Any questions for a current student?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
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<p>I am a senior at UW so I will try to answer some of your questions too.</p>

<p>Do any students own cars?
If they are living on campus, most do not. It is ridiculously expensive to park on campus every day, and there are very limited spots that are 24 hour parking for the dorms. People in the greek system or who live in apartments nearby may or may not own cars, depending on whether the place that they are living supplies a parking spot. I personally do not have a car, and I commute to campus by puss every day. </p>

<p>When you are a UW student, you get a U-PASS which is a universal bus pas that can get you almost anywhere in king county. There are buses from the suburbs into Seattle, and there are express buses from the UW campus to downtown. A lot of people take the bus. Most of the time buses are packed with students.</p>

<p>As far as AP credits, I would say do as many as possible! If you are still in high school, take AP English, because english at UW sucks (I didn’t have to take it, but I have heard horror stories). I do not know anything about biology specifically, but I do know that all of my AP credits transferred. I also took a NEVAC course which gave me 5 elective credits. Either way, I would take the test just in case. You never know. You may end up going to a community college for a while, and the AP credits will definitely count there.</p>

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<p>Yes, I don’t have a problem getting into classes. A lot of times, even if something is full when you want to register for it, if you show up on the first day you can get a spot for the class. I won’t be graduating in four years (technically) because I am getting two degrees (BS in biology, BA in anthropology).</p>

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<p>More about that can be found here:</p>

<p><a href=“Student Financial Aid”>Student Financial Aid;

<p>[Registration</a> Policies](<a href=“Policies & Procedures - Office of the University Registrar”>Policies & Procedures - Office of the University Registrar)</p>

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<p>Honestly I think most people find out in March. And there aren’t any ED/EA applications at UW, but sometimes people who apply earlier will find out earlier.</p>

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<p>Do you mean like downtown? It’s actually pretty close. About a 20 min bus ride away. I am honestly not sure how often students visit the city…I would say that varies a lot. The bus that goes downtown is usually packed, though. So I guess it’s a pretty popular destination? I personally don’t make it downtown too often, but I go sometimes. UW has a lot of stuff nearby though…my dorm is within walking distance of U Village so if I want to go shopping I just go there.</p>

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<p>Yes! There are a ton of activities always going on. I would say it isn’t too hard to find a party, if that’s what you want. And there’s stuff like a 12-lane bowling alley, etc. on campus. I have never heard of the Seattle freeze. I had to google it — I guess it means that it is hard to make friends in Seattle. Honestly I would say that this doesn’t apply to UW, I have found people pretty open. In terms of the city in general, I dont really know. Sometimes I see people chatting on the bus or whatever. But I would also say that Seattle isn’t exactly midwestern, small town, “nice”.</p>

<p>{I am going to split this up because I am afraid a big giant post will get eaten}</p>

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<p>Yes Pike Place is downtown. This website [Metro’s</a> Online Trip Planner](<a href=“http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/]Metro’s”>http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/) will be your friend. Looks like about 12:30 but there isn’t just one bus that goes from downtown to campus. The bus you will take depends on where you want to go. The bus I personally take runs every half hour, but there are others that run every ten minutes.</p>

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<p>Most popular mode of transportation on campus would be walking, by far. I will always see a couple of bikes and a couple of skateboards while I am on my way to class, but I would never ride one myself…because there are just so many people around. I would be afraid to hit someone. Some students own cars but it is really expensive to park on campus. Even if students own a car a lot of times they will park somewhere else and take the bus to their car when they want to use it. Out of my cluster, (eight girls) only one brought their car to school and she parks it a couple of miles away at a friends house, and she doesn’t use it all that often. And one girl does have a bike…but she doesn’t ride it to class (because of the busy walkways) but she does ride it like to U. Village for example. To actually get around Seattle, most kids will use their U-pass as GreenSeattle described.</p>

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<p>Well, the difference between AP English and AP Biology is that taking the AP Biology test DOES NOT get you out of intro to biology at UW. It doesn’t get you out of anything. So in that regards, it was useless to me personally. In fact it ended up being a negative thing for me…it just sits on my transcript and pushes me that much closer to exceeding the 210 credit policy that I previously posted about. But that is for me personally…I am not an adviser…I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling you not to take the test. In fact, if you need credits, it might be nice. You do get ten Natural World credits from a 4 or 5 on the test. But I personally have plenty of those and I don’t need 10 more.</p>

<p>I would say that maybe if you are in a situation like me…you are going to be a biology major, or some other major that requires that you take the intro to biology sequence, then maybe the credits wouldn’t be very useful. If I had known then what I know now, I would have chosen to hide the score from UW when I was sending my scores. And in high school I would have taken AP Chem, which actually places you out of some of the intro to chem courses, instead of AP Biology. But before you do anything, I would still talk to your counselor or adviser first!</p>

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<p>I think that there is someone willing to spend so much time answering questions on this board as U.W. Student has done these past weeks shows exactly why U Dub is one of the best colleges in the country. Well done !</p>

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<p>U.W. Student, Thank you!!</p>

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<p>Can anyone explain the UW numeric grading system? Do you like it better than letter grades? It would seem a little strange to get a 3.7 from a teacher as a grade, or do they typically just give a rounded grade like a 4 or 3?</p>

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<p>UW doesn’t give rounded grades like 3 or 4. I like UW grading system.</p>

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<p>[University</a> of Washington Grading System](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/front/Grading_Sys.html]University”>University of Washington Office of the Registrar)</p>

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<p>well, you could get a 3 or a 4 if you got exactly 3.0 or 4.0, but all other numbers in between count as well, 3.1, 3.4, 3.8 etc. It takes some getting used to to figure out the conversion to a letter grade or percentage, but it’s not bad.</p>

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<p>How does UW assign room mates? do you fill out some sort of survey and then they find a fitting match or is it just a complete random choice?</p>

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<p>Hi!! okay so i was recently admitted to UW and I am still not sure if i want to attend the school. the major thing that concerns me is the huge classes. with the enormous classes i am afraid a class i need would be full and then i would not be able to take it in time. has that ever been an issue for you?
i would be entering as a freshmen with no credits ahead of time. i want to know is it possible for those like me to graduate in 4 years. I want to pursue a major in International Studies if that helps.
Also could you outline what kinds of classes a freshmen with no credits would be taking?
thanks for your help! it is much appreciated.</p>

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<p>Can someone please elaborate more on the car/vehicle issue?</p>

<p>I’m OOS so not having/affording a car in Seattle would be a huge problem for attending.</p>

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I don’t think you need a car if you live on or near campus. Bus service around the campus is not bad. As some one pointed out earlier, parking is not cheap.</p>

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<p>I’d be willing to take public transportation all the time, it’s just I need a vehicle to drive home and back during holidays/summers.</p>

<p>I guess my question is, how much does just storing your car on campus cost?</p>

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<p>@kenson I don’t know what your options are if you stay in a dorm. I have seen some dorms have parking garages but I don’t know how much they cost.</p>

<p>Here is the [url=<a href=“Housing & Food Services - UW HFS”>Housing & Food Services - UW HFS]link[/url</a>] to parking info. If you live off campus in a nearby house/apt then parking won’t be a big challenge.</p>

<p>Contact info for uw housing: 206-543-4059 or <a href=“mailto:hfsinfo@u.washington.edu”>hfsinfo@u.washington.edu</a></p>

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<p>thanks for the helpful info</p>

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<p>You’re welcome!</p>

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<p>No, you really do get a 3.7 or whatever for your final grade. If you are asking about the grade for specific assignments rather than the course grades, that can vary by teacher. Sometimes on a paper you really do get a decimal grade like a 3.8 or whatever. Or a lot of times you will get points out of a hundred, like 85 or whatever. In my experience we really don’t seem to be big on actual letter grades.</p>

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<p>You do fill out a survey, but it isn’t incredibly detailed. I was trying to find the exact questions they ask but I wasn’t able to. I remember they ask some stuff about whether you smoke or drink, what time you like to go to bed, how neat you are, whether you like it quiet so that you can study in your room, whether you have “overnight guests”. That kind of thing. And then you get to pick I think four choices for which residence halls you want. Do not put Mercer, do not put Mercer, do not put Mercer.</p>

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<p>Well, in fact, the reason that some of the classes are big is so that everyone can get in — sometimes the larger size prevents that issue. I have never had an issue with not getting a class I needed. If you are proactive about it — you are sure to register at your assigned time and know what you are registering for ahead of time — I think you will be okay. A surprising amount of kids suddenly decide to register a couple of weeks after registration opens and then are shocked that they “can’t” get the stuff they need.</p>

<p>Even if something happens and even after doing all the right things, you still do run across a class that is full, there are still steps you can take to get that class. There is an enormous amount of adding and dropping that goes on. Okay, so there is the main time schedule page…I will use this one as an example [INTERNATIONAL</a> STUDIES](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2010/intl.html]INTERNATIONAL”>INTERNATIONAL STUDIES) and then once you click the SLN link, it brings you to a new page. That first page is only updated once a day at 12 am, but that second page is updated instantly.</p>

<p>I will include screen shots because I think some of this might be UW net-ID protected: here is the first page [Image</a> - ■■■■■■■ - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/view.php?pic=oktuu8&s=6]Image”>http://■■■■■■■.com/view.php?pic=oktuu8&s=6) and the second page [Image</a> - ■■■■■■■ - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/view.php?pic=2ryhmd0&s=6]Image”>http://■■■■■■■.com/view.php?pic=2ryhmd0&s=6)</p>

<p>What I would recommend doing if something is full is setting your home page to that second page. That way every time you open up your internet you will be able to check for a spot. Chances are that during the couple of months from registration to the start of school, someone will drop and you will be able to get a spot.</p>

<p>If all of that still fails, you can go to class on the first day and try to get a spot then. It depends on the situation and exactly how full something is, but I would say a majority of time you can get a spot just by going on the first day.</p>

<p>And then if all of that STILL fails, most of the time you can go to the department adviser and explain your situation, and they will make sure that you get a guaranteed spot for the next time the class is offered.</p>

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<p>You can check this stuff out [UW</a> Advising - Freshman Basics](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/gettingstarted/overview.php]UW”>http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/gettingstarted/overview.php)</p>

<p>[UW</a> Advising - Registering for Classes](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/gettingstarted/basics_reg.php]UW”>http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/gettingstarted/basics_reg.php)</p>

<p>I think that might be what you are looking for. I think a lot of entering students will take stuff just to fulfill the basic requirements…which can be found here [UW</a> Advising - Areas of Knowledge](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/degreeplanning/gebsraoknow.php]UW”>http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/degreeplanning/gebsraoknow.php) And here is a link with some info about the International Studies major specifically [International</a> Studies](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/academic/internat_studies.html]International”>http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/academic/internat_studies.html)</p>

<p>From what I can tell, it looks like you shouldn’t have any problems graduating in four years. The major requires 80 credits, and then the standard Area of Knowledge is about 75 (and there will be some overlap here with your major credits). Four years is 15 credits times 3 quarters times 4 years = 180 so you should be fine.</p>

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<p>It’s $360 per quarter to the best of my knowledge. So that’s about 1000 per year. That combined with Seattle insurance rates is not going to make you very happy. I guess you would have to ask yourself if it would really be worth it, and how often you would be planning to come home. </p>

<p>It might actually work out cheaper to have someone take you back and forth on your vacations. Or maybe even fly. I have a friend who lives in Spokane and she watches the flights carefully and she actually flies home for cheaper than it would be to drive/keep her car here. I’m not sure where you live so not sure if these tips will work for you, just something to think about.</p>

<p>Oh, and if you really do need your car, I think you could rent an apartment that comes with a parking space, however the rent could be more expensive as a result. I think some fraternity/sorority houses include a parking space, but then they have dues as well. I am not incredibly familiar with this issue, but hopefully that gives you some options to investigate.</p>

<p>Edited to add, Radford Court, an apartment with connections to the UW, does come with a parking space. However the cheapest rent is 895 per month compared to the roughly 500 per month that I pay for my double at UW. Plus the apartments are unfurnished :frowning: </p>

<p>But I thought I would throw that out there.</p>

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<p>Thanks, both max and uwstudent have been helpful.</p>

<p>I’m still deciding whether the oos tuition+related costs of going to uw, albeit an amazing school, are enough to dissuade me from matriculating. I did get a half-tuition scholarship at my safety, so hard decisions to come…</p>

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<p>There’s absolutely no need for a car. Most of the people who have them on campus are commuters or people who live close by (well there’s one california plate i see every day but that’s an exception). The bus will get you anywhere you want to go.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the awesome advice UWstudent. I also heard that the introductory classes at UW are awful. The teachers do not teach, and your grade basically depends on how their TA grades you. Is that nonsense true?</p>