The Scholarship Interview

Yesterday I had a phone interview with a WGU scholarship representative.  It was very similar to my application interview.  The gentleman that called was very polite and kind.  He asked several questions.

• Why are you excited about your chosen program?
• How would receiving this scholarship impact you and your family?
• Why are you passionate about women in technology?
• What skills do you have that will make you a successful WGU student?
• What are your financial plans for covering tuition?

He said that I would hear back from the scholarship review committee via email within 2 weeks whether I am awarded a scholarship or not.  He also said that most applicants don’t get phone interviews, so it’s encouraging to be included in that group.

I applied for 3 WGU scholarship opportunities:  “New Year New You”, “Women in Technology” and “Sage”.   They only award 1 scholarship per student, so if I were to be selected for more than one, they would only award the value of 1 scholarship.  All of them are $2,000 divided over 4 terms.

It's hard to say how many of each of these specific scholarships they give out in a month.  According to WGU on LinkedIn 5,706 new students started degree programs on May 1st.  As I understand it, they have about a $7,000,000 annual scholarship budget.  If evenly granted throughout the year, 7 mil divided by $2,000 is 3,500 scholarships per year, divided by 12, is about 291 scholarships given out per month to about 5% of the month's incoming class.

I guess we’ll know in less than 2 weeks. Fingers crossed!