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.