Wildcat Promise

Wildcat Promise

Students are often faced with a gap in funding between the amount of aid they are offered and the amount they need to attend college, forcing many to drop out or decline to enroll altogether.

CWU has recognized this barrier, and as part of a broader effort to increase student retention rates and ensure that our students graduate in a timely fashion, we have developed a new effort focused on Washington resident students who are eligible for Federal Pell Grants. After the university developed an initial pilot program that produced some promising results, Central is now planning to expand those efforts with support from our donors on a new program called The Wildcat Promise.

The program is designed to close the gap between aid students receive and the total cost of attendance, while creating opportunities for more students to build their future at Central. The Wildcat Promise provides guaranteed funding for students to supplement their existing federal, state, and other financial aid support for four years if they remain in good academic standing.

The goal of The Wildcat Promise is to eventually support a large cohort of students each year by providing them with funding that closes the gap between what it costs to attend CWU and the financial aid packages they qualify for. This comes out to about $5,000 per student.