Start college with confidence, prepare for academic success, and build community in SPU’s Ascent Scholars Program.
Have you been invited to the Ascent Scholars Program? Sign up now! Space is limited.
Program Details
Research shows that some students who enter with a high school GPA below 3.2 or SAT scores below 1050 (or ACT below 20) have great potential but can find the first year of college particularly challenging. Ascent Scholars have proven more likely to earn higher grades and successfully continue their college careers.
Ascent students receive these advantages:
Priority registration during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters of your first year. You’ll register for classes before other first-year students.
Opportunities to boost academic skills, including college-level writing and research, in a classes with our top writing faculty. Students also register for two or three additional courses for a total of 12–15 credits.
Courses include GS 1000 “Foundations for Academic Success” (Autumn Quarter); WRI 1000 “Academic Inquiry and Writing Seminar” (Winter Quarter); and WRI 1100 “Disciplinary Research and Writing Seminar” (Spring Quarter).
$6,000 scholarships — $1,500 per year at SPU.
Note: To receive this scholarship, students must enroll in the Ascent courses and maintain a cumulative SPU GPA of 2.0 or greater, with full-time (12 or more credits) of continuous enrollment.
Receive additional support from a peer mentor who is an Ascent Scholar. Students in the Ascent Program also benefit from additional academic advising and access to SPU’s Center for Learning.
These resources help students with college study skills, time management, deciding what courses to take next, and more.
Sign up now! Space is limited.
Just complete the Ascent Scholar Program Cohort sign-up in your SPU portal.
Note: If you have, or will earn, college-level writing/composition credits prior to attending SPU, the Ascent Program is not the best fit for you.
If you need more information, please contact Dr. Andrew Ryder, Director of Undergraduate General Education, at 206-281-2238 or aryder@spu.edu.