More than 5,000 students will attend the University of Washington next fall tuition-free under a new guarantee for low-income families.

The Husky Promise program provides full-tuition and fee scholarships for full-time resident students who qualify for certain federal and state grants.

“The university has wanted to make sure students know that the UW is accessible to students from low-income families for some time,” said Eric Godfrey, vice provost for student life.

“When people ran the numbers and realized we could do this without causing dislocations in the UW’s operating budget and without placing additional burdens on other students, then the question became, ‘Why not?’”

About 5,200 students who currently attend at UW campuses in Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell would qualify. That’s roughly 20 percent of the university’s total undergraduate student body.

UW already spends $13 million of its scholarships and grants on such students. It expects that figure to increase by as much as $2.8 million within six years.

“We do hope that more low-income students will attend the UW because of this program,” said Kay Lewis, director of financial aid.

Jennifer Lotshaw said the program gives her hope she could afford to attend UW if she’s accepted there – something she was close to writing off.

The 21-year-old currently attends Everett Community College and hopes to attend a four-year university to pursue her bachelor’s degree in biology next fall.

“I was hearing how competitive the UW is, and when you look at how expensive it is, it felt like my chances were getting slimmer and slimmer,” Lotshaw said. “I had always wanted to go to UW. That’s my first choice. But when the rubber hit the road, I was having to consider other schools as well.”

Federal and state grants and loan programs currently help many low-income students attend colleges and universities.

Many, such as Lotshaw, benefit from federal Pell grants that are based on the costs of tuition and a family’s ability to pay.

But there are usually gaps to fill, even when other financial aid dollars are added in.

Nationally, students with Pell grants who attended public universities in 1999-2000 faced an average gap of $2,522 between the costs of education and the aid they received, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

At UW, 19 percent of undergraduate students in the 2004-05 school year received federal grants averaging $3,497.

Tuition and fees at UW are $5,985, although education costs can nearly triple when such expenses as housing, food and textbooks are included.

The Husky Promise scholarships won’t help with room and board.

Scholarships will extend to students at the UW’s two branch campuses in Bothell and Tacoma, which started admitting lower-division students this fall.

Currently, about 13 percent of the 1,500 undergraduate students at UW’s Bothell campus would qualify for the new program.

“We at UW-Bothell serve a high percentage of first-generation college-goers, young men and women from families in our community who may be recent emigres, and for whom financial assistance is critical,” interim Chancellor Steven Olswang said. “Any help we can give them to achieve their dreams of obtaining higher education is wonderful.”

Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.