I don’t get to visit the schools I got into because of the pandemic. Hoping students at UW can answer a few questions about the school.
How integrated is the campus into the city? Are in-state students welcoming to out of state kids? Are classes similar caliber to other top public schools (UNC, UC System, Michigan, etc)?
Very integrated with the city. There are two substantial shopping and dining areas (“The Ave” and the University Village) within a 10 minute walk of campus. There’s a lightrail that’s a 10 minute ride to the middle of downtown. It’s pretty much perfect in terms of location.
There’s no stigma against out of state students.
The classes can be difficult, but with any college, the depth of knowledge you get is totally up to you.
It is a huge urban university in the center of the city no more than 10 minutes from downtown. in fact, the U-District around campus is practically it’s own downtown. It is going to be more similar to other big city universities like Minnesota or UCLA than college town universities like Michigan or Wisconsin.
I went to grad school there and lived in Seattle for a decade doing work connected to the UW. The campus is full of grad students and international students and research institutes and the different colleges are kid of their own universes (Engineering, Business, Forestry, Oceanography, Medicine, etc.) with not all that much mixing.
Seattle is a big international city and everyone, including students are from all over. No one is going to care where you are from or notice, unless you are a jerk about it. It is a diverse and liberal place so doing jerk things like walking around with a confederate flag shirt, giant Texas flag, or MAGA hat or whatever will get you annoyed glares. But that’s about. But Seattle in general is a pretty reserved and Nordic sort of place and has a reputation for social reserve whether you are a student or not. It’s called the “Seattle Freeze” Google it. Kind of the opposite of over-the-top southern hospitality. People aren’t hostile like New Yorkers or Parisians. They just politely ignore you.