Prospective Washington University students are no longer required to submit a separate application for academic division-based scholarship programs beginning in the fall 2019 admissions cycle.

All five schools at Washington University will automatically consider prospective students in the class of 2023 for academic division-based scholarships. Following the University’s introduction of a supplemental essay for admission, divisions will use this essay in their scholarship selection processes.

Scholarship programs adopting this change include the Olin Distinguished Scholars Program, the Arts & Sciences Honorary Scholars Program and the Alexander S. Langsdorf Fellowship. Additionally, prospective engineering students will be automatically considered for the James M. McKelvey Undergraduate Research Award of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Students applying to the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will be automatically considered for merit scholarships upon the submission of a digital portfolio. Those interested in the University’s premier merit-based scholarship programs —Danforth, Rodriguez, and Ervin—will not be automatically considered and must still submit separate applications. Separate applications are also required for the Howard Nemerov Writing Scholars Programs and the Entrepreneurial Scholars Program.

According to Ronne Patrick Turner, Vice Provost for Admissions & Financial Aid, the decision to automatically consider students for scholarships was made in tandem with the introduction of the supplemental admissions essay.

“Deciding to add the supplemental essay was a big deal, and we couldn’t have added the supplemental essay without having the opportunity to work with the academic divisions to get their agreement to use that essay for their scholarships,” Turner said.

In creating a supplemental essay question, admissions partnered with administrators from all five schools to ensure the question would provide helpful information for the scholarship selection process, according to Turner. Associate Dean of Students of the Sam Fox School for Design and Visual Arts Georgia Binnington noted that gauging students’ intellectual curiosity is one of the main goals of the supplemental essay.

“I think the hardest thing was finding a question that would cover all the subjects and make everybody feel like a student could take this question and answer it for a specific school. We’re not sure how it will work yet. It’s new. We’re trying new things,” Binnington said. “One of the things we’re really looking for is intention and excitement about learning and excitement about new things. We’re hoping that it will give us a new insight into the student.”

After conducting a survey of undergraduate applicants to the University, administrators found that students desired a more streamlined application process. In addition, some students weren’t aware of the separate deadline and application for merit scholarships and inquired too late into the admissions cycle. Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs in Olin Business School Steve Malter believes the automatic consideration process will make applying a more user-friendly process.

“The supplemental essay will provide us with additional information that will assist us in selecting the finalists for Olin’s Distinguished Scholarships,” Malter said in a statement to Student Life. “This change will remove barriers by eliminating the need to complete a secondary application for the scholarship and ensuring our pool of scholarship candidates is as diverse and inclusive as possible.”

Turner feels the new process will align the University with its peers who don’t always require additional applications for scholarship consideration. Both Turner and Binnington feel that the division-based scholarship programs will not become inherently more competitive and the quality of selected students will be similar to years’ past. While the supplemental essay may deter students from applying because of the additional work, administrators see it as an opportunity to create a more inclusive scholarship selection process.

“We’ve heard from a number of students that the reason they applied to Wash. U. was because we didn’t have an essay. So, we worry about how an essay might discourage some students, but we’re hoping that the topic and the length will be streamlined enough or appropriate enough that it will not be seen as a barrier,” Turner said.

“Hopefully, because of the way it’s been crafted…I think the idea is that this will give us an idea of the students’ excitement about something they study now, something they want to study, and really add that element of interest and excitement,” Binnington said. “It’s a worry because it’s another thing for them to do, but it’s less than doing another scholarship thing, which opens it up to more people.”

Turner anticipates that the University will consider using a supplemental essay question for the next few admissions cycles to gauge whether it elicits helpful information from students.

“I don’t think we’d get rid of the supplemental essay. We might tweak the question or shift the question a bit, but I think we’re going to use it for a while. It’s really hard to do something for one year and to understand its effectiveness. So, we would have to do it for a couple of years to see the impact that it has on identifying students who are a good Wash. U. fit [or] who have Wash. U. [as] more of a first choice.”

Additional reporting by Kathleen White.