WILLISTON, N.D. - Due to continuing interest in the Regional County Scholarship beyond the initial April 1 deadline, Williston State College and the WSC Foundation have agreed to extend its deadline to May 1, 2016.

Funding is available to receive more applications and the WSC Foundation and WSC want to ensure anyone who is eligible and wants to attend WSC during Fall 2016 can still apply.

"As one of the only colleges in the nation where every high school graduate in the service area can attend WSC and receive full tuition and fees, we want to keep student affordability our utmost priority," explained Terry Olson, Executive Director of the WSC Foundation. "After the success of the Williams County Graduate Scholarship in its first year, we had donors who wanted to help expand opportunities to attend WSC. Extending this scholarship program to Burke, Divide, Mountrail and McKenzie for Fall 2016 was just what we needed to do."

Created out of the partnership between the Alva J Field trust, the North Dakota Challenge Fund, and the WSC Foundation, the Williams County Graduate (WCG) Scholarship disbursed close to $2,000,000 in total awards for Fall 2015-Spring 2016. The Alva J Field Trust contributed close to $400,000 dollars (matched dollars included) and the remaining $1.6 million plus was paid by the WSC Foundation.

Any graduate of a Williams County high school, despite their year of graduation, was eligible to receive this scholarship beginning Fall 2015. The start of the WCG scholarship coincided with WSC's second record-breaking headcount semester. WCG Scholarship students compose 33% of WSC's total record-breaking enrollment of 1,038 students for Fall 2015.

"As the fastest growing college in North Dakota, WSC has seen a growth over the past five years of 28.05% with our Full-Time Equivalent Students," Natalie Boese, WSC Communications Specialist, stated. "When compared to other institutions, this number is impressive. Not only are we growing with opportunities like the WCG Scholarship and next year's Regional County Scholarship, but we are keeping our students." 

WSC saw the largest increase in first-time, full-time fall to spring retention in North Dakota last year. Degree-seeking student retention increased 8.09% to 78.09% from Fall 2015 to Spring 2016. This growth has continued in spite the volatile local economy, aided in large part by a motivated staff and an extremely supportive foundation.

Though not funded from the Alva J. Field Trust, the Fall 2016 Regional County Scholarship will cover tuition and fees for eligible regional county high school graduates who graduated in 2016 and GEDs earned within Burke, Divide, McKenzie, or Mountrail County.

"With over 350 scholarship applicants [Regional and Williams County] in the two months since the announcement, we are hopeful this extension will allow additional qualifying students to take advantage of this opportunity to further their education for little to no cost," explained Leah Windnagle, Director for Enrollment Services.

The application deadline for the Regional County Scholarship is now May 1, 2016 along with each student's application for admission.

"Enrollment Services is excited to assist anyone who may have missed the April 1 deadline through the application process," Kaylyn Bondy, Vice President for Student Affairs, stated. "We encourage all of those eligible to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity."

Applications can be found at www.willistonstate.edu/regionalcounty.
For more information
wsc.admission@willistonstate.edu
701.774.4210

Scholarships are dependent on funding and are subject to change.
To support this or any other scholarship, please contact the WSCF at 701.572.9275.