Alexis Bernal

Students can inquire about scholarship opportunities at the financial aid office.

In Fall 2023 Texas Wesleyan raised tuition by 4.34%. Currently, base tuition costs about $15,695 per semester for a full-time student. This doesn’t include charges like housing, meal plans and extra educational fees. Many students depend on scholarships to help pay for their tuition; however, they have not seen an increase in scholarship money to account for the extra cost. 

There have been complaints by students about the rise in tuition and fees that their scholarships have not been able to cover. Some have seen a 20% increase in overall charges within the last two years. Yet, the scholarship money that they have been awarded has remained the same. This leaves students with a balance that students were not predicting to pay their first year. This has caused students to drop out of the university because they were not able to cover the unexpected added cost.  

The university offers many scholarships for students. However, a lot of students find that it still is not enough. There is simply a lack of opportunity for an average student to cover the cost of tuition because the strict requirement for those scholarships limits the number of students that are allowed to receive those awards available by the university. 

TxWes offers department scholarships, athletic scholarships, and a handful of scholarships that students can only receive if they meet the specific requirements. For example, if you are a legacy student, meaning one of your parents is a former TxWes student, there are scholarships available for you. There are also sponsored scholarships available, such as the TCC to TXWES Pathway scholarship. These types of scholarships generally require students to be current Texas residents. Although the school offers athletic or department scholarships that would cover the full cost of tuition, those scholarships are limited and in extremely high demand.  

However, the issue still stands… students have found that even with the scholarships they can receive, the dollar amount of those awards still does not come close to covering the full cost of tuition. For many students, this means incurring tens of thousands of dollars of debt to cover the cost, and that must be paid back with interest.  

Students can ask about what scholarships are available for them at any time. The university suggests meeting a financial advisor for any questions students might have about scholarships. Students are also able to apply for scholarships via applying online on the university website at txwes.edu. There are scholarships available each semester for students. Students can also bring in any scholarships they might find outside of TxWes. The most popular scholarships that most of the student body has received are the SMARTER U, Transfer and Freshman scholarships. However, students are only able to receive these for one year. 

After all of that, there is at least one scholarship that each student could get throughout their time at Texas Wesleyan. However, the raised cost of tuition being so high and factoring in other elements such as housing, books, fees and a list of many other things makes the overall cost of attending Texas Wesleyan very high. If the school could offer more scholarships that would allow for more students to meet requirements, students might see more opportunity for them to cover the cost. If not, if there were more scholarships that could cover more of the cost students could feel more financially secure.  

For now, the school offers a variety of scholarships. To see if you qualify or have any questions you can contact the office of financial aid by email at [email protected] or by phone at 817-531-4420.