<p>I just heard someone refer the UoW as a PUBLIC IVY, meaning; on the level of the Ivies academically. I laughed but then I had a look at their stats and even though the acceptance rate is high the median GPA is reasonably high...</p>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p>UW's Medical School beats basically any of the Ivys for sure.
It falls behind on everything else, though it has a good business and computer engineering program.</p>
<p>Not on everything.</p>
<p>The Japanese program is #3 in the US, behind Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>Top nursing school as well.</p>
<p>Yes, UW is a Public Ivy and just FYI, Public Ivy doesn't mean that the school is = to an Ivy league school academically. It just means that the school offers a comparatively ivy-like education at a lesser price (because publics are cheaper).
Another way of looking (but less commonly accepted and heard way) at public ivies is that they also produce ivy-league level students. It's true that they are far larger than small privates, but the amount of top notch future grad ivy students that they produce may be the same because the best of the bunch in a public ivy aren't by any means inferior to a ivy league student.</p>
<p>As for its individual schools, it's med school blows everyone out of the waters. Even the USNR ranking doesn't give it justice of its actual ability (ranking of 6-7). Typically, the 2 best med schools are Harvard and John Hopkins. After that, it revolves around UCSF (a purely med based school), UW, and Stanford. In the individual areas, its nursing school has been ranked #1 by every rank I've seen and #1 by USNR since the rank was created. In recent years, its primary school has been ranked #1 and all of its other areas are all in the top 10. </p>
<p>Its other areas pale in comparison to the ivies, but they are all respectable. Of course, there is also going to be the occasional category where its going to be #1 such as Clinical Psychology which is categorized under psychology or law librarianship in the law school.</p>
<p>I tried editing yesterday's post, but they apparently don't let you do that.</p>
<p>Oh well.
Just FYI on the schools are that are comparable or superior to the ivies.
The Primary Med School has been ranked #1 for 15 straight years with all specialties in the top 10.
The UW Medicine Research has been ranked #6 along with Stanford.
The Nursing School has been #1 ever since the rank came out.
The Pharmacy School is ranked #5.
The Computer Science department is ranked #6 with all its specialties except Language Programming in the top 5.
The Information and Library School is ranked #4 with all its specialties in the top 10.
The School of Education is ranked #7.
The School of Public Health and Community Medicine is ranked #3
The School of Social Work is ranked #3</p>
<p>There could be other specialties that I didn't mention (such as nuclear physics where it's #3 or bioengineering where it's 4th or 5th) or other schools that I forgot to mention, but anything up there is ivy comparable or better. </p>
<p>Schools that are decent, but not great include Business, Law, and Engineering. The undergrad for business is very good (18), but its grad is not so bright (34). The Engineering (21 to 24) and Law (27 to 30) both fell. </p>
<p>Hopefully, this gives you a clearer picture of how this school is. UW has a lot of Ivy Comparable schools, but a chunk of those categories aren't as popular (with the exception of Medicine, Education, and maybe Computer Science).</p>
<p>A lot of students at UW aren't that academically oriented, I don't think. If you're interested in an excellent education of relatively low cost, explore the UW Honors Program. The average GPA of students in the program is 3.9, and you'll be taught in smaller classes with the best professors, in a great university in a great city.</p>
<p>I'm not actually interested in the UW; I want to get out of state. I was just surprised! :) Thanks for the answers.</p>
<p>Honors is overhyped and I don't believe you get the best professors. In matter of fact, the selection of professors is rather arbitrary. Whether you get a good professor or not depends on whether you did your h.w and research(course evaluations and Ratemyprofessors for beginners). I took a "rock for jocks" Geology class, yet I got a very, very solid professor. Then there are some honors student who take Chem 142 and get a bad professor no matter what the case is (I don't any good Chem 142 professors).</p>
<p>The statement that students at UW aren't as academically oriented is somewhat true. Yes, there are a fair share of students who just slack off (and I wonder how they even got in) and there are a good, but smaller portion of the students who take advantage of all the services and opportunities to succeed. If you belong in the slacker group, you'll definitely fall behind and come out weaker. If you belong in the worker group, you'll come out learning a lot. In matter of fact, the best of the worker groups often come out just as competent if not more competent than ivy league students. In simple terms, what you put in is what you get out. There will be no one looking over you (which is one of the aspects that make it a lot more different than privates, but it isn't necessary a bad thing).
Another way of looking at it is that the resources to succeed and learn the stuff in an ivy league school are all placed, but whether you take it is based on self motivation. After all, the faculty is definitely almost as competent as ivy league schools as you'll find UW in the top of almost every research oriented ranking. Assuming you exhaust all the resources, you'll get your money's worth.</p>