High school seniors now have more opportunity to take advantage of freshmen merit scholarships – worth up to $16,000 over four years at Wichita State University — because of a new deadline for applicants.

Now, high school seniors who complete the admission application and pay the application fee by Feb. 1 will automatically be considered for Wichita State’s largest comprehensive scholarship program.

Kansas residents and students from most surrounding states with tuition discount programs are eligible for awards up to $16,000, and out-of-state students paying full out-of-state tuition could receive up to $24,000. Students who previously applied by Dec. 1 were considered for the scholarship already, but new applicants will be notified if they are eligible for an award.

Those who qualify will receive an official award letter from Wichita State’s financial aid team. Scholarship consideration begins with scores of 21 on the ACT and/or 1060 on the SAT and a 3.0 grade-point average. 

Students and parents unsure about how to qualify can reference the scholarship matrix here.

This new scholarship opportunity provides greater access and affordability to a continually growing number of students.

The freshman classes of 2021 and 2022 represent the largest freshmen classes in the university’s 127-year history. Fall 2022 enrollment by headcount stood at 16,921 for the main campus. That’s the largest number of students choosing to enroll at Wichita State since 1989. 

There are many reasons why WSU is bucking the national trend:

• Wichita State greatly emphasizes applied learning, requiring it for every major. That means students can pursue academic goals while earning money and professional experience. Last year, WSU students had more than 8,000 internships and on-campus positions with 600 employers, earning $28.5 million in wages.
• New business majors – up nearly 11% from last year – are now able to enjoy a brand new $60 million business building, Wayne and Kay Woolsey Hall, which opened at the start of the semester and is also open to the entire campus community.
• A focus for Wichita State continues to be access and affordability. In addition to a cumulative increase in all minority students, nearly 20% of our new students identify as coming from Hispanic backgrounds.
• More Wichita-area students are selecting WSU, with an increase of 8.4% from Sedgwick County.

“Our desire is to continue to be the state’s return-on-investment educational leader and this new scholarship deadline will benefit students who are still weighing fall 2023 college options,” said Bobby Gandu, assistant vice president, strategic enrollment management. “This shift gives our students an even better value to pursue their educational and professional goals at Kansas’ most affordable research university.”