Re...re...re...rejected?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Washington
21

<p>I don’t know what it was that killed me, but it had to have been something! Probably a combination of things. Also the whole straight up rejected, not even waitlisted deal… I know people with lower numbers who were waitlisted! It’s frustrating to say the least.</p>

<p>And I really did feel like my essay was good…
I just don’t know. Maybe once I get in to a school I wouldn’t mind going to I won’t be as crazy over this whole college deal! At first this whole rejection thing was just like “oh, sucks…” but as these last couple days have gone by, I’m just getting more and more freaked out! It is seriously noooot good!</p>

<p>Oh, but congrats on getting in vietdude! That’s awesome. :D</p>

22

<p>Yikes, my application is similar to yours. 3.3 GPA, 1820 SAT, instate aswell. I included my better (by comparison) ACT Composite score of 30 though, I wonder if it will help at all?</p>

23

<p>@mdcoward: It should. They take the ‘higher’ of the two. My ACT composite was about 200 points higher (on an SAT scale) than my SAT score, and I’m sure they based their decision on that. Most colleges just take the highest score of all of your scores anyway, so that’s good you included your ACT!</p>

24

<p>They don’t look at the Honors application until they have a made a decision for regular admission, so you can rest assured that it was not a factor.</p>

<p>If there was something that caused you to get a 3.0 GPA that you couldn’t control, you should have included that on your application.</p>

25

<p>you have to remember you are competing with asians whose only passions are chemistry and piano.</p>

<p>i’m a transfer student from a CC with a 3.1 gpa and i got in. but, i did take 5 ap classes in hs and passed all the tests with 4s and 5s. i wrote a killer essay and had letters of rec. my sat score was an 1820. </p>

<p>i originally got rejected in high school with a 3.2 gpa but all the same stats. uw admissions sucks. just transfer, it’s easier.</p>

26

<p>^</p>

<p>maybe 200 points more on the SAT could have changed that decision</p>

27

<p>@abfarance: I hear that it’s an automatic acceptance to UW for transfer students if they hit a certain GPA, is that true? Also, do you know what GPA that might be?</p>

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<p>I’d REALLY like to know that as well. :)</p>

29

<p>Your stats are fine for UW. </p>

<p>What I’m guessing happened is that you came off as cocky in your essays as you did in your original post. It isn’t flattering to an admissions counselor that you regard their school as a fallback or whatever, and giving off that impression is a big negative.</p>

<p>Just because you went to a prep school doesn’t guarantee that you’re prepared for college. They don’t want just good students, they want well-rounded individuals.</p>

30

<p>Welllll uw wasn’t my number one so i don’t think i’m going to appeal, and i don’t think i’m going to transfer. I had four teachers and both of my parents read my college essays before i sent them in and they all liked them. I just made a few changes and corrected some spelling after they read them. I don’t think it was cockiness in my essay, even though i know i can be kind of a cocky person at times, but i do think it was the subject matter.</p>

<p>I’d heard that uw liked creative stuff and unexpected essays but maybe that isn’t always true! i didn’t write about travel or sports or anything like that, i wrote about going to a laser show with my day camp group when i was four and hearing lucy in the sky with diamonds by the beatles. i loved the song so much that my dad played it for me every single morning for like two years. the rest of my essay was about how that song has inspired me to be a more simple, forgiving, caring kind of person. i also mentioned how i was camping at this music festival with a bunch of friends and it was like a trillion degrees but we worked with strangers to make a giant sunshade. i threw my favorite robert fulhgum quote in there, and i tied it all together by mentioning how i was a day camp counselor last summer and everything had come full circle. i’m a good writer and i really liked my essay as did everyone else, but i have a feeling that the uw people were like, “we don’t want to admit this crazy hippie girl! NO!!!” so i dunno…</p>

31

<p>Although your idea is different, it’s safe to say that The Beatles changed a lot of peoples’ lives. Compassion and forgiveness are all great characteristics, but it’s my experience that a college is looking for traits that demonstrate work ethic and perseverance.</p>

<p>Why? Because you’re applying to be their student, not their friend.</p>

<p>I wrote my personal statement on my school newspaper and how getting involved with that changed the way I look at school (went from coasting and careless to hard-working and concerned).</p>

<p>My diversity essay was my unique one, and I’m assuming the one that got me in. I wrote about how there is another type of discrimination in high school outside of race or religion: popularity. It was a short narrative of an evening in which I stopped caring about cliques and whatnot.</p>

<p>Colleges want to see progress; growth. Writing about a song that you heard when you were wayyyy young is not very current nor significant unless you can really sell it. I’m sure you could have found another example to express your personality.</p>

<p>And I’m not following the significance of making shade at a concert. If you implied gettin’ stoned/drunk at these concerts, even as a joke, that probably screwed you.</p>

32

<p>Well, I can see that, but essentially I tried to focus my essay on generally making the world a better place and cooperating with others. I didn’t mention anything illicit whatsoever, and the shade thing was the fact that these were like a group of strangers who wouldn’t have cared about one another in most situations but because the climate was so extremely hot we spent hours working together on that thing. i didn’t imply that there was a party atmosphere at all. i’m not an idiot, that’s the last thing anyone would write in a college essay, even as a joke.</p>

<p>and while i may have heard this song 13 years ago, the essay followed how as i grew up, my interpretation of that song grew up too- from something nice to listen to to something that i deeply interpreted and became really inspired from. i picked the cultural awareness prompt, so i basically had to write about my view of the world and how i interact in it and i thought that i really managed to do that creaatively and effectively!</p>

<p>not to be rude, but to be honest, i would think that writing about an activity and the standard “i used to not care but now i give a crap” story would’ve been so played out! obviously, i was wrong. i also don’t believe that that could show much personality. one of my best friends wrote an essay like that, about an activity and how it actually made him care, but i got NONE of him from that essay like, i don’t even know.</p>

<p>i thought my diversity essay was fresh and exciting as well, i wrote about being mixed race and some of the strange trials and tribulations that come along with that.</p>

<p>and i’m sorry if i’ve sounded mean at all, but i used a version of my beatles/concert/laser show essay for EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL I APPLIED TO. that’s ten schools. i thought it was a really well written essay, as did many others, but here you are, saying that virtually everything about it was all wrong, and that the essay is why i didn’t get in.</p>

<p>which means that i probably won’t get in anywhere.
and that’s awesome to hear.</p>

<p>you may be right though, and i may just have been an idealistic idiot, but while i’ll entertain most of your points, i refuse to believe that i could’ve found an example that better expressed my personality, especially given that i wrote about the two most pivotal moments of my life. i wrote about the most representative experiences of myself that i could’ve written about. if anything, i probably shouldn’t have been so honest and maybe written about how i was on yearbook staff or something and played it up like i didn’t despise that semester of hell, because it was a “really important experience that taught me to work harder and be proud that i had made an important contribution to my school” yeah, f that.</p>

33

<p>Don’t beat yourself up on your essay. Your essay should reflect you and it sounds like your personality came out in the essay. I personally don’t think that the essay may have been the cause of your rejection. It is most likely GPA.</p>

34

<p>I agree with happymom91. holdencaulfield1, don’t let it get to you. At least you got an answer (even if it’s not the one you wanted). Some of us here seem to be getting strung along. I wish they would just accept and reject all at once so we can all move on to our next steps.</p>

35

<p>i agree with happymom and pop. to be honest, if the essay really reflects you, dont worry about it. the first thing that triggered an ‘uh oh’ was the GPA. (reason why I asked about IS/OOS first)</p>

<p>The UW admissions office and process is pretty frustrating for a lot of us, to be honest. I do agree with pop, I wish they would just send out their letters at once (although unrealistic).</p>

36

<p>Yeah, I’ll never know for sure what it was. Ohhh wellll.</p>

37

<p>Just wanted to add that Washington, like many other states, will be facing education budget cuts that significantly impact the public universities. Since they will be receiving less state funding, they are looking to admit more out-of-state students who will be paying higher tuition. This may or may not have had something to do with your rejection.</p>

38

<p>I applied to the UW with a not-that-fantastic GPA (3.2) also. I wrote really interesting essays. Got 1750 on the SATs. BUT… here’s the kicker: I’m self-educated. It’ll be curious for me to see how the UW handles me since I don’t fit into their formula. Will they decide that it’s easier to brush me aside than to change the rules? We’ll see.</p>

<p>Good luck to you though. I think your essay sounds interesting(in a good way). I disagree with the other poster who said that because it didn’t talk about work ethic it wouldn’t be appreciated. On the contrary; your essay’s themes seem to genuinely describe you as an individual. Hopefully the UW will understand value that.</p>

<p>If you really want to go the UW, attend a Seattle community college. The UW, since it’s a state college, is required to take a certain amount of transfers from CCs each year. Your actually more likely to get in from a CC than if you transfer from one of their branches(Tacoma, Bothell) I hear. This is because a lot of people at the branches have that idea (of transfering) and that, therefor, it’s competitive.</p>

<p>Hope that that info helps you scope out your situation.</p>

39

<p>@RRoseRRed - what do you mean when you’re self-educated? Is that kind of like a self-prepared-study that’s like homeschooling?</p>

<p>I agree that I’ve heard its easier to get in via CC than transferring from Tacoma/Bothell. However, for a different reason. Maybe your’s is right, or it’s a combination of both. I’ve heard that UW Seattle has a ‘contract’ with the CC’s around here that you need a minimum GPA to have guaranteed transfer admission. I’m not sure how true that is, but I’ve also heard that UW Seattle considers the Tacoma/Bothell branch students to be ‘just like any other transfer students,’ whether that be WWU, Stanford, or WSU. The more CC transfer applicants with the minimum GPA, the harder for ‘other college students’ to transfer in.</p>

<p>I’m not sure how accurate that is, but just something that I’ve heard repeatedly. :O</p>

40

<p>I have a 3.1 GPA from two very competitive schools (including Newport in Bellevue) and another school in the suburbs of Texas. I’ll have 4 AP’s by the end of this year (I’m a junior), but I realize that I will not be accepted into UW no matter what, especially since I’ll be applying as an out-of-state student. I have not taken the SAT yet, but I expect my score to be anywhere between a 1800 and 2000. What are my chances of getting in by transferring from another college, say Bellevue College?</p>