Q&A w/ current freshman.

ross25
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:35:21 +0000

@aheadofthegame

Honestly, take what you can get. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll get the same amount next year, especially since it seems to me like you’re graduating high school this spring. It’s different for students who go straight to Pullman after graduation than those who don’t. There seems to be some sort of discrepancy with financial aid–recent high school grads are favored, in my opinion anyway from what I’ve heard.

$14,000 is an estimate. Live in the residence halls for a year, see what it’s like. Apply to be an RA–if you’re lucky enough to get a position, it pays for room and board and is an excellent extra curricular to put in your resume especially for law school. Granted, it is a TON of work, but it’s a sound financial option. Apartments are also way cheaper. That’s the reason why many students move out after freshman year. It’s significantly cheaper.

As far as budget cuts go, I’m not really sure. You don’t see a lot of it here on campus, they just cut classes that don’t really get a lot of students. They’re being very smart with where to cut money from and making the most of what they have. With that big fund raising even that they did (or are doing, I’m not sure if it’s done yet), I’m honestly not too worried. Except for the part where tuition continues to rise, but I think that’s state imposed.

Don’t take my word for it, but I highly doubt WSU will cut the Political Science Department. They’ll probably shove it with another department to form a giant department that houses Political Science and others. There are a lot of pre-law students here, and the whole thing WSU is trying to build on is providing a quality education that can compete with other universities. Cutting something like Political Science that preps students for professional school is not a very smart thing to do if they want to continue to improve their ranking. If, for some inane reason, the department is cut, they’ll probably do what they did with Higher Education Administration and just stop accepting students and continue to get the students who are already in it to finish their degrees. So it’s not like they’ll tell you to pick another major.

Butttttt–don’t forget that I’m just a student here. Don’t take my word for it. Honestly, I really think it would be to your advantage to come here. I don’t know what your financial situation is like, but there are ways to cut costs, just be smart about it. I am super biased because I’m already attending school and ultimately this is your life and your decision, but really weigh the pros and cons. If you have the opportunity and the means to go this fall, I would do it.