“WU/FUSED deserves the majority of the credit, along with a few former key administrators, for getting the momentum [for socioeconomic diversity] going,” Scotty Jacobs, WashU alumni and former Student Representative to the Board of Trustees, said.
Low-income students from Missouri and Southern Illinois will be able to attend Washington University for free starting in the 2020-2021 school year, Chancellor Andrew Martin announced in his inaugural address, Oct. 3.
The first grant will consist of one $500 portion to cover or subsidize the cost of a computer. The second is worth $1,500 and is intended to cover essential items like winter clothes, textbooks or travel over both semesters.
Washington University’s class of 2021, in many ways, appears strikingly similar to its predecessor.
WU/FUSED, Washington University’s chapter of national coalition U/FUSED, is taking new strides toward socioeconomic diversity within the undergraduate population following the increase of Pell-eligible students at the University.
Washington University found itself in a familiar situation Wednesday; atop a new ranking measuring the least socioeconomic diverse colleges across the country.
For years, the members of WU/FUSED have been asking the administration a single question: Will you provide us with a breakdown of the income distribution in the student body? Each time that we have asked, their response has been the same: No.
It’s no secret that Washington University has long lagged far behind its peer institutions in terms of socioeconomic diversity. With a paltry 6.2 percent of students qualifying for a federal Pell Grant in 2015, a number a full 4 percentage points below the next closest four-year research university, Wash. U. rightfully earned the deplorable distinction of the least financially diverse university in the country.
The class of 2020 will rank near the top in terms of both racial and socioeconomic diversity—numbers unparalleled in Washington University’s history.
With its newest class, Washington University has finally enrolled enough Pell grant-receiving undergraduates to be ranked second to last out of comparable universities, Chancellor Mark Wrongon announced at a press conference Monday.
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