Potential first-year students looking to join the Cougar community have a new way to apply to Washington State University for the 2023 recruitment cycle.
WSU is now enabling both domestic and international first-year students to apply at all of its first-year-serving campuses via the Common App. WSU initially partnered with Common App last recruitment cycle to allow international students to apply to WSU via the online college application platform.
Common App allows prospective students from across the world to apply to multiple schools using a unified application. Students can apply to more than 1,000 colleges and universities via the Common App, according to the organization’s website.
“Our partnership with the Common App is designed to raise awareness of WSU among resident and non-resident students and increase equity in the admissions process by allowing first-year students to apply to multiple institutions using a single application,” Andrew Brewick, director of admissions, said. “We anticipate increases in undergraduate applications and admits, which will hopefully yield enrollment increases to our campuses.”
WSU has already seen positive results stemming from its partnership with Common App. More than twice the number of international students applied to WSU during the 2022 recruiting cycle compared to the year that proceeded it, from 317 to more than 640.
WSU has also made major improvements to its own application process with the launch of the 2023 recruiting period. The overall application has been shortened thanks to questions being consolidated or tossed for lack of applicability. The university’s application also now allows potential students to choose a legal sex of X-non-binary and gives them more gender identity options. Feedback submitted by high school students has also led to application text being clarified and streamlined, Brewick said.
“The application governance group was intentional about balancing the needs of our applicants with the needs of the institution,” he added. “I’m proud of the work we did, and thankful for the contributions of colleagues across the system.”
Students can access WSU’s institutional application or find a link to add WSU to their Common App via the university’s admission’s website. Information is also available online for students looking to apply for a fee waiver during the application process.
