WGU Texas Announces New Military Spouse Scholarships

AUSTIN— In support of Military Spouse Appreciation Day, May 6, online nonprofit WGU Texas has announced a new scholarship program to help military spouses achieve their goals of higher education. Spouses of active-duty military personnel, veterans, guard, and reservists can apply for the WGU Military Spouse Scholarship valued at $4,000 ($1,000 in tuition credit per term, renewable for up to four terms). The scholarship can be applied to any of to the university’s more than 60 accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.

According to the 2020 Military Family Lifestyle Survey sponsored by Blue Star Families, military spouses face many challenges when it comes to employment.

• 35% reported that they are not employed but need or want employment
• 67% of military spouses reported being underemployed
• 58% are not satisfied with their ability to advance their vocational goals in their current role

“At WGU Texas, we understand that military moves and deployments greatly impact a spouse’s ability to earn a degree,” said Linda Battles, WGU Texas Chancellor. “Previously, spouses could apply for several other scholarships that we offer to the military community, but the Military Spouse Scholarships were created exclusively for them.”

As a military spouse and recent scholarship recipient, Amanda Thoms moved multiple times with her husband, living in Boston, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and New Orleans and is raising a family of three children. She learned about WGU from her husband, who wanted to finish his bachelor’s degree and found WGU’s competency-based education model a good fit. Thoms works for a government agency as a quantitative methods technical specialist and wanted to expand her career and education in the field. She applied to WGU’s M.S. Data Analytics program and says, “I never looked back. This scholarship award is perfect timing.”

WGU has been named one of the “Top Military-Friendly Colleges and Universities” for 12 consecutive years by Military Advanced Education and Transition Magazine, and about one in seven of its students nationwide is affiliated with the military community. WGU has also been ranked as the #1 online school by Military Friendly. The university has demonstrated a strong commitment to helping servicemen and women apply their knowledge and life experiences toward a high-quality degree that will open career opportunities into business, healthcare, K–12 education, or information technology. So far this year, WGU has awarded nearly $1 million in scholarships to military and veteran students and their families.

Designed for working adults, WGU offers an asynchronous, competency-based model that allows students to log in and access coursework at a time convenient for them, and to accelerate at their own pace. Tuition is around $4,000 per six-month term for most undergraduate degree programs, and students can take as many courses as they wish within a term, with the consent of their assigned mentor.