I’ve wanted to go to U of Wash. since I was in the 6th grade and now that I’m a junior, its getting closer and I’m scared I won’t be good enough. Please be completely, brutally honest. Thanks.
GPA: 3.73
AP/ Pre-Ap Courses: AP English 3 and 4, Pre-AP precalculus, AP Calculus, Pre-AP English 1 and 2, Pre-Ap Algebra 1 and 2, Pre-Ap world geography (I’m wasn’t sure if Pre-Ap held any weight when it came to college admissions, but I listed them anyways)
Extracurriculars: Freshman: advanced choir. Sophomore: Symphonic choir, chamber choir. Junior: Symphonic choir, chamber choir, St. Paul choral scholar singer, personal voice lessons, part time job at panda express.
I’ve won various other awards such as the choir scholarship two years in a row, I also sang with the Houston symphony for their centennial performance of Mahler’s 8th symphony.
My class rank is 142/500-something… I am at least in the top quarter.
My rank and gpa will go up after this year because I’m making better grades my junior year than sophomore year.
Because ive just started junior year, I haven’t taken my says/acts so what do you think I need to make on those in order to have good shot? And based off of my information, do you think I’m in the right place to get in?? I want to major in Music Education (music teacher)
I’m so nervous, thanks alot for your help,
Sophie
If you can increase your GPA to around 3.8 unweighted (which is about the average) and score around 1850 SAT/28 ACT, it should be a match. You can do it! (And keep on singing!)
Hi Sophie,
I agree with @UWfromCA – If you can get your GPA up to a 3.8 and get a 28 on the ACT, you should be a good match. Your extracurriculars look good, too. The fact that you have a clear focus (singing) and act upon it shows drive in that interest.
Because you aspire to be a music major, academics are unfortunately only one half of the process of getting in. The school of music application and audition process is one that runs alongside the regular UW application.
I can give some insight on your situation because I am myself a music major at UW. I went through a similar process, although I am a performance major so there are a few differences. I am fairly sure that music education majors also have to audition to get into the School of Music, in addition to the performance majors. However, I suggest doing a bit of research to see what you need to do to get lined up with your particular major. See: https://music.washington.edu/undergraduate-graduate-auditions – their site was very helpful to me.
I performed a live audition at UW in the February of my senior year. I have no clue if they accept taped auditions or not (I think they need to be live. I would check) but if you can, I would definitely perform for them in person. It gives you a chance to not only get a good feel for what the School of Music is like but also grants you the opportunity to win over your judge, who is usually the department chair for the instrument you are trying to pursue. This is important because UW as a whole has a holistic admission process and will consider every factor (especially your audition if you totally kill it).
Music Ed majors are not automatically considered for scholarship money from the SoM upon the audition like performance majors are, but I think that outstanding auditions get considered, regardless of which subset of music they’re going into.
Good luck!