Hi everyone. I was accepted to UW, but I didn’t get DA to CS. I put in an appeal to the DA decision 3 weeks and 6 days ago and got confirmation that it had been received. They say ETA on response is 1-4 weeks so I’m hoping to hear from them soon. From what I’ve heard general UW appeals have been getting responses but no responses on DA appeals yet?I was wondering if anyone has heard back from UW on appeals yet, especially DA appeals?
What are your GPA and SAT? Are you fresh from high school? What is the chance to win the appeal?
@Bebu19 4.0 UW and 1590 SAT. I am fresh from high school. I have no idea what the chance is. They say 1 in 20 for appeals to the general school, but I don’t know how it is for CS appeals.
Very impressive. Good luck John.
Have you received the answer yet?
@Bebu19
No, still waiting on the answer. If they have not contacted me by Monday I will reach out again.
Which High School are you attending? Are you in the AP/IB?
@JohnDope In state or OOS? We’re in-state and still waiting for CS DA response, too. No URM. Called this week and the woman who answered said the director of admission is handling these CS petitions personally and we should know before the end of the month. We also got the distinct impression that she didn’t know when they might go out as she wasn’t in the decision loop. UW accepted the appeal request 03/08 and then they also sent an acceptance of the letter of rec submission a few days later as it had to be sent directly from the HS (the letters of rec are confidential so we don’t have access to them). 3.92 unweighted, 4.4 weighted, 10 AP, 35 ACT 1530 SAT, so we feel you. Have great other options but this could easily be his #1 choice if it actually became a choice - CS is a must for DS. Good luck to you.
It seems crazy that these applicants with nearly perfect stats, and evidence of CS-related extracurriculars are not getting Computer Science Direct Admit. Seems like they need to hire some professors.
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I wonder how many people have sent in the appeal.
I’ve taken around 10 AP classes, including 5 this year. All my other classes were honors. I even took intro to CS at the UW last summer (before I took AP CS) and got a 4.0. and as for how many people are appealing, I know at least 2 others at my school are.
@tkg2023 I’m in-state too. Thank you for letting me know it’ll be done by the end of this month. I was a little worried it wouldn’t be done til after May 1st. I have some other good options too but UW is definitely my #1 if I get DA. Best of luck to you.
@sunnyschool yes, definitely. They just built a brand-new building though so you’d think they would have improved capacity enough. It also seems to me that the trend for them is to let in students with little to no interest in CS. I know someone who is an artist and wanted to study psychology/philosophy, she has only taken AP CS this year, and put down CS as her major just because it was the hardest one to get into and she somehow got in. Her grades and test scores were all worse as well. I’ve seen several other examples of this around the internet and it’s very strange.
I think since this is the first year with Direct to CS path, UW is figuring out the appeals timeline. The usual 1-4 weeks turnaround for the general admissions appeal doesn’t apply here, even though UW said so. Ideally, I’d think, from UW perspective they would have the best clarity on numbers after May 1st but I hope they will respond before that.
@tkg2023 - I don’t think the letter of recommendation needed to be submitted confidentially. The appeals form had a section to upload the reco letter directly.
@to2023 you’re correct, but since his HS keeps them confidential he couldn’t upload through his portal so he uploaded a pdf with his counselors name, and had her email it directly to admissions. We were happy they accepted it that way - weren’t sure if they would.
@tkg2023 - Got it. Thanks. All the stats being posted here are great and I’m sure we all have good backup options, but it also means there are other students on the waitlist of our backup schools and are eagerly waiting for us to release our spots. Hope the process doesn’t drag till May 1st and we start to hear from UW this week.
What options you guys have if this one doesn’t work out?
If you guys don’t mind me asking. What were your guys’ appeals like (for the people that did appeal)? How long was yours? And what things did u guys bring up in the appeal?
@Bebu19 I have a full ride to Santa Clara University with entry into CS and honors. I have honors at UW too though and the cost comes out to being about the same so I’d rather go to UW if the appeal goes through. I was also accepted to Harvey Mudd, but it’s very expensive and I don’t think that worth it.
@phann I started mine off by addressing an error they had in my transcript and adding a little new info about my nomination for the Presidential Scholars Program. After that, I wrote it a lot like a letter, explaining my passion for CS (because I didn’t touch too heavily on it in my essays, I was trying to stand out from other CS kids and it may have backfired a little) and my demonstrated talent at it. Then I went into my history with the UW and how ive been going there my whole life for various things. Then I ended it by saying I know I can thrive at UW because I did when I took a CS class last summer there and 4.0ed it. I also noted that if I don’t get CS, I probably won’t go to UW, despite it being my first choice. That’s a brief synopsis of it and I think it’s maybe a bit unorthodox because most people write it as more of a freestyle essay I think? I’m not sure though. Mine was something like 5-6k words. I can’t say for sure though if the way I wrote an appeal was any good because I don’t know if it worked yet, but if I do get in, I’d be happy to share it. Are you writing an appeal or did you write one already?