<p>2200 SAT, 31 ACT, great essays about my experiences as a kid born in Russia but raised equal measures in Japan and America. 13 honors courses and 4 AP courses (including APUSH which is the hardest class in my high school which is already a pretty difficult high school), 150+ hours of volunteering (+ membership in the key club at school) at the UW medical center and 10 and 5 months of employment at a 5-star retirement home and an office environment respectively, plus a year of track, independent study of Japanese, and a 9-year portfolio of art of paintings that are pretty much professional already (+ membership in the art club at school).</p>
<p>Oh and a 3.20 unweighted GPA. That's the catch that held me back. I was never the greatest student, but I started out at about a 3.6 in freshman year. Then my grandpa passed away during 10th grade and I got hit pretty hard. I never dropped below a 3.0 and I've worked my way up the GPA ladder ever since (with the harder classes, some of which were 2 years ahead of the regular grade level). This death also galvanized me into action, and I started to volunteer and work and do more things to benefit everyone else.</p>
<p>Now, UW is my top school and only school in WA that I applied to. I'm absolutely going to accept my spot on that wait-list. Problem is, what do you guys think my chances are?</p>
<p>I'm in a better spot than a lot of people because the weakness that stopped me from getting accepted was the GPA. The only additional info that UW requests from me is my classes and grades for senior year so far. I've got two AP classes, four Running Start classes at Bellevue College, a 3rd-year language course, and two core classes. First semester GPA was a 3.38, with A's in my two college classes. So, overall, they're an improvement on the cumulative GPA that stopped me from getting accepted just now.</p>
<p>What information can you guys help me out with regarding my situation and the wait-listing process in general? I know one girl that got in off the waitlist and one guy last year that didn't. So I'm not filled with an overwhelming amount of confidence here.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be at the top of the waitlist, maybe they thought you you were above and beyond and wanted to make sure you wanted to be there instead of declining for another college?</p>
<p>I’m no expert on the subject at all, but with the low gpa aside, it seems to me like you have a very strong application. I wish you the best of luck!!</p>
<p>Wow, with those stats and good essays, I’m surprised you got waitlisted?! I guess they place more emphasis on GPA than SAT or ECs. Hope you get in though!</p>
<p>Besides your grades, your application is very strong. With your grade increase this senior year, that’s even better. With the sudden drop in grades, I’m guessing UW thought that as a student, you started slacking or really couldn’t handle sophomore year work (assuming normal circumstances).</p>
<p>If you want to send in an appeal packet (better than just waiting!), message me and I’ll send you some documentation that I wrote up for a friend when he appealed.</p>
<p>I was looking a very old UW page & it said that for their academic index GPA is 75% & test scores 25%. I don’t know if they still use this but they may.</p>
<p>That’s quite old obviously, but I like to hope they still use that! That could be what saves me if they do since I have a 3.79 GPA but only a 1780 SAT.</p>
<p>The essays definitely mean a lot more than most people think. UW has adopted the “holistic” admissions style, so essays and ECs can be someone’s saving grace. :)</p>
<p>Speedsolver, I’d love to get that documentation you mentioned earlier. Will it help, though? I plan to use everything I possibly can while waiting, but from the waitlist letter they sent me, they made it seem like the only thing they would look at is the purple form they gave me, where I put down my senior year classes along with first semester grades. The letter specifically says no additional information or letters of recommendation would be accepted.</p>
<p>Regardless, I’m still going to ask my counselor if there’s anything she can do. If this appeals packet you mention would help too (I was under the impression it should only be used if you’re rejected) then I’ll absolutely fill it out and send it in too.</p>
<p>When you join the waitlist, all they look at are senior grades on top of whatever you sent them.</p>
<p>When you appeal, that’s a separate thing. They’ll look at more than just your grades for that! It shows that you really want to go to UW to even go through the process. You can appeal a wait list decision.</p>
<p>PM me your email. also, put a space between <username> AT domain . COM/EDU/etc or CC will just <strong><em>star</em></strong> it all out.</username></p>
<p>So as far as I can tell, joining the waitlist and appealing their decision are two entirely different processes.</p>
<p>But I can do them both at once, right?</p>
<p>And more importantly, doing one of these processes wouldn’t cancel out the other, right? So if I join the waitlist, I can still send in an appeal to try and change their decision from “waitlist him” to “accept him”?</p>
<p>Basically, doing both the appeals packet and joining the waitlist would only be beneficial to me, not detrimental?</p>
<p>My email is s-alevanidov (at) lwsd (dot) org.</p>
<p>Yes, they are separate processes. They do not cancel each other out.</p>
<p>The appeal will only be detrimental if you completely bomb it. As in, the content of the appeal is less strong than your original freshman application.</p>
<p>One thing - I <em>think</em> my activities list was relatively strong the first time I applied - if there aren’t a whole lot of changes to it other than “I kept doing those activities” by the time I send in the updated appeals packet, do you think that will hurt my chances? </p>
<p>Second thing - when’s the best time to send this in? I have 3 recommendation letters from teachers plus 1 from counselors all ready to go, but I wanted to get another one from my best teacher, who couldn’t finish it in time for my original Common Application deadlines. She’ll ask for about another month to do it. Would mid-April be okay, or should I send in this packet as early as possible?</p>
<p>Ask for the recommendation from your best teacher ASAP. Mid April is fine. They won’t look at waitlists until May because they have to see how many spots are open, so presumably they’re still waiting for appeals then.</p>
<p>I don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said, but I do think that you have a very strong application and a well-written appeal could very well tip you over into the “accepted” category.</p>
<p>Sort of off-topic, but check out this quote from the link that was posted earlier:</p>