@dunnowheretogo My DD is a junior in DuPage County…where do you live? Your thinking is right on! My husband and I both went to UIUC and would not send our daughter there. We visited UW last summer and WOW-it has everything! Another girl in one of my daughter’s classes in interested in UW too, so it seems us Midwesterners may be catching on to its appeal. We wish you the best of luck and agree with previous posters to take everything you read online with a grain of salt!
@asiancaucasian I’m from that area too! It seems like an amazing campus and thanks I definitely won’t read into online comments!
Great school great campus great city!
Oregon resident here. Our D graduated this past June. Our S is currently a sophomore. They would both tell you the school is hard academically. But the people they’ve met and the city of Seattle has made it all worth it and they are thrilled to be Huskies! She tried to get into Foster but decided Communications after struggling with Accounting. He got into Mechanical Engineering as early admit and is super relieved he’s in his major. But the stress is real. Just keep things in perspective and focus on all the great things UW has to offer and the experience is amazing! Good luck on your decision!
Hey I’m not an expert on UW by any means, or necessarily the issues you’ve talked about, but I do live in Seattle and the few things I’d bring up are:
- One thing I heard from a friend that applied is that it can be a bad school if you're not directly admitted to a major. My friend was specifically talking about nursing, but what she heard was that you don't apply to nursing until you're a sophomore, and so if you apply and get denied, then you're kind of stuck unable to be in the major you want to be in when you've already been at the school taking classes for two years. Idk how this applies or doesn't apply to your major, but it's definitely something I would research and make sure that if you're not "directly admitted" to your major that you'll be alright.
- The area around the school isn't the best. It's definitely not terrible but it's not perfect and it has some problems. We have a big homeless problem in Seattle and also a lot of problems (like most cities) with those homeless people being mentally ill and not receiving proper treatment (the state isn't great about this). I'm a girl in a wheelchair so I'm more cautious than most, but I can tell you that there are definitely times in the area where I don't feel totally safe. I know this "I don't feel safe" attitude about homeless populations can always sound sort of bad, but there has been a big uptick in crime in that neighborhood lately so I just want you to be as informed as possible. There was a stabbing just a couple weeks ago and from what I've heard there have been a few sexual assaults recently too, even with people breaking into apartments and then assaulting residents. I'd try looking up "u district seattle crime" just so you know what you're getting into. Re: homeless populations, again, I know it sounds bad to talk specifically about them but there just has been more danger in the city lately tied to them, especially as the issue just keeps growing and growing because the city isn't helping with treatment, affordable housing, etc. For example, one guy died just a few weeks ago after being shot by a homeless man in another bad area near the U District.
- On the topic of homeless populations + crime, rent in Seattle is BAD. Prices are rising a lot and are really, really insane. From what I've heard (again, this is word of mouth, I'm by no means an expert), UW on campus housing is kind of hard to get, so you're likely to end up off campus pretty quickly, and it's hard to find housing that you can afford. And again, you need to decide how comfortable you are in that area too.
- I saw one commenter mention that you wanted to know about the party scene? I didn't see this in your original post so I don't know if it's actually something you care about but I will say there's a pretty massive Greek Row for the school. I don't know how much partying happens or how many people are involved in Greek life, but I will say I know a fair amount of people from my school have gone there and joined Greek life, so I don't think it's super tiny/nonexistent on campus.
@drumminggeek87 I have heard some of those things too — I unfortunately wasn’t directly admitted to a major so that probably is a bad omen. But I actually am not a huge party guy at all so I wouldn’t mind if it was a school that didn’t party much.