OFFICIAL APPEALING REJECTIONS GUIDE

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
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<p>So I made a support post of people appealing their UW admissions decision but there wasn’t much of a response. In general I did not find much of a response or anything for those appealing. SO I decided to make this resource guide for anything thinking about appealing in the future. I appealed and got in. I was originally rejected too. I want people to utilize this guide. Things are in not in any particular order, I just wrote as things came into my head. </p>

<p>FIRST: DO NOT LET ANYONE TELL YOU NOT TO DO IT. If you want to do it then just do it. It really does not take too long and can be relatively easy to write if you truly believe you belong at the school. And I did not have a particularly good reason to appeal, I just really wanted to go to uw. I do not lose anything but a little time by doing it. I really believe that appealing is a great option that more people should use. </p>

<p>SECOND: GET FAMMILAR WITH THE PROCESS. Here is a link to information on how to appeal:</p>

<p><a href="http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Applied/Appeal#freshmen"&gt;http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Applied/Appeal#freshmen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You get to write a three page letter (I did single space and widened my margins) and three recommendations and an official transcript. You do not need to do all of this (You could write one page and get one recommendation; the transcript is needed), but I recommend utilizing your space. There are examples of things to include on the page but I think that you can just write what needs to be said in your opinion about your specific case. </p>

<p>THIRD: GET YOUR APPLICATION. If you log into your my uw account you can download your application. Print it out and see all the points you made and see if you made a mistake or weren’t able to include all the information about yourself. Keep this in mind.</p>

<p>FOURTH: RESEARCH! Grab all the school pamphlets you can. Read about what they want in a student. There are even resources online. Some links include:</p>

<p><a href="http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/WhatWeBelieve"&gt;http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/WhatWeBelieve&lt;/a>
<a href="http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen"&gt;http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen&lt;/a>
<a href="http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/Review"&gt;http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/Review&lt;/a> (my fav)</p>

<p>Try to find out what the school wants in a student and brainstorm the facts about yourself that relate to these points. You shouldn’t copy these points word for word but speak to the points. For example, if the school wants student that are “Exercising significant responsibility in a family, community, employment, or through activities.” Then maybe include information on that. </p>

<p>FIFTH: DO NOT REPEAT INFORMATION FROM YOU APPLICATION. You now have your app, so do not repeat things from it. This is your chance to tell them more about yourself! Including getting to add more activities than just five or elaborating on difficult classes. Preferably every example and point you bring up can come from your senior year, to show that you are still an active person.</p>

<p>SIXTH: GET GOOD RECOMMENDATIONS! Maybe even give a copy of your first draft to your recommenders. Then the recommenders can expand on ideas that you included to give you some validity. Also to my knowledge, my recommenders were not contacted so you can use recommendations that were not specifically written for this process. </p>

<p>SEVENTH: TALK TO PEOPLE. I personally would not stop looking for people that appealed. I also urged some people to appeal too so that we could support each other. I also looked a lot on the archives of this website. Some threads to note are:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15750877#Comment_15750877"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15750877#Comment_15750877&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17173700#Comment_17173700"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17173700#Comment_17173700&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-washington/1631054-appeal-with-lors.html"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-washington/1631054-appeal-with-lors.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15929937#Comment_15929937"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15929937#Comment_15929937&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15724905#Comment_15724905"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15724905#Comment_15724905&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15715492#Comment_15715492"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15715492#Comment_15715492&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-washington/1477917-help-with-my-appeal-letter.html"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-washington/1477917-help-with-my-appeal-letter.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15670919#Comment_15670919"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15670919#Comment_15670919&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15670869#Comment_15670869"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15670869#Comment_15670869&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15670822#Comment_15670822"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15670822#Comment_15670822&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15661584#Comment_15661584"&gt;http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15661584#Comment_15661584&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Read those threads and try to even contact the people. I made this account just to message these people and ask for help. I messaged like 30 people and around 5 amazing people were able to help me out and give advice. </p>

<p>EIGHT: SHOW THAT UW IS THE ONLY SCHOOL FOR YOU. I think this is the most important thing by far. Show them that you NEED to be at UW. Show that this school is the key to your success. This is also good for you. Maybe you will find the UW is not specifcally a good match for you. If your majoring in something like biology, you could potentially do that at any school. Research classes and opportunities specific to this university and talk about how you want to do those. I googled my potential major and was able to find uw’s information about the major and the types of classes I could take. I included that to show how specifically I needed UW.</p>

<p>NINTH: ACT QUICKLY. I got rejected on the 15th and started working on this on the 16th. I eventually turned them in the first week of April. They took about three weeks to review, so turning it in any later would have gotten me my decision after May 1st. Also this year waitlist appeals were due April1, so maybe try to turn it in before then too if you can, i was unable to do so.</p>

<p>TENTH: TURN IN ANYTHING. Remember that your letter is really just asking them to re review your application. That to me means that you are just convincing them to re open you app. Thus they are looking at your app in new light, and you acceptance must be really based of that. Thus just try to get you letter to them ASAP, especially if you felt that your application was strong. Do not worry about having everything perfect and taking a long time to send it. Send it ASAP. I hope this makes sense. Do not just hand in poor quality, but make sure that you do not get lost in the process and turn nothing in or take too long. </p>

<p>ELEVENTH. DO NOT RELY ON APPEALS. Continue to look at other schools and if May 1 comes, commit to another school. I turned in my appeal then tried to forget about it. Think of it more as a potential back up, but statistically it is not in your favor. I know some people that turned in an appeal then did not commit to another school-they were rejected and had to beg another school to let them take him back. Do not put your self in this position. </p>

<p>THOSE ARE MY POINTS! I will update more as I can remember them and I encourage others to do the same. If you feel one of my points is not good, then comment below and tell me so that others can get an opinion! Doing these things will not guarantee admission at all. I did these things and I will never know which specially were the ones that got me in but I did get in at the end! GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the info. I will probably appeal if I get rejected as a transfer. For the letters of recommendation, who would you recommend to write a letter? In addition, is there a recommended length for recommendations?</p>

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<p>For recommendations get anyone who can speak to your relevant talents. If you write in your letter about how much you love physics then get your physics teacher. If write about doing poorly in Calc but worked hard, get your calc teacher! I think the purpose of a recommendor is to confirm and elborate on the claims you make in your letter.</p>

<p>As far as length, I did not see any guidelines. One page is a good length.</p>

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This guide has definitely helped me! Thanks(:

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@CantQuit So, it’s been 21 days since I’ve turned in my appeal. Others have heard back anywhere from 1-2 weeks and were declined. For me, I still haven’t heard back. Is this a good sign?

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I have my son cantquit’s advice. My son had his package together by April 1st and we just received a letter that his petition has been accosted and he is off the waitlist dated April 23rd. He had no faith that the appeal would work. I cannot thank cantquit’s thread enough!!! Son still has a decision to make as he already was getting excited for gonzaga school of engineering!

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Accepted, not accosted.

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@seattlefamily Wait, did you guys receive the letter in the mail today 4/24? & the letter he received was dated April 23rd? Lastly, what does his online status say when you log on into his UW net id account? Does his transcript load?

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There was just a message under his application status that said we have received your petition and will notify you by mail of our decision.
We received the letter April 23rd
The letter was dated April 20
He already has a transcript as he has taken 3 CIHS UW Courses during high school, so I don’t see any difference there .

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Message under application says congratulation and you will receive package in mail his 2015/2016 academic calendar loads…

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do the letter recs have to be from teachers at my school?

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I am a running start student so where should I get my letter of reccomendations from? Should I get it from my professors even though majority of them only taught me one quarter? Can my highschool counsellor also work?

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@CantQuit For Running Start students, if my grades didn’t end up well this quarter (winter quarter) (didn’t contribute to an upward trend), even though I indicated in my application to UW that I will do really well this quarter. Other than the grades, for other components (letters of rec, more descriptive personal statement, why UW) I’m fairly confident. In this case should I bother to appeal?