I have heard that the admission rate for this year will be around 30% this year. Do you think this is true? How could it drop from 55% to 30%? I know a lot of people got in last year due to their year having the least amount of high school graduates and that there are a lot more students applying to the UW this year, but do you think it is realistic for this drastic plummet? I really hope it’s not true
I doubt UW will ever be that selective, haha. Don’t worry about it.
The in-state admission rate is around 60-70% IIRC and the difficulty of getting in here is mostly exaggerated as the UW will probably take around half its students again this year. Like I’ve mentioned a couple times on this subforum, anyone with a 1850+ SAT and 3.5+ GPA is pretty much set as long as they don’t completely tank their senior year.
Long story short, you’ll be fine. Good luck!
Psh, UW is not that competitive. A midlevel GPA, minimal ECs, and decent SAT will ensure a spot.
I would expect the admission rate drop again this year for non-residents. The number of non-resident applications is increasing (up almost 10% last year and could be even higher this year), as UW has become a favorite of highly qualified Californians who are finding it more and more difficult, for a myriad of reasons, to gain admission to UCB and UCLA. If that continues, in a few years, the non-resident admissions rate could get to 30%, which affects the overall admissions rate and statistical profile, but it would take more time for the overall admissions rate to reach 30%.
A similar trend occurred at UCB and UCLA during the last 20 years. In the mid 1990s (which this “old timer” who went to grad school at UW in the 1990s will tell you is not that long ago!), the freshman admissions rate for UCLA was around 50%, and now it is under 17%, fueled mostly by a huge increase in the number of applications (both in-state and non-resident).
The mean GPA for the 2014 freshman class at UW is 3.76; at UCLA it is 3.85; the 25/75 ACT at UW was 25/31; at UCLA it was 26/32. I would not be surprised to see these margins continue to close over the next few years.
I’m glad I’m not applying to colleges these days. Take a look at this 2006 article from USA Today, reporting admissions data from 2004: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-02-collegerates_x.htm
For the college class of 2008, UCD’s admission rate was 57%, UCSB’s was 53%, UCSD’s was 37% and UCLA/UCB were around 24%. Heck, UW’s was almost 71%, but last year it was 55%, as applications increased from 15,773 in 2004 to 31,611 in 2014.
Same goes for quite a few “elite” private universities: NYU was at 35%, Notre Dame 30% and USC 27%, rates that today some would consider to be “not that competitive.”
We’re all rooting for you, Class of 2019!
I just read that applications were up 17% for freshman admissions this year. If so, and they admit about the same number, the admissions rate would be around 47% this year (est. 17,451/36,985). Not 30%, but if that trend continues, in two to three years it might be.
Personally, I hope UW becomes increasingly competitive (as a current student). I think they should tighten up general admission and then phase out applying to majors, or just make it a far easier process (such that a very high % of students get into their desired major provided they don’t blow off school). And I say this as a student who got into his desired major easily, but I’ve seen a lot of talented students not make the cut because they didn’t play the GPA game (they challenged themselves and lost out to students who took easier classes).
@JuanitaRebel I too am a current student and could not agree more. Nothing erks me more than to have students ask me or other students what classes are GPA boosters. Padding your GPA and transcripts with BS classes doesn’t make you a good student, nor should it be rewarded with easy access to more competitive majors. Students that challenge themselves by taking difficult classes, both in and outside their areas of interest are, in my opinion, receive a more well-rounded education and a better experience. I really love the UW, but some days I am glad I’m a senior and hope that these same practices aren’t rewarded in Grad school.
I bet if you looked at how many UW applicants were admitted to the university AND also admitted to their first (or even second) choice major by their junior year, the rate would be closer to 30%.
EEDawg, you could be right about the very rigorous STEM majors. There is some truth to the old saying that law schools are filled with former pre-med majors, for example.
@Jsmith210 Yeah, it irks me too. The current practice incentivizes people to take stupidly easy classes for GEs and undoubtedly punishes students who challenge themselves. UW needs to do some institutional introspection and ask itself some questions. What does being a university student at UW really mean? What are some of UW’s institutional ideals? Can we in good conscience accept the current number of students, knowing full well that we won’t be able to accommodate a number of them, despite them showing requisite (in that they achieve marks high enough to transfer to equally or better ranked institutions) aptitude and promise in their desired disciplines. The status quo seems to encourage behavior that runs contrary to its lofty motto of “Be Boundless”. Instead, it promotes students playing tetris with their schedules in order to get the perfect line-up of GPA inflating courses (or professors/TA combos in required classes). I think there are a number of broad, more philosophical questions which could be posed to UW’s administration about admission policies as well. And I say all of this as someone who has navigated the system successfully, but also as someone who is cognizant of the system’s inherent shortcomings.
How about foreign admission rate? Can anyone find it?
“The overall admission rate for the Seattle campus freshman class was 55.2 percent (68 percent for residents and 48.9 percent for non-residents [54 percent for U.S. non-residents and 39.8 percent for international non-residents]).”
Of course, that was Fall 2014. If applications are up 17% for Fall 2015, each of those numbers may drop a few percentage points. It will be interesting to see which group contributed the most to this year’s increase in applicants.
You know, I thought about it and if the UW really wanted to, they probably could slash admission rates to 30% or so. They’d just have to filter all the more marginal students to Bothell and Tacoma, set an implicit SAT/GPA cap and voila! They could also switch to the Common App the way many state flagships (with the exception of the UC schools) have, which would almost certainly guarantee applications to shoot up even more.
Just some stuff to think about.
I wish UW would slash admission rates. I think if we became just slightly more selective we would rise a fair bit in the rankings. And I think us climbing the rankings would only incentivize high achieving in-state students to remain at home. Alas, UW’s mission isn’t to climb the rankings or to become the most prestigious university out there.
For rankings that focus on freshman admission rate, such as the US News “Best Colleges” rankings, no doubt a rate in the 30% range would improve UW’s rank significantly. However, UW more than holds its own in other rankings, including the most recent Times HER (4 US public, 26 world), US News Best Global Universities (3 US public, 14 world), National Taiwan University Ranking (1 US public, 5 world), Shanghai Ranking (4 US public, 15 world), and Ranking Web (3 US public, 7 world), to name a few (see also, Washington Monthly, Kiplinger). Each has its own methodology, but all consistently recognize a short list of universities that have the most impact on our world, and UW is one if them. These days, any spot at UW that is not taken by a great WA student will be contested by several great OOS and international students.
According to the Seattle Times, the applications were up 16% to 36,528, 11,278 of which were in state.
“The university continues to receive an ever-increasing number of applications from outside the state; this year, there was a 19 percent increase in applications from out-of-state students overall, and a whopping 31 percent increase in applications from California. Other states with big increases: Massachusetts (29 percent), Illinois (27 percent), Texas (25 percent), Minnesota (24 percent) and New York (23 percent).”
So, the answer to my earlier question is (big surprise) California!
Coriander, you are right. I just read an article about U Colorado Boulder’s switch to the Common App, which stated, “[It’s] not uncommon for schools new to the Common Application to see a 25 percent to 30 percent jump in applications the first year.”