Western Washington University · Washington

Western Washington University scholarships and merit aid

Western Washington offers merit aid for state academic team members, transfer students, international scholars, and National Merit finalists.

Verified Jul 20262 months ago

The short answer

Is Western Washington University worth a closer look?

Western Washington University is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 8 published awards, and 3 are based on those numbers.

Merit tiers83 based on grades or scores

First-year students with school awards5%First-year students, CDS 2022-2023

Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

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Checking merit aid at Western Washington University

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Published scholarships

These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.

$12,000–$15,000

Western Award For Excellence Wae

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3

Source

Up to $10,000

International Student Scholarships

Apply separately

Source

$2,500+

All Washington Academic Team Scholarships

Apply separately

Source

$10,000+

National Merit Scholarships

Apply separatelyCan continue

Source

Amount not published

Multicultural Achievement Program Map

Apply separately

Source

$15,000+

Western Undergraduate Exchange Program Wue

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

GPA: 3.5

Source

$1,000–$2,000

Phi Theta Kappa Scholarships

Apply separately

Source

$1,500–$4,000

Western Washington University Admissions Achievement Award

Based on grades or scores

Source

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Washington residents, community college transfers in Phi Theta Kappa, international students, and National Merit semifinalists with strong academics should look closely.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $32,213 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Western Washington University, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.

Average annual net price by family income at Western Washington University, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$12,915
$30,001–$48,000	$14,147
$48,001–$75,000	$17,539
$75,001–$110,000	$24,301
$110,001+	$27,984
All income levels (average)	$21,193

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23: $9,582
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23: $28,707
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $21,193

That works out to roughly a 30% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $30,359 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

Western Washington University is a public school; Scorecard's net price figure covers in-state, Title-IV-aid-recipient payers only — there is no comparable federal figure for out-of-state students.

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort: 65%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 79%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $18,500 (~$196/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $62,569
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 21%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 36%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not Western Washington University's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not Western Washington University's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

See other scholarships and cost examples

More school data

From the Western Washington University Common Data Set 2022-2023:

Merit penetrationHow likely is merit aid here?From Western Washington University’s Common Data Set: the share of first-year students who receive institutional merit and the average dollar amount when they do.

5%of admitsget merit

Average award$1,640Covers ~5% of $32,213 cost of attendance

At Western Washington University, roughly 1 in 20 first-year admits receive institutional merit aid. The average award is $1,640 — about 5% of total cost.

As filed in Western Washington University's CDS Section H2A: of 3,144 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 171 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $1,640. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 433 of 12,157, averaging $1,976. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

Receive institutional merit5%First-year students, Common Data Set 2022-2023

Average merit award$1,640Across recipients, Common Data Set 2022-2023

Source: Common Data Set 2022-2023 (verified 2026-07-23)

See sources and other schools

How Western Washington University compares

665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Western Washington University is one of them. The cohort minority (84 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
132 of 749 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.
Western Washington University is one of them. NMF packages typically carry their own stacking and renewal carve-outs separate from the standard automatic merit ladder; confirm those before assuming the headline NMF value is final.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Western Washington University’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Cost of attendanceWestern Washington University cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersWestern Award For Excellence Wae

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