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.

*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.

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.

1. Use EWU’s net price calculator.
2. Compare overall tuition and cost via our website.
3. 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

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

A picture of the Palouse hills just south of EWU. © walla2chick via the Creative Commons.

A record number of applications arrived on Feb. 15 this year, and that means more and more students waited until the absolute last minute to apply.

Unfortunately, many students who wait end up missing the priority application deadline, which means they’re at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving an admission decision, receiving scholarships, and receiving financial aid.

If you missed the deadline, here’s what you can do.

1. Apply for admission as soon as possible. The sooner you get your application submitted, the better. Your place in the queue is determined by the date you completed your online application. (Or the date we received your application via the mail if you used the paper application.) This can affect how quickly we can process your application, how soon your college-level transcripts get reviewed, and more.
2. Complete your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). EWU allocates financial aid with a priority given to students who applied before the Feb. 15 priority deadline, but you may still qualify for financial aid. Although EWU has had the lowest tuition and lowest housing costs of any public university in the state for the last several years, we know that students can always use grants, work study, and loans to help them cover the costs of tuition. Use Eastern’s school code (003775) to indicate that you want your FAFSA results sent to Eastern.
3. Research Scholarships. You may have missed the deadline for EWU’s main scholarships, but the university has dozens of scholarships with deadlines spread throughout the year. You may qualify for one or more of them.

You always have options. And if you really don’t know what to do, give us a call at 509.359.2397, email us at admissions@ewu.edu, or chat with us online. We’ll help you explore your options and make a decision that’s best for you. After all, it’s not our job to get you to come to EWU. It’s our job to help you find the best options and the best fit for your situation.

© c0tu via CC BY-SA 3.0

If you’re working on your application (we love it if you are!), you probably need some music to power you through the process and the holiday. Even if your application is done and all you’re doing is noshing on chocolate hearts, a little music might be a good thing.

Just a warning: all the links take you to YouTube, so make sure you’re not blasting in the school library.

The Love Stinks Playlist

This list is for all of us celebrating the holiday by congratulating ourselves on how much money we saved by not buying roses or cologne. No worries: you can always fall in love with EWU.

We’re not saying we like all the music on this list. At least we wouldn’t say that publicly. But you know, maybe we listen to it sometimes. You know. Just ’cause we need it.

1. “Baby” – Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris
2. “Chasing Cars” – Snow Patrol
3. “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” – Cyndi Lauper
4. “I Will Survive” – Gloria Gaynor
5. “I’m Ridin’ Solo” – Jason Derulo
6. “Love Stinks” – J. Geils Band
7. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – Joy Division
8. “Rolling in the Deep” – Adele
9. “Since U Been Gone” – Kelly Clarkson
10. “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” – Beyonce
11. “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” – Nancy Sinatra
12. “The Wanderer” – Dion
13. “What Makes You Beautiful” – One Direction
14. “You’re Beautiful” – James Blunt
15. “You’re So Vain” – Carly Simon
16. “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” – Righteous Brothers

The So-in-Love Playlist

Happy Valentine’s Day! Some parts of this list are a bit less conventional or a bit newer, and some parts are downright cheesy, but love is special and sometimes cheesy, so your music should be, too.

Good luck with your application to EWU! By the way: we hope you love “Beta Love” by Ra Ra Riot as much as we do. It’s our early forerunner for song and album of the year.

1. “40 Day Dream” – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
2. “Beta Love” – Ra Ra Riot 
3. “Boyfriend” – Best Coast
4. “Crazy in Love” – Beyonce ft. Jay Z
5. “Cupid’s Chokehold” – Gym Class Heroes
6. “Digital Love” – Daft Punk
7. “Hero” – Enrique Iglesias
8. “Love Potion No. 9″ – The Searchers
9. “Lovebug” – Jonas Brothers
10. “Lucky” – Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat
11. “Never Gonna Give You Up” – Rick Astley (insert obligatory Rick roll comment)
12. “Powa” – tUnE-yArDs
13. “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” – Talking Heads
14. “Transatlanticism” – Death Cab for Cutie
15.  ”Unforgettable” – Nat “King” Cole and Natalie Cole

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.

P.S. EWU’s FAFSA code is 003775.

There’s no need to panic, but make sure you’re on track to complete your application materials by the priority application deadline on Feb. 15.

Here’s what you’ll need to submit.

1. Your admission application and fee.
2. Your scholarship application.
3. Your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If you need help submitting your FAFSA, EWU’s Financial Aid and Scholarship Office has helpful FAFSA information.

We’re excited to review your application, and we want you to qualify for as much financial and as many scholarships as possible.

Submit your materials by the deadline! You have until 11:59 p.m. on Friday to get your application completed.

While you’re working on your application to EWU, think about this: 70 percent of students at public universities want career planning advice as freshmen.

Which is why you need to check out Career Services at Eastern Washington University. From day one, you can take advantage of one of EWU’s best resources. (You can even use it as an alumni, too!)

Here are just a few of the events Career Services puts on for EWU students—including many for freshmen.

• Conversation Cafe. Not sure about your major? Wondering what your chances are of finding a job with a degree in philosophy or computer science or business? Perfect! Conversation Cafe is your chance to talk to students, professors and advisers about potential majors and careers in over 130 programs. Rumor has it it’s a no-holds-barred, ask-all-questions approach to getting information you might not find anywhere else.
• The WorkIt! Career Conference.  Meet dozens of employers in your quest for jobs, internships, job shadowing and volunteer opportunities. And even though it sounds like it’s about modeling, it’s not. (Okay, okay, it’s a little bit about modeling: you should wear your business clothes.)
• Partnership Preview. EWU and other area colleges fill an enormous mosh pit entire conference center with potential employers.
• Networking and etiquette events. Four forks beside your plate at your lunch interview? Wondering if you should comment on your interviewer’s cute shoes? Networking and etiquette events are opportunities to practice the people skills and “soft” skills that help you stand out in a tough job market. Also, learn which fork is the best fork. (Hint: it’s the dessert fork. Dessert is delicious.)
• Campus visits with employers. Meet real employers. Give them your real resume. Find a real internship, a real job and other real opportunities.
• Mock interviews. Interview skills aren’t inherited. They’re learned, and this is one of those cases where practice really does make perfect.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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!
3. 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.

© Joel Barbour

Little known and entirely unexpected fact: Spokane has an intensely vibrant skateboard subculture.

Hop aboard the free bus to downtown Spokane some summer morning and count the designers, shopkeeps and students bombing down the South Hill to grab a coffee or complete a few jumps before the day begins. Even at EWU, the skateboard is a principle mode of transportation. (The “Bike versus Skateboard” count on campus is pretty much even, unless you’re counting wheels, in which case the skateboarders will definitely win.)

This weekend, that vibrant culture is getting even more colorful for the first annual WE RUN THIS CITY: 42 Hour Skateboard Contest. Imagine a 24-hour film festival on wheels, add 18 hours and about a dozen cups of java to get you through two days without sleep, and you’ve got the idea.

Whether you skate or hold the camera, it’s awesome to see the city’s skateboarders come together for creative events like this. If you’re heading to Eastern this fall and you shred, we hope to see your video in the lineup next year.

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.

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.