Can I essentially regard the University of Washington as a total safety?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I don't have much of a chance to get into Harvard, and to be honest if I'm not going there I would rather go to UW to save money and live at home--it's a great school. So I'd like your opinions on whether I should apply to even less prestigious schools as ultra-safeties or if I can save my money on the basis that I will be practically a UW guaranteed-admit.</p>

<p>UW requires no teacher recs; I will begin preparing my essays this year. (I am a junior.)</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>General Information:
[ul]
[<em>]Gender: Male
[</em>]Race: Chinese (100%)
[<em>]State: Washington (WA)
[</em>]School: Large high-ranked public school
[li]Intended Majors: Biochemistry & Chinese[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>GPA:
[ul]
[<em>]Unweighted GPA: 4.00
[</em>]Weighted GPA: 4.65
[li]Rank: Top 2% of around 450[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>PSAT score: ? CR, ? M, ? W (? composite)</p>

<p>SAT I scores:
[ul]
[<em>]May 2010: 720 CR, 780 M, 730 W (2230 composite)
[</em>]June 2010: 800 CR, 760 M, 750 W (2310 composite)
[li]Superscore: 800 CR, 780 M, 750 W (2330 composite)[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>SAT II scores:
[ul]
[<em>]Math II: 800
[</em>]Chemistry: 800
[<em>]Literature: 800
[</em>]Biology-M: 800
[li]U.S. History: 800[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>AP scores:
<a href="Sophomore%20Year">i</a>*
[ul]
[<em>]AP Computer Science A: 5
[</em>]AP World History: 5
[<em>]AP Chemistry: 5
[</em>]AP Calculus AB: 5
[<em>]AP Physics B: 4
[/ul]
<a href="Junior%20Year--PREDICTIONS%20BASED%20ON%20MY%20CURRENT%20PERFORMANCE">i</a>*
[ul]
[</em>]AP Calculus BC: 5
[<em>]AP Macroeconomics: 5
[</em>]AP Microeconomics: 5
[<em>]AP English Language: 5
[</em>]AP French Language: 4
[<em>]AP Biology: 5
[</em>]AP U.S. History: 5
[/ul]</p>

<p>Courseload:
<a href="Freshman%20Year">i</a>*
[ul]
[<em>]9th Grade P.E.
[</em>]Photography & Advanced Photography
[<em>]Computer Essentials & Foundations of World History
[</em>]French 3
[<em>]Honors Integrated Algebra and Trigonometry 3
[</em>]Chemistry
[<em>]Honors Freshman English
[/ul]
<a href="SophomoreYear">i</a>*
[ul]
[</em>]AP Physics B
[<em>]Honors Sophomore English
[</em>]AP World History
[<em>]Health & Racquet Sports
[</em>]French 4
[<em>]AP Chemistry
[</em>]AP Calculus AB
[/ul]
<a href="Junior%20Year">i</a>*
[ul]
[<em>]AP Computer Science A
[</em>]Advanced Calculus
[<em>]AP Economics
[</em>]AP English Language
[<em>]AP French Language
[</em>]AP Biology
[<em>]AP U.S. History
[/ul]
<a href="Senior%20Year">i</a>*
[ul]
[</em>]Differential Equations
[<em>]AP Comparative/U.S. Government
[</em>]AP Physics C: Mechanics
[li]AP English Literature[/li][li]<a href="undecided">i</a>[/li][li]<a href="undecided">i</a>[/li][li]<a href="undecided">i</a>*[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
[ul]
[<em>]Piano (10+ years)
[</em>]Martial arts (8th-10th grade)
[<em>]Math Club <a href="member">i</a><a href="9th-11th%20grade">/i</a>
[</em>]Robotics Club <a href="member">i</a><a href="10th-11th%20grade">/i</a>
[li]40 hours of various community service[/li][/ul]</p>

2

<p>Typical high-achieving Asian with no life . . .</p>

3

<p>Definitely a safety. Honestly, if you wanted you could definitely apply to reach schools that you can also picture yourself at. Not just a HYPSM school or whatever, but something that you would want to go to. If you picture yourself at UW and really WANT to go there, then you definitely will get accepted. But if you’re tempted to apply other places just to “see what happens” then you should because your stats are great :).</p>

4

<p>UDub is a fabulous school. I’d be shocked if you didn’t get in, but it never hurts to apply to two or three schools just in case.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, I’ve been thinking about applying to maybe 1-2 others. Do you have any suggestions? I was thinking about UCB/UCLA, but I can’t really come up with any others aside from that.</p>

<p>kellybbk: I like to spend what free time I have at home with my family instead of doing a slew of extracurriculars. Judge as you will, I suppose . . .</p>

6

<p>Definitely. Don’t just “think” about applying there, if you want to see what happens then apply to UCLA. Maybe then once you get all of your acceptance letters and FA Packages, you can compare and contrast the schools.</p>

7

<p>CU-Boulder, U Oregon, and U Utah are all somewhat similar to UDub and all have excellent biochem. I don’t know about the Chinese…</p>

<p>EDIT: UCB and UCLA are certainly excellent schools, but if you get into one of those OOS you’d probably get into UDub as well and they just aren’t worth the extra $$$ in OOS tuition. Just my 2 cents.</p>

8

<p>Race: Chinese (100%)
Worsens your chances</p>

<p>GPA:
Unweighted GPA: 4.00
Weighted GPA: 4.65
Rank: Top 2% of around 450
Nicely Done</p>

<p>SAT I scores:
Superscore: 800 CR, 780 M, 750 W (2330 composite)
Nice</p>

<p>SAT II scores:
Math II: 800
Chemistry: 800
Biology-M: 800
Nice</p>

<p>AP scores:
(Sophomore Year)
AP Computer Science A: 5
AP World History: 5
AP Chemistry: 5
AP Calculus AB: 5
AP Physics B: 4

  • Did well in Chemistry</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Nothing really here. UCLA/WashU are pretty stat reliant, so you have a great shot there. 0% at most any Ivy.</p>

9

<p>I think it’s a definite safety for you. My counselor told me that UW is a total safety for me, and my stats aren’t even as high as yours. As long as you don’t slack on the essays, you should be good to go.</p>

10

<p>@7yearman: This is about the University of Washington in Seattle, not Washington University in St. Louis.</p>

11

<p>bump 10char</p>

12

<p>Yea, U-Dub is a safety for you. You should look into applying to USC too, because I think if you got in you’d get one of their good merit scholarships (i.e. half or full tuition)</p>

13

<p>^just to add on, maybe you should consider U-Dub honors college?</p>