HI,
My DD is on the waitlist for Fall 2018 at UW. The email they sent says that they did not admit anyone off of the waitlist last year but in 2016 they admitted over 700 number out of 2300 students. Has anyone here had experience with the UW waitlist process and can you give advice or opinions on the odds or actually getting in this year. She is applying as a Psych major. So my other question is since she is on the waitlist, would they admit her as a pre-psych I guess meaning would she have to then reapply to the major as a Junior, or do they do direct admits off the waitlist like they do with regular admissions. Thanks for your opinions. Just trying to get an idea if she should even consider this school at this point when she has other options.
I’ve been admitted, not wait-listed, but I have a friend that did get wait-listed. He said that he talked to his English teacher and that he will be able to appeal to UW. Basically his teacher is going to write an essay in which he explains that some of the poor grades that my friend got do not necessarily reflect his ability to do well in college and stuff like that. My friend also mentioned that the teacher has gotten everyone in who he wrote an essay for. However, he’s in a gifted program which is known for quite large grade deflation, and is certainly a valid excuse for poorer grades.
Either way, I think your daughter should try for the wait-list and possibly appeal; her counselor will definitely give advice on the matter. The chance of getting in through wait-list solely depends on the amount of competitive applicants in a given year that commit to the school. A good indicator of this is usually the number of students who apply to the school (2017 had a bunch). Therefore, it will be especially tough if this year has had an overhaul of applications. In 2017 they took no one from the wait-list because they most likely had so many applications that they were able to fill all of the spots with competitive applicants who got in through regular decision.
Additionally, if your daughter does get admitted off the wait-list she will most likely not receive a direct admission. This is true for most schools so you can think of it this way: first are the most competitive applicants which UW extends direct admissions for their requested majors (if the major even has one, since sciences don’t), then UW extends general admissions to competitive applicants and they get put in a pre-something program, then they wait-list less competitive applicants and finally deny admission to the weak applicants.
Keep in mind: you should take my advice with a grain of salt because I obviously don’t know everything about the admissions process, in fact, I probably don’t know more than I do know. At the end of the day, it’s a hectic process and you can never be sure of the final decision. Anyways, good luck to your daughter!