<p>I am from a relatively large suburb of Washington D.C. </p>
<p>UW is my top choice school and I was wondering if there is anything I should be concerned about if I do end up attending the school...considering I am from the other side of the country. Advice and criticism is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>There are no questions in your post, try again.</p>
<p>Don’t walk down the Ave alone after dark, unless you’re of large stature. Seattle in general is way safer than DC, though.</p>
<p>There’s an on-campus bike shop in a very unorthodox location. Make a game out of finding it on your own.</p>
<p>Mentally prepare yourself for a serious lack of diversity; these aren’t exact numbers by any means, but UW definitely FEELS like it’s 80% white, 19% asian, 1% other.</p>
<p>Public transportation sucks compared to any other major city in the country, as does traffic, so getting around is just a pain in the ass overall (husky game + 520 bridge = holy. ****.)</p>
<p>The international students like to pretend you do not exist. Treat them with the same aloofness.</p>
<p>And lastly, though UW isn’t open admissions, it’s far from the hardest school to get into. Be prepared to deal with some classmates (or possibly roommates) who simply have no business being in college.</p>
<p>I disagree. Seattle has one of the best public transportation systems in the US, especially with the Link being built now. Of course, I’m mostly basing this on where I live now (Houston) which has virtually no public transportation or sidewalks.</p>
<p>Traffic can be a bi*** some days, but after a few months you’ll get the gist of what roads to take at certain times of the day in order to avoid traffic. :P</p>
<p>Does UW require recommendations for OOS?</p>
<p>I don’t believe UW requires recommendations.</p>
<p>And WHAT @ Seattle not having a good public transportation system. No it’s not the NY subway, but the bus system in Seattle is fantastic</p>
<p>The busses are perfectly fine as a mode of transportation. Not like the metro in DC or the subway in NY, but there aren’t many like those.</p>
<p>Seattle as a safer city on the whole than DC but the U District can be rather scuzzy at night. I wouldn’t hang around there in the wee hours alone or along frat row for that matter. We get an email about every week or so describing a mugging/robbery of a student in the late night hours so just beware if you like to do that. It’s no biggie though, the worst you’re likely to come across is an old lady mercilessly shoving 20% off Thaiger Room coupons down your throat on the Ave every 5 seconds.</p>
<p>Also, take this from someone who also came from out of state and who knew a total of 0 people before coming to the school. If you are not the most outgoing person in the world, don’t expect to make a lot of friends very quickly. UW is a commuter school for many and lots of people already know one-another from high school. It’s not impossible to meet people, actually it’s quite easy, but be prepared to sort of “break your way in to the circle”.</p>
<p>Other than that, UW is a fine school and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it if it’s your top choice (assuming you’ve visited). Also good luck on getting in, it’s no peace of cake these days for out of staters.</p>
<p>Contrary to its reputation, it doesn’t rain 24/7/365 in Seattle, and it doesn’t downpour that often. But there are alot of gray days, and days of drizzle & mist. My first winter there, the thing that got to me the most was the shortness of the days in midwinter.</p>
<p>However, this is the price to be paid for the glorious city of Seattle. It is beautiful, it is vibrant, it is endlessly fascinating, and the same can be said for UW.</p>
<p>Don’t send a recommendation. They told me that they don’t want them because they’ve never seen a bad one before.</p>
<p>Bus system around a very specific part of Seattle (this whole Queen Anne-Downtown-Magnolia-UDistrict-SLU worm) is great, but other than that, it’s pretty crappy tbh. Getting to West Seattle is a pain on sunny days thanks to Alki, and getting to the east side during rush hour (or within 2 hours of rush hour, gosh) is also pretty bad.</p>
<p>Seattle’s very well set-up for north-south transportation, but west-east is remarkably bad.</p>
<p>Also, sometime within the next millennium, they might decide to do something with the viaduct. Most likely a tunnel. Which, during its construction, is going to wipe out another chunk of that “good bus routes” area.</p>