Recommendations for a friend for West Coast (Washington State preferable) business school?

College Search & Selection
1

I have a friend who is hoping to get into the Foster school of business at University of Washington. He LOVES business stuff and has been in DECA since 10th grade. The problem is I am not sure if his passion is enough to get him into the highly competitive school. I admittedly don’t know a lot about what admissions is like for Running Start students with an Associates degree but I worry that he might not be able to get in. Even worse UW is basically the only school he is targeting.

I do not know his exact stats but here is what I am fairly sure of:
Running Start Student (basically state pays for 11th and 12th graders to take classes at a local community college. RS students sometimes take 1 class at the HS. If an RS student does it right they should graduate with both an Associates AND a HighSchool diploma)
Washington State Resident
NEW SAT around 1300
College GPA (this one I am very unsure of) somewhere around 3.5
Associates Degree from Washington community college
DECA club member for many years. Has made it to regional competition, and just barely missed making it to nationals.
Has side music lessons and photography business. (Running Start students have a TON of free time)

I am fairly sure with her Associates degree she will probably get into UW since it is a state school, however that does not guarantee she gets into the Foster school of business.

I was just hoping for some school recommendations that have good business programs that he might have a good chance at. I am not sure how well an associates degree does at out of state schools but if you think they would accept it then he is willing to go to out of state schools.

Also money is not an issue. He is from a very well off family. Last I heard he had finished saving up for college and was now working (I kid you not) on saving up for his future Tesla car that he plans to buy upon graduation.

Any recommendations are appreciated! I am just trying to expand his college list to more than one school.

2

For UW, I would be concerned about the 3.5 GPA, whether in high school or Running Start classes (even assuming it is an unweighted GPA). For reference, UW’s Common Data Set reports the unweighted GPA of enrolled freshmen in 2015 as follows:

3.75 to 4.00: 64.24%
3.50 to 3.74: 27.16%
3.25 to 3.49: 6.52%
3.00 to 3.24: 1.52%
Under 3.00: 0.56%

Is your friend in the top 10% of his or her class?

3

I dont know. I am not hoping to “chance him” for UW. I just want to find some more options for him to consider. No person should apply to only one school they actually like.

4

Hi I am from Washington state! UW has a great business school however they are getting more selective as the years go by. Some other schools he could apply for our Western Washington University, Gonzaga University, Whitworth University (I also have a 3.5 gpa and they offered me over a 20,000$ scholarship), and maybe Seattle U(could be a bit of a reach)! Depending on how the school views his high school I would say a 3.5 in running start gives him a pretty solid chance! Good luck to him!

5

I would definitely caution being set on UW. I am a Washington resident and when I applied I had a 3.9 GPA, 1970 old SAT, a solid high school schedule and about a years-worth of credit from Running Start and ended up getting denied. Never have too much faith in the admissions process becuase it is the Twilght Zone, nobody understands it lol.

But I second all of rdlll’s recommendations, especially WWU and Gonzaga. I would also recommend checking out University of Portland.

6

Wwu, Gonzaga, UOregon honors (they Just got a ginormous gift!).
What about Simon Fraser up in Vancouver?

7

University of Washington also has a business school at UW Bothell and it’s AACSB accredited