Wallace Invitational for Scholarships in Engineering | College of Engineering, WSU

To be eligible to compete in WISE, you must:

• Be a 2027 high school graduate
• Submit WSU admission application materials by November 1, 2026. You must declare a College of Engineering major in the "Academic Interest" section of your admissions application.
• Meet one of the following criteria:
  • Have a minimum 3.5 unweighted high school GPA, or
  • Have a minimum ACT composite score of 27, or
  • Have a minimum SAT composite of 1280, or
  • Rank in the top 10 percent of your class at the end of your junior year.

If you meet the eligibility criteria to compete in WISE, follow these steps to apply for the competition:

1. Apply for admission to WSU.
   1. You must apply to, and be admitted to, WSU in order to compete in WISE.
   2. We encourage you to apply for admission to the university prior to completing your WISE application. However, you may submit your WISE application prior to applying for admission as long as you meet the WISE eligibility criteria and declare a College of Engineering major when you submit your admissions application.
   3. Be sure to declare a College of Engineering major in the "Academic Interest" section of your admissions application. The College of Engineering majors listed on the admissions application include the following:
      • Aerospace Engineering
      • Applied Engineering - Engineering Management
      • Applied Engineering - Process Automation
      • Applied Engineering - Sustainability and Environmental Engineering
      • Biomedical Engineering
      • Computer Engineering
      • Computer Science
      • Cybersecurity
      • Electrical Engineering
      • Engineering - Undecided
      • Industrial Engineering
      • Mechanical Engineering
      • Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering
   4. If you aren't sure which College of Engineering major you want to declare, select "Engineering - Undecided." Do not select the generic "Undecided" option or that will make you ineligible for WISE.
2. Complete the WISE application by November 8. Applications submitted after 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 8 will not be accepted.
   
   As part of your WISE application, you will be asked to write three short essay responses. Each essay response will have a 150-word limit. You will also be asked to upload an activities chart showing your high school involvement and accomplishments. Please spend time reviewing and preparing these sections of the application before you are ready to submit. Your essay responses will be scored and included in the overall WISE scoring process. For more information about the WISE scoring and selection process, see the How are the winners selected? section under the "After the Competition" heading further down on this page. 

No. We will provide you with all of the information, materials, and instructions you need on the competition day. The best advice we can give you is to relax and have fun! A lot of students are nervous when they arrive to WISE because they do not know what to expect, which is completely understandable. Although you are competing for our Wallace Scholarships, we want to you to have fun and enjoy learning more about WSU and the College of Engineering. 

If you need lodging for Thursday and/or Friday night, you are welcome to stay at the hotel/motel of your choosing. Aloft by Marriott Wichita has a special rate for our students during this event. Please see the information below for more information: 

Book your corporate rate for Wichita State University

For a listing of other lodging options, visit www.visitwichita.com/hotels. Most of the hotels listed in the Downtown and Northeast options in the Regions section will be a short drive to campus. 

No. We will provide you with all of the materials you need for the competition. In fact, we encourage you to bring as few items with you as possible. You will be moving around the Rhatigan Student Center and the Wichita State campus quite a bit, so the less you bring, the less you have to worry about keeping track of throughout the day. 

Students often ask if they should bring copies of their resumes. This is not necessary. 

Business casual is recommended for students participating in the competition. Business casual or casual attire is recommended for parents and guests. However, we discourage students from purchasing new clothes just for WISE. Wear the nicest outfit you have, but don't feel like you have to spend money on clothes to impress us. We want you to look presentable, but we're not scoring you on your attire. 

Park in Lot 24 or 25 on the south side of 17th Street between Holyoke Street and Vassar Avenue. These lots have been reserved for WISE participants, so please park in Lot 24 or 25 to avoid receiving a parking ticket. 

Click here to see the campus map showing Lot 24. Lot 25 is immediately west of Lot 24. 

Click here on your smart phone for a Google Maps pin for easy navigation directly to Lot 24 on your mobile device. 

 

WISE Competition Schedule | November 20, 2026

Time	Activity	Location
9:00 – 9:30 am	Welcome Session	RSC 3rd Floor
9:30 – 11:30 am	Competition (Students)	RSC 2nd Floor
9:30 – 11:30 am	Parent and Guest Session (Parents & Guests)	CAC Theater
11:30 am – 1:00 pm	Closing Luncheon & Guest Speaker	RSC 3rd Floor
	Optional Events Following WISE
1:15 – 2:15 pm	Dessert Reception & Experience Fair With College of Engineering Student Organizations, and the Office of Financial Aid	John Bardo Center Lobby and Room 264
1:30 – 3:00 pm	Tours of the John Bardo Center   Tour groups will start every 15 minutes, and each tour will last approximately 30 minutes.	John Bardo Center Lobby

The WISE competition features a collaborative group design challenge. Participants will be placed into preassigned teams of 4 students. Each team will receive a prompt addressing a real-world issue, along with materials to develop a prototype and present their proposed solution. Teams will be evaluated by two judges—faculty, staff, or alumni—who will assess each participant based on their contribution and engagement throughout the challenge. These evaluations, combined with GPA, ACT, and written essay scores, will determine which students advance to the second round interviews.

Read the "After the Competition" FAQs below for additional info on second round interviews.

The winners of the WISE competition earn the prestigious distinction of Wallace Scholar and are each offered a Wallace Scholarship package worth $30,500 to study engineering or computing at WSU. Wallace Scholars are selected from WISE through a scoring process using five sub scores. The five sub scores are derived from participants' unweighted high school cumulative GPA, ACT composite score, ACT math score, Group Design Challenge score, and Written Essay score. If you took the ACT more than once, and have multiple sets of scores on file with WSU, we will use your highest composite score and high math score from any test scores submitted to WSU. If you took the SAT instead of the ACT, we will convert your SAT scores to the equivalent ACT scores. 

WISE Scoring Formula
Unweighted High School GPA +
ACT Composite Score +
ACT Math Score +
Group Design Challenge Score +
Written Essay Score =
Round 1 WISE Score

Interview Score =
Round 2 WISE Score

Following the competition day, the top scoring participants will be invited to participate in a second-round interview. Invitations for the interviews will be communicated via email by January 10, 2027. All other participants will also be notified via email about the competition outcomes by this deadline. Following the virtual interview round, the recipients of the Wallace Scholarship will be selected and notified by the end of January. The Director of Scholarships will work with students on an individual basis to ensure that they have access to technology for this interview process if they are selected.  

The winners, who will be named Wallace Scholars, will be publicly announced at the Wallace Scholar Announcement and Reception held in March on the WSU campus. Winners and their families will be invited to this event to formally be recognized and introduced to the campus community. 

Note: WISE is a competition specifically for the purpose of selecting recipients of the Wallace Scholarship. In addition to the Wallace Scholarship, the College of Engineering has over 90 other scholarship funds. To be considered for all other College of Engineering scholarships, please complete the New/Continuing Students application within ScholarshipUniverse. The New/Continuing Students application will be available from November 1, 2026 through March 1, 2027. Click here for instructions on how to apply for other engineering and general university scholarships. 

Yes! WISE is a competition specifically for the purpose of selecting recipients of the Wallace Scholarship. In addition to the Wallace Scholarship, the College of Engineering has over 90 other scholarship funds. To be considered for all other College of Engineering scholarships, please complete the New/Continuing Students application within ScholarshipUniverse. The New/Continuing Students application will be available from November 1, 2026 through March 1, 2027. Click here for instructions on how to apply for other engineering and general university scholarships.