HOW DOES WASHU MEET STUDENT NEED?
We are committed to removing financial barriers for all of our students regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. In recent years, we’ve launched several new initiatives that strive to make a WashU education more accessible to all students.
Programs include:
- The newly announced no-loan financial aid policy, which goes into effect for all undergraduates in fall 2024, replaces federal loans with grants and scholarships. The new initiative means students can earn a world-class WashU education without going into debt.
- Gateway to Success, announced in 2021, is a $1 billion investment in financial aid and student support for undergraduate, graduate and professional students. WashU also is now “need blind” in our admission process for first-year domestic applicants.
- The WashU Pledge, announced in 2019, provides a free undergraduate education to full-time students from Missouri and southern Illinois who are from families with annual incomes of $75,000 or less. The WashU Pledge covers tuition, room, meal plan and fees.
Other initiatives include the new Taylor Family Center for Student Success, the Student Success Fund and First-Year Grants for technology and supplies. The university has received national recognition for improving accessibility, including recently being named #1 in the nation for financial aid by The Princeton Review.
WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE ENDOWMENT?
After an unprecedented return of 65% in 2021, the endowment had negative returns the past two years. Despite the declines, we remain fully committed to the Gateway to Success financial aid and student support initiative.
Primarily created through gifts, endowment funds are used for specific purposes as designated by the original donor. As an example, a donor’s gift restricted to supporting medical research could not be repurposed to support undergraduate scholarships or vice versa. The earnings from the funds are used to support the work of our faculty, our research and the education of our students. To learn more about the endowment, how it works, where it comes from and how we use it to enhance the university’s mission, see Chancellor Martin’s three-part “Endowment 101” series on his blog.
