WSU scholarship to cover unmet tuition, fees costs for some Sedgwick County students

Wichita State is expanding a scholarship program that will cover the cost of unmet tuition and fees for some incoming freshmen from Sedgwick County with an annual family income of $50,000 or less.

WSU announced this week that starting next fall, the Shocker Promise scholarship will provide four years of assistance to an unspecified number of qualified students from across the county. Sheelu Surender, WSU’s executive director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, said the university will dedicate $250,000 to the scholarship fund annually.

WSU estimates that an undergraduate Kansas resident attending the university will pay $8,103 in tuition and fees this school year. The median Sedgwick County household income is $49,478, according to county data.

“Wichita State has always been an affordable option for local students,” Surender said in a news release. “But through this scholarship we have gone a step further to remove all financial barriers that often prevent exceptional-need students from considering it as an option to accomplish their educational goals.”

Funding for the Shocker Promise program is limited, and scholarships will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to county residents who graduated from high school within the last nine months and have already been accepted into WSU.

To qualify, students must maintain a high school GPA of at least 2.5 and enroll in a minimum of 30 credit hours each academic year to remain eligible.

The Shocker Promise is a “last-dollar” scholarship, meaning it will cover whatever costs are leftover after other financial aid is applied.

The release says students can submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by March 1, 2022 for priority consideration.

Surender said evaluate the scholarship program moving forward and “either add more students if there is demand or expand beyond Sedgwick County as funding allows.”