Chance me, please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
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<p>HS 9-11 GPA: 3.73</p>

<p>ACT - 31 (will be looked at instead of my horrible 1650 SAT :P)
English & Math both at 35 (Do colleges look at these two scores in particular? I wonder, because I see these in most admission statistics)</p>

<p>Rigor of schedule: 7 AP Classes total, including 6 math credits (Precalc/AP Stats Junior year, and AP Calc AB/BC Senior year), 3 Spanish credits and the rest of the credits match collegeboard.com's reported recommended credits for the other classes. 5 Honors courses as well.</p>

<p>White, in-state (I'm not entirely sure how much of a disadvantage this is, so I'd like input on that as well). Not sure if any 'legacy' applies but my older brother currently attends UW.</p>

<p>Just to throw in more information that will help you guys decide, here's a few briefs on the essays, which have been reviewed carefully by school teachers, counselors & friends:</p>

<p>Personal essay: This was about me doing community service for a young child with a disability and helping him feel warm/fulfilled (much more detail than this). It does emphasize on my eagerness of assisting children and receiving community service. I fit in my 380 community service hours total.</p>

<p>Cultural essay: I talked about a foreign student coming to America for new opportunity who was shy in the beginning, and I helped him balance academics and a social life while learning overall about his study habits, influencing me to become a better student, and how much foreign students can contribute to our community with unique traditions and lifestyles.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities: Track, Cross Country (I was able to differentiate these two pretty well, I thought), Karate, Band/Jazz Band, and an elementary summer school job for tutoring kids with math, reading, writing, and assisting the teacher. (These were the five put in my activities log).</p>

<p>I hope I'm not giving an overwhelming amount of detail on a forum :P But I'd like an opinion, considering how selective the school is nowadays. Thank you!</p>

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<p>In addition to the ACT scores: (31 Comp, 35 English, 35 Math, 27 Reading, 28 Science, 31 (8) Writing). Also, UW does not accept letters of recommendation, and rather views students on a holistic approach (personality, characteristics… basically the personal statement)</p>

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<p>I don’t wanna get annoying by bumping :stuck_out_tongue: But whoever runs into this post, I’ll chance you right back if you chance me!</p>

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<p>You’re good dude. You could have blown it on the diversity tip, but I doubt it. I think that you’ve proven that you appreciate the diversity issue. If you said you were “White” then you might offend someone in admissions, but the story about the foreign student is good because it shows you appreciate diversity in others, even if you messed up about yourself.</p>

<p>You see, “White” isn’t a culture, other than the WASP culture. But a Scandinavian essay or an Irish essay helps. But I don’t see it as being a problem.</p>

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<p>Don’t worry :slight_smile: Looks great!</p>

<p>“White, in-state (I’m not entirely sure how much of a disadvantage this is, so I’d like input on that as well). Not sure if any ‘legacy’ applies but my older brother currently attends UW.”</p>

<p>UW <em>cannot</em>, under law, discriminate based on race. They get around it by asking for you to show off ‘diversity’ and all the ‘I’m aware of other races, cultures, disabilities, etc’ (NOT limited only to ethnicity!) stuff in your essays. There’s a whole controversy about UW wanting more out of state and international students for their $$, but you shouldn’t worry about that. </p>

<p>They increased the number of students from OOS and more international students decided to go to UW than expected, so people are making a huge fuss about it. I believe the number of in state students stayed the same. You’re fine with your application. The complaints that I’ve heard about in state students not getting in were stuff like, “But omg he was a valedictorian and eagle boy scout…”… it doesn’t matter. Valedictorian says absolutely NOTHING except that you’re better than your classmates, which isn’t really much in some schools. If you have terrible test scores or only have one extra curricular activity (or worse, none…), then UW is pretty unhappy about that. I hope this helps sooth any concerns you may have :)</p>

<p>Legacy does not apply; UW is a public school. Some students I know who had three generations of family go to UW were rejected. Kind of sad… but what you put into high school and your essays/application as a whole is basically what you get out of the admissions process.</p>

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<p>Okay, thanks man! I didn’t point out that I’m white in my essay :stuck_out_tongue: but I put it on the regular information the University asks for (Caucasian). I put a good amount of story and balanced it out with what I learned from him, cultural acceptances, and used him as an influence to make me a better student. So hopefully that’ll be acceptable.</p>

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<p>I think you’re odds are great! and thanks for chancing me!</p>

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<p>Hijacking the thread, you <em>can</em> say that you’re white and they’ll accept you. Several of my friends did that. However, they still showed their engagement with other cultures as well as career paths (different essays) … so it’s not a huge blow if someone says they’re “just white”. They had average GPA/test scores as well.</p>

<p>Now, if you say that you’re white and that you’re boring, that would be an issue. If you write very racial comments, that would also be an issue. If I wrote that I was yellow, I can get away with it. Just none of that “slanty eyed ching chong ling long ting tong chink” speak is okay. Yuck.</p>

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<p>Thanks Speedsolver, that actually answers a LOT :slight_smile: I figured people were kind of exaggerating on how much harder it is to get in due to the out of state/diversity deal, so I wasn’t too worried in the first place. And in terms of my diversity knowledge, I seemed to have pointed that out in my personal essay as well, considering the kid I worked with had a disability and that’s a form of diversity acceptance as well, whether or not I actually said that in my essay (I didn’t :stuck_out_tongue: But I think the UW will figure that out themselves, and either way I feel like it looks really good). But other than that, I feel so much less concerned and much more confident – thank you!</p>

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<p>Thanks chemgeek, and no problem!</p>

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<p>Oh and also, if you have a chance me post that you want me to look at, link me to it. I have no idea how to find it otherwise :stuck_out_tongue: (Same with everyone else who wants me to give a ‘chance me’ review)</p>

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<p>Good for you then, on your essay writing. Maybe I’ll see you around next year! (creeper status time…jk?) =)</p>

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<p>Haha if I get in, maybe! Do you like it at UW? I’ve been around the campus numerous amounts of times and I LOVE it. It’s been my dream school since I was little, so I’m feeling great :)</p>

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<p>Ahhhhhh I love it. I originally wanted to go to California (either Cal or USC) since I was younger and was somewhat turned off by the ‘backyard school’ (just because. nothing specific, haha) but decided on coming here for an amazing CSE department here.</p>

<p>I don’t regret my choice, and I’ve had so many opportunities to take advantage of here. I am in love with UW.</p>

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<p>Point-in-case about the “Diversity” issue. There was a girl in my class today and the TA, who is an ABD, asked for some information as to why there was an interest in the topic of the class. It varied from “I’m of this culture but I’m American” or “I’m of a different culture but I’m interested” to “I’ve never even met anyone of this culture, but I’ve seen stories on the news, so I wanted to learn.” It was all quite normal.</p>

<p>Then it came to this girl and she was like “I don’t even know why I’m taking this class, I just needed a credit.” So the TA says “well what are your interests, what are your curious about?” Basically because he strikes me as a really good guy who wants to find a way to engage the discussions in the quiz section. He asks perhaps if there’s aspects of her culture and upbringing he can engage in the similarities and differences of the subject matter of the course to make it interesting and she says “well I’m, like, white so I don’t know. I don’t have any interests or culture or stuff.”</p>

<p>Several of us were looking at each other in class like ***?!? This lady isn’t even interested in herself, let alone the world around her? I mean a person whose name is “McPherson” may have at least looked at where their family origin was from, a friend of mine has no other interest in Norway, but he knows his family is from a particular town and that they’re Lutheran, et cetera. I think the UW wants to (1) make sure they have inquisitive and intelligent students that (2) won’t pull an “Alexandra Wallace” and embarrass themselves or the school.</p>

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<p>Very true.</p>

<p>So. Alexandra Wallace. Was just talking about her with some friends today. Have you seen David So’s comedic youtube video or Jimmy Wong’s (raised in Seattle! My friend taught him and freddiew!) song on youtube about it? (Okay, done with going off topic on this thread after this :P)</p>

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<p>Hahahaha XaviFM that’s hilarious!!! I’ll definitely keep that in mind… although I don’t see myself acting that way because I now have a great overall amount of knowledge to present with people when it comes to diversity after writing my essays</p>