in state student with a few questions.

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
1

<p>I'll try to keep it short and to the point, but I just want to say I appreciate people taking the time to read this and provide answers.</p>

<p>How is the dorm situation -- are they decently sized?</p>

<p>How often do students leave campus and explore the city? I realize it depends a lot on money but ideally I'd like to be out and about just exploring a few times a week.</p>

<p>Is the heavy focus on athletics at Udub overbearing at all? I don't mind football games and school spirit, but at the same time, I want to be able to find people who don't really partake in that.</p>

<p>How does the campus size impact daily student life? </p>

<p>How often do you find yourself in a lecture with five hundred people? I don't mind, or wouldn't mind, one huge class every once in awhile, but the idea of it happening a lot is kind of uncomfortable.</p>

<p>Is it easy to find like minded people with such a huge university? I love going to shows, and am, honestly, a bit of a hipster or whatever. At least other people seem to think I am because of how I dress and the music I listen to. I'd be rad to have people to go to shows with and stuff, or generally just people who share a few of my interests.</p>

<p>Are frats really your only options for partying and is the fraternity/sorority scene really apparent? I do like going to parties, and wouldn't mind going to a fraternity party every once in awhile, but I'd also like a few other options when I want to go out.</p>

<p>Also, if it applies: why did you decide to go to UW over Western? </p>

<p>Again, I really appreciate any response or answer you can provide.</p>

2

<p>bump? can anybody help me out?</p>

3

<p>Hello,
I’ll answer to the best of my abilities. I’m not attending UW, though I hope to be soon, and in the interim I’ve done a considerable amount of research and made an overnight visit.
Yes, the dorms are painfully cramped, but the construction of two new dorms should alleviate this. This seemed to me at least the one black mark on an otherwise headily enticing school. Getting out into Seattle is very easy. Transportation costs shoulden’t factor in too heavily, as the Husky Pass garners a free ride anywhere on the City’s bus system.
Athletics is a big aspect, but in no means overbearing. You ask if there are any like minded students… I can assure you that there will be at least one( me)! I’m apply to Cornell and Yale too, but there’s this intangible lure to UW. I’d much rather go there! Academics are good quality and exciting, especially in some departments, but not exhausting. In my view this translates into time to explore Seattle and the respective music scene.</p>

<p>Music! ( To be honest, the real reason I had to respond was because of your username. Unfortunate duke, excellent band!)
There’s a fair cohort of folks with a similarly superb taste in music. Don’t forget about the UW/ KEXP connection, which (and I’m hazarding a guess here) sounds right down your alley.</p>

<p>Best of luck! Hope this helps… perhaps Ill see you on Campus or at a show!</p>

4

<p>Hello,
I’ll answer to the best of my abilities. I’m not attending UW, though I hope to be soon, and in the interim I’ve done a considerable amount of research and made an overnight visit.
Yes, the dorms are painfully cramped, but the construction of two new dorms should alleviate this. This seemed to me at least the one black mark on an otherwise headily enticing school. Getting out into Seattle is very easy. Transportation costs shoulden’t factor in too heavily, as the Husky Pass garners a free ride anywhere on the City’s bus system.
Athletics is a big aspect, but in no means overbearing. You ask if there are any like minded students… I can assure you that there will be at least one( me)! I’m apply to Cornell and Yale too, but there’s this intangible lure to UW. I’d much rather go there! Academics are good quality and exciting, especially in some departments, but not exhausting. In my view this translates into time to explore Seattle and the respective music scene.</p>

<p>Music! ( To be honest, the real reason I had to respond was because of your username. Unfortunate duke, excellent band!)
There’s a fair cohort of folks with a similarly superb taste in music. Don’t forget about the UW/ KEXP connection, which (and I’m hazarding a guess here) sounds right down your alley.</p>

<p>Best of luck! Hope this helps… perhaps Ill see you on Campus or at a show!</p>

5

<p>Exploring the City:
It really depends on the students. During the week, people are sometimes really busy studying for exams or doing homework, but some people find time to go out; it depends on time management and the combination of classes you’re taking. You also have a UPASS, which is basically a bus pass (mandatory). Use it for exploring!</p>

<p>Focus on athletics:
A good number of people don’t really follow the sports; we just hear the cheers and assume we’ve scored a touchdown or something like that. I’m one of those people. I think it’s great when our teams win, and it’s nice to check the news to see who wins (seattletimes.com has live scores of sports events at the top of their home page). However, don’t feel pressured to have to go to games, or dress up in purple and gold. You probably want to know the most important players’ (ie Keith Price) names though.</p>

<p>How does the campus size impact daily student life? </p>

<p>Lectures with 500 people:
Huge lectures are generally weed out intro courses. Intro Chem was the only class I had with around 500 people. My next largest class was CSE 142 or 143, which had around 300 people in it. Other than that, all my classes had between 11 and 70 people in them. In large lecture classes, you’ll have quiz sections where you meet with a TA (usually graduate student, depends on the department) and 20 or so other students. You sometimes have quizzes (hence the name), but it’s mostly just a review section on what the lecturer/professor talked about. Sometimes your section teacher IS your teacher (ie Chinese).</p>

<p>Finding people similar to you:
Check out the RSO - Registered Student Organization - directory. I met a large number of my friends from joining student organizations; it automatically narrows down the interests of people in the group! I have yet to know someone or hear of someone who couldn’t fit in or find a group of friends here at UW. You can also just join their student organization facebook page (they most likely have one) and check out what kind of things they talk about and you can generally get a feel of the members by seeing how they portray themselves online. You could also message the officers and ask more about their organization before joining.</p>

6

<p>I totally forgot to attach this:</p>

<p>[RSO</a> Directory : Student Activities Office](<a href=“Student Activities | The HUB”>Student Activities | The HUB)</p>

7

<p>Oh my goodness, thank you so much! You both were so incredibly helpful and provided some awesome insight. I’m even more interested in attending Udub, especially now that some of the things I was concerned about aren’t really actual fears. Thanks again!</p>

8

<p>Ha, I should have read over my answer before responding. I didn’t answer this:</p>

<p>How does the campus size impact daily student life?
You might not see the same people every day, that’s pretty much it. There’s a lot of ways to meet new people, as well as ‘hide’ from people when you REALLY want to go study. :slight_smile: There are many libraries, a large abundance of resources and many fun things to do! As time goes on, the ‘so huge’ campus seems to get smaller. Last year, I came in feeling slightly overwhelmed with the size, but by the end of the first quarter, I wasn’t getting lost anymore and had made many friends from different areas. :D</p>

<p>When you register for classes, be careful when picking classes that are back to back; if they’re on the opposite locations to each other on campus, you might need to use a bike to get there on time; overall, it’s a bit more stressful. You’ll definitely have plenty of time to look at your potential ‘next quarter schedule’ choices, though. :)</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

9

<p>" When you register for classes, be careful when picking classes that are back to back; if they’re on the opposite locations to each other on campus, " -speedsolver</p>

<p>To add on to this comment: be wary of even picking back to back classes that have locations near each other. So far on 3 separate occasions…they’ve changed one of my quiz section locations a week or less before class started. So don’t assume that where it is will stay that way. (most of the time it does, but do you really want to risk the stress of a quiz section being moved across campus, unable to get to your next class…therefore having to try to find other open sections to rearrange your schedule?)</p>

10

<p>Alright, that is definitely good thing to keep in mind. Thanks for the help!</p>