Support for scholarships is one of the most important investments you can make in the present and future success of Washington University. Scholarships and fellowships help attract and retain outstanding young men and women in both the undergraduate and the graduate and professional programs, thus contributing in a major way to the culture of excellence at the University. Outstanding students stimulate the teacher-scholars who guide their learning, fostering an academic environment of greater creativity, cooperation, and solid achievement.

Scholarships make it possible for qualified applicants to attend a premier university and achieve their fullest potential, regardless of their personal financial means. In many respects, scholarships help erase the distinction between those on different ends of the economic spectrum.

Scholarships benefit both the individual students, by providing them a higher level of learning opportunities, and the greater community and the world, by fostering the preparation of a more highly educated citizenry able to address society's challenges and exercise leadership in their communities.

Washington University scholarships come from three primary sources: 1) income from endowed scholarship funds; 2) annual gifts directed to scholarship programs, and 3) the University's own operating funds. Most scholarships continue to come from operating funds. However, the portion of scholarships from philanthropic sources--endowment income and annual gifts--has been increasing for several years, freeing up a larger share of operating funds for other budget priorities. The scholarship effort needs to continue to expand for Washington University to match the resources available at other leading universities competing for the same outstanding students.

Endowed Scholarships: One of the earliest endowment gifts to Washington University was a scholarship fund for children of Civil War veterans, established in 1871. In the intervening years, gifts to endow scholarships in perpetuity have grown increasingly popular; funds have been created by alumni, parents, and other friends, including corporations and foundations, in each of the schools and at the university level.

The minimum amount required to establish an endowed scholarship is $100,000. The income from such a fund provides a partial scholarship of about $5,000 for one student. Other categories of scholarship funds and the minimum gift levels required to endow them are: Sustaining Scholarship--$250,000; Founders Scholarship--$500,000; and Benefactors Scholarship--$1,000,000. The last category provides the equivalent of one full-tuition scholarship each year.

Annual Scholarships: An innovative program begun in the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1974, and since extended to all schools in the University, encourages donors to make Annual Fund gifts of $5,000 or more to create one-year, named scholarships. Scholarship donors are recognized by the William Greenleaf Eliot Society at the level of Eliot Fellow or higher.

A main attraction of the program is the opportunity it offers donors to meet and get to know the students they are helping, and for the students to be able to thank their sponsors in person. Often, lasting friendships and even business and professional relationships have developed between sponsors and scholarship recipients.