Top students offered assured acceptance

PULLMAN — Effective immediately, applicants from Washington state to the Pullman, Tri-Cities and Vancouver campuses, who rank in the top 10 percent of their class or who have earned at least a 3.5 GPA at the time of their application will be granted assured admission.
 
This continues WSU’s effort to build its academic reputation among leading land-grant universities, its admissions office is making a new offer to high-ranking students.
 
“Our new policy reflects WSU’s concentration on heightening both quality and accessibility,” said John Fraire, vice president for enrollment management. “We are eager to recognize very early in the process those students with excellent potential to reach their academic goals and to help this university attain ours.”
 
For more information on the program, see www.assured.wsu.edu.
Fraire stated the waiting time between submitting an application and receiving a decision from an institution is a period of high anxiety for high school students.
 
“One way to make top-performing students feel more appreciated and welcomed at WSU is to remove the pressure associated with waiting for that acceptance letter,” Fraire said.
 
“Each year, we meet many strong academic students who did not apply to WSU because they feared they would not be admitted.  With this policy, we are telling students that if they do extraordinarily well in high school and apply on time, they will be admitted to Washington State University and learn of their status soon after,” Fraire said. 
 
“We know that top students want to plan early for their careers at WSU and find out about our Honors College, undergraduate research, study abroad programs and other academic options,” Fraire said. “We will be able to get them acclimated and involved in campus life that much sooner.”
 
“I have been a high school principal for five years and the reputation of WSU has climbed rapidly in that time.  Now, they have unveiled a new admissions program that will make more of my students Cougars than ever before. This will increase the number of my students attending WSU and give them a large enough cohort from home to help with the assimilation to college life.  This is yet another example of Washington State University leading the way,” said Patrick Erwin, co-principal of Lincoln High School in Tacoma.
 
Fraire said that WSU remains strongly committed to accessibility to good students who do not reach the levels of top 10 percent or 3.5 GPA. This assured admission program will not preclude or interfere with the traditional application process. “We will continue to give a complete and comprehensive review for all applicants who do not meet this threshold,” Fraire added. “We also expect that all students, regardless of the grade average, will continue to take as rigorous a high school curriculum as they can.”
 
To qualify for assured admission under this new policy, students must apply on time to WSU, pay their application fee, and take the SAT or ACT test.
 
However, one of the key components of this policy is that a student’s grades and course selection will take priority over their standardized test scores – another major point of anxiety for high school seniors.
 
“Nevertheless, we have found that students who ranked in the top ten percent of their graduating class or who have earned a 3.5 GPA also have very good scores on their standardized tests,” said Fraire.
 
To maintain their assured admission, students will be expected to complete core course requirements as outlined by the Higher Education Coordinating Board, and keep their grades and standing at the same high level. “This is not ‘easy street’ or an excuse to coast in their senior year, but we do not expect that to be an issue with these talented students,” Fraire said.

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