What would it take to get into the University of Washington for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
1

As of now, I am a junior in HS
I have a GPA of 3.3 (Weighted), but I have a lot of AP Classes, people willing to write great recommendations, and I believe my personal essay is going to be great too.

I have taken AP European History, AP U.S History, AP English Language and Composition, AP Music Theory, and AP Seminar.
I will have taken, in my senior year, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Psychology, AP, and AP Research.

I’ve been in English 10 Honors and I will be in English 12 Honors with ACE Credits.
Most of my electives are also English classes.
I’m hoping they notice that because I want to major in an English degree.

I believe I will score a 4-5 on the majority of my future ones. Maybe only AP Theory and APUSH could I score below a 4 on.

I am a part of many extracurricular clubs, I have even founded one, and I am to be the president of one and an officer of a few if that matters.

I don’t know if I’ll have much time to improve my GPA or when I can even take my SATs/ACTs because they’re canceled for now during the Coronavirus Pandemic (I live in New York). Our current quarter in high school is now simply Pass or Fail so that does not help at all.

So what could I build on right now? Any advice at all would be appreciated.

2

A 3.3 weighted GPA would put UWashington out of reach. Why do you want to go across country? Except perhaps computer science they do not offer anything that you cannot get closer to home. And CS would definitely be out of reach.

3

UW has a preference for instate, and an even greater preference for instate community college transfer students. They also don’t accept recommendation letters, so the bulk of their consideration is your academics and personal statement. 3.3 is rather low. Your unweighted GPA must be even lower, less than 3?

4

According to Washington’s Common Data Set, the three factors that are “very important” to its admission decisions are rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA and application essay. Your rigor is strong, but your GPA is on the lower side. You have an opportunity to use the essay to make your application really stand out. Washington does not consider letters of recommendation, but you could ask your favorite teachers to help you develop your best possible essay.

Washington has a superb English Department:

https://www.washington.edu/news/blog/usa-today-names-uw-english-third-best-nationally-for-english-majors/

Like other great flagship universities, it has excellent departments covering many fields of study:

http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#TOP60

http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html

https://publicuniversityhonors.com/2020/03/19/here-are-75-public-universities-listed-in-order-of-academic-department-rankings/

It’s a definitely a special place (and for those of us from the East Coast, somewhat of a hidden gem):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDK6unQlpeQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4R-YZ-VZhQ

https://www.washington.edu/video/campus-webcams/

Good luck, and best wishes to you and everyone back in New York!

5

I don’t think it’s worth going across the country for an English Major/Liberal Arts in general. OOS is too expensive unless you can get that paid somehow. Your chances are low with your current GPA, I’ve seen people with better stats getting rejected, but I don’t remember their intended major.

I have an assumption that UW would take in OOS for English majors, especially one with tons of English courses cause they want your money.