Improve Access

Increase access and affordability

By increasing our endowments dedicated to scholarships, Whitman can meet the growing need for financial aid, compete for the best and brightest applicants, and ensure that its transformative education remains accessible to the finest students from all backgrounds.

Endow need-based aid

A Whitman education is too important and too valuable to be available only to those who have the means to attend. Increasing our endowment resources for need-based scholarship will perpetuate our distinguished history of providing support for students from middle and lower-income families.

Bolster merit-based scholarships

Merit scholarships help us recognize and recruit potential leaders and bring those with demonstrated talent to our campus.

Financial Aid by the Numbers 2010-11

Twenty-five percent of our students come from families with annual incomes of less than $50,000, and more than 80 percent of our students require financial assistance to attend Whitman.

A More Diverse Campus

Whitman College seeks to bring students to our campus whose backgrounds and experiences offer varying perspectives on living and learning in a multicultural world. That diversity – socioeconomic, racial, geographic, cultural and experiential – is integral to the Whitman experience and to the fabric of the Whitman community. At Whitman, first-generation students, students from small towns and students from metropolitan areas come together to create a unique learning community. Whitman’s recent success at enrolling a more socioeconomically and ethnically diverse student body has involved a significant increase in our commitment to scholarship aid. To maintain and build upon this success, we must endow scholarships that provide access to students who contribute to our diverse community.