I am currently a High School senior who has the University of Washington-Seattle Campus as her dream school. However, neither my GPA, my test scores, nor my activities are impressive. Please give me some of your thoughts and advice on whether I can get into UW or what I should work on to better my chances. Thank you!
Female Asian
First generation and an immigrant
My unweighted GPA is a 3.805 while my weighted one is a 4.29
My SAT highest is 1210
My SAT superscore is 1230
I am doing Running Start (Dual-Enrollment) since junior year.
I took AP World History and AP Physics and currently taking AP Chemistry and AP Calculus
Extracurricular Activities:
- I have more than 500 hours, however, I don’t think it would affect my chance of admission since UW does not require this information.
- I am volunteering at a hospital and a blood donation center
- I volunteered at a local food bank
- an officer in Vietnamese club (from 9th-12th)
- founder+officer in Health Sciences Club (I started this club in Junior year)
- NHS (10th-12th); Key Club (12th); Asian Student Association (11th-2th)
- summer intern at a STEM camp
Another thing that greatly worried me is my grade trend as it is slightly downward. I maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.87 throughout my first two years. However, at the end of the junior year, my cumulative became 3.805.
Any comment/advice would be helpful. Thank you so much!
You have a shot. UW seems to be rather random. My daughter has told me about varying results which differ quite a bit. I hate to say it but being Asian will not help you.
I agree with JBSeattle that you have a shot (and I think a decent shot) based on the admission decision factors stated in the UW’s Common Data Set:
These factors are “very important”:
Academic GPA
Application essay
Rigor of secondary school record
These factors are “important”:
Extracurricular activities
First generation college student
Standardized test scores
Talent/ability
Volunteer work
Work experience
These factors are “considered”:
Character/personal qualities
State residency
These factors are “not considered”:
Class rank
Recommendations
Interview
Alumni/ae relation
Geographical residence
Religious affiliation/commitment
Racial/ethnic status
Level of applicant’s interest
Good luck!
I think you have a good shot, like the others here seem to think as well. A negative grade trend is not the best thing but if you had rigorous courseloads or special circumstances, then it would be fine. You SAT scores are at the lower end of the spectrum that UW typically accepts. However, you seem to be in fairly advanced courses and have a nice amount of leadership. I think you have a pretty good chance overall. Hopefully your essays will help too!
Applications are in now, I know, but I definitely agree that UW admissions can be a bit “random”. I knew a really highly intelligent guy from my Calculus class who got rejected and have also heard stories of the UW rejecting applications 100% based on the essay.