Rejected from the University of Washington

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
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My phone buzzed, an email.

Nice, UW decisions are out!

I opened my laptop, went to the admissions portal, and clicked on the “New Status Update.”

What I was met with was the last thing I could have expected. I could not be offered a place on UW’s campus for the autumn term.

I read it over multiple times, baffled by what I was seeing. Sure, I was expecting to get rejected from the Computer Science program, but I was not even accepted to the school.
I didn’t understand.

Hope you guys enjoyed that little recreation of my experience.

A little bit about myself to give some context.

My GPA is about 3.85 UW, 4.35 W.
36 ACT, 1520 SAT, 800 SAT II Physics, 800 SAT II Math II
National Merit Finalist
Have some pretty strong extracurriculars (including music, a sport, and research which has led to multiple publications)
Essays were strong as well
Applying Out of State

This is mostly for myself, to get my rejection off of my mind and perhaps gain some clarity on my rejection. I want all of you to know that I will be fine, I applied to over 20 schools, so my admission to the UW was by no means the decision I was completely riding on.

In all honesty, I took for granted that I would just get into the University of Washington without any trouble, so I guess I will have to prepare myself for the worst as I wait for the rest of my admissions decisions.

Good luck to all of you on your decisions!

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I can’t offer clarity on the rejection, except to say that strange things always happen with UW (essays are very important for instance and there are always stories every year about high stats in-state kids who maybe didn’t pay as much attention to crafting the essay, who get rejected).

My only comment is that, if you didn’t expect to get direct admit to CS (and assuming that’s what you really want), I would say you dodged a bullet here. My kid graduated two years ago, and at the time it was very difficult to get into CS after admission. The weed-out classes can kill the dream for even the brightest of students and it was extremely stressful to apply to majors in Sophomore year and wait to hear. (He ended up in one of the other techie majors that everyone scoffs at, had a great time at UW and is employed in San Francisco as a software developer so …nothing lost in the end).

Now, it is even more incredibly difficult to get into any STEM major, even the “lesser” ones that were the fall backs for kids who didn’t get into CS, and even direct admit engineering majors have to apply to their desired type of engineering after Freshman year and some don’t get into even their second or third choice the first go-round.

So while UW is a bargain re cost for in-state kids, and a fantastic school overall, I don’t really know what you’re getting for the price if you end up stuck without a major that you like. Many kids end up transferring out. We feel lucky kid 1 was a UW success story but haven’t pushed it for the other kids, and won’t recommend it for the last kid if she were to apply and not get direct admit.

(Even our now-senior, who got full tuition elsewhere and won’t be going to UW, got accepted, but it was for “pre-social sciences” which means he would have to apply to his liberal arts major after a year with no guarantee. And his stats were high).

tldr: good luck to you and don’t mourn this decision because UW is not worth the stress if you aren’t direct admit!

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@raincat Thanks so much for the reply, it definitely has eased my mind a great deal.
Glad that everything seems to be working out for your kids!

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The University of Washington has an excellent retention rate of 94% to 95% so not many transfer out.

OP: In my opinion, you were denied admission to UW beause you were not directly admitted as a CS major and, as an out-of-state applicant, it may have been viewed as your only reason for applying to UW as you are very likely to get direct admission to CS elsewhere based on your 36 ACT & other strong credentials.

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I agree that ou dodged a bullet.
Where else have you applied?
Have you been admitted anywhere affordable so far?

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Really interesting comments from @Raincat…and curios about my own S. He applied to Foster, and was accepted into Arts and Science. (for the record, not nearly the stats as @PunctGradualism), but a very well rounded resume with academics, athletics, leadership and service. Spent a ton of time on essays knowing his academics were borderline. In-state student.

The question is…should my S attend UW? He really wants to study business and has been DA to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana B-schools to name a few. (all ranked higher than UW - which is a topic for another discussion). Also DA to Utah and Zona with honors and scholarship. I have heard numerous local comments similar to Raincat…

“and won’t recommend it for the last kid if she were to apply and not get direct admit.”

…talk to UW students that seem more stressed than most college students (and professionals for that matter). A healthy level of stress and competitiveness is great, but has UW crossed the line? Sure UW is an in-state value, but spending money on a degree that is not your preference is not really a value.

I guess I just may have answered my own question. Be great to get @Raincat thoughts.

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It depends upon what your other options are. My son could not change his major at the school he picked. Because of that, I noted all schools that made transfers difficult and unlikely after that experience. Still, sometimes the preference for the school overrides not getting the preferred major.

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First, I agree with @Publisher that OP could have been denied admission because he/she was OOS, really wanted CS and had super high stats which make it unlikely that they would choose UW with no CS over other CS options. That makes a lot of sense. One can only guess as to why someone doesn’t get in but this seems an educated guess.

My comments were more to the point that from our personal experience with UW (our kids and friends’ kids) over the last 6 years, the OP shouldn’t be sad about the denial since they didn’t expect DA into CS anyway and because it’s a stressful slog to get in after the fact. I stand by my original comment that many kids transfer if they don’t get into their chosen majors (I didn’t say there were mass transfers just that many do). And for those kids who feel they cannot pursue their dream, much less eventually train to enter their chosen careers, it’s a very stressful situation. Also can be a financial hit if credits don’t transfer. We have also known some to keep trying and get in or change course with a different major, both of which resulted in taking five years to graduate.

@bjm1122 sorry about Foster. I really don’t know how many spots they reserve for those not directly admitted and how much the business major is impacted (i.e. is it like the STEM majors in terms of limited spots and weeding out classes or do they have more spots.) Hopefully someone on here can speak to that. Have you looked at the Foster School’s website to see if they give information on this?

Also there are many personal factors like ability to pay OOS tuition at schools where your student doesn’t have a scholarship, or how much they like the programs and location at Arizona or Utah.

Does your student want the security of being guaranteed the business major at the other schools or have they dreamed of UW forever and willing to take a chance on not getting in?

I really believe UW is a great place for many students. And for our UW grad, it ended up to be a wonderful balance of academics and outside activities. He made good friends and has an excellent job now. But as a parent I really don’t relish going thru the process again. The uncertainty was very stressful and it made a mark on me, mostly because we really didn’t understand they system or the odds. To give you an idea, between 800 and 1000 sophomores applied for his major (not CS) his sophomore year (I don’t want to exaggerate or misinform so I’m giving a range, it was awhile ago) and around 285 got in. So what happened to the rest of those kids? Even if they didn’t transfer, (and I’m sure they all did not transfer) , I can guarantee it was not a happy experience for them!

I’m not saying don’t go to UW, just know what can happen. For us in the future, depending on what the last kid wants to study, if it happens to be an impacted major, I’m more inclined to try and find the $$$ for an OOS school (or chase merit at a lesser ranked school) if she doesn’t get a direct admit.

I wish everyone the best and I also do believe college is what you make of it no matter where you go!

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i got rejected as well and im thinking of appeal… should i ask the admission office for the reason of my denial?

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@PunctGradualism -
My OOS daughter also got a denial. She was shocked, but has handled it well. Her stats are not as great as yours, but they aren’t shabby, either. Of course, as parents, we didn’t say this out loud, but we were happy with the outcome. UW didn’t really seem like the right fit to us, and now we don’t have to worry that she will land someplace that will make her unhappy.

Best of luck to you as you continue the college selection journey.

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@raincat -

I agree. My elder son applied to UW Computer Science major two years ago because we didn’t know better. Since then we learned a lot about the UW CS/CE programs so we didn’t bother applying this year for the second son.

There’s this article 3 years ago that I find very informative. Maybe things have improved a little bit now with their DA program but I don’t know…

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/students-frustrated-trying-to-get-into-uws-strict-engineering-program/

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I have to say that our experience and perspective is very similar to @raincat
UW is an excellent school but the path for those who are not Direct Admit is very stressful and actually quite unhealthy. Telling a freshman that they need to obtain a 3.8 GPA or better on top of managing all the other aspects of college life is not a great way to start.
My son is a current UW sophomore who did not get DA to Foster Business School. His stats were the same/better than most and UW even gave him 35 credits for AP and college courses he took in HS (most were UW courses). One would think the credits alone demonstrated performance at the next level but that wasn’t good enough.

He chose UW because he felt confident that he would eventually be accepted to Foster, but he underestimated how difficult that path really is. He has a 3.88 GPA at UW and was recently denied standard admission in Winter which had a 26% acceptance rate. His combined credits put him at Junior class standing and he’s completed all of his non-business graduation requirements. Due to UW policy, he’s now being pressured for not making ‘satisfactory progress’ towards a degree despite being a year ahead by the schools own standards. Meanwhile his friends who were DA are plugging along with 3.0 GPAs with much less stress.
He’s applying again for the Spring for the last time. If he doesn’t get in to Foster he’ll get an Economics degree and graduate in 3 years. This is still a good outcome and he’ll land on his feet either way but it’s hard to say if passing up on DA at other schools was the right choice. The overall value is probably still solid and learning how to navigate a big machine like UW provides some good lessons. Despite all of this, he loves UW and says he’s glad he chose to attend.

Bottom line is do your research and understand the differences between Direct and Standard admission. Make sure your student is able to handle the pressure of a competitive environment. Something as small as ‘only’ getting a 3.0 in a prerequisite course could knock them off track.
Son #2 also applied to UW but will be attending a different university where he was DA. He’s a different kid and would not thrive in the UW environment.

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The University of Washington at Seattle takes its committment to Washington state residents very seriously.

About 70% of the undergrads at UW-Seattle are residents of Washington state, about 16% are international students, and about 15% are non-residents. It is tough to get direct admission to a competitive major at UW-Seattle for non-residents.

The Univ. of Washington at Seattle is a serious school which is, in my opinion, grossly under-rated at #62 or so by US News. Based on the serious nature of the campus culture, the quality of instruction, the quality of students, and job placement, UW-Seattle should be ranked among the top 40 National Universities.

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@Publisher, US News ranked it among the top 40 to 50 National Universities for many years:

https://publicuniversityhonors.com/tag/u-s-news-historical-college-rankings/

https://publicuniversityhonors.com/2016/09/18/average-u-s-news-rankings-for-126-universities-2010-1017/

Apparently, it has maintained its very good “academic reputation” score, but it must have declined relative to several other schools in some other aspects of the US News ranking methodology:

https://publicuniversityhonors.com/2019/09/14/u-s-news-2020-dept-rank-vs-academic-rep-vs-overall-rank-plus-social-mobility/

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If a student does not ultimately get into Foster, does any one know what other majors one might switch to (other than Econ)?

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To be honest, is it really worth switching your dream major just to attend your dream school?