulance.
(Admit it: you’re trying to sound like an ambulance right now. WUE WUE WUE.)
WUE is a financial aid exchange program that lets out-of state students from 14 western states (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, ND, OR, SD, UT, WY) save thousands of dollars on tuition at Eastern. Over four years, students can save $25,000 or more when they study at Eastern.
There’s an important deadline (Feb. 15, 2012), a GPA requirement and a residency requirement, so there are some details you’ll need to check out if you’re interested in making WUE work for you.
Here’s the best place to get started with WUE information, but we always encourage you to call or email with your questions so that you can talk to a real person about your particular situation.
WUE. WUE. WUE. WUE. WUE. Completely sounds like an ambulance.