Do I have a chance at UW acceptance?

[PS90]

Originally Posted by 509

My daughter had a horrible experience. Years ago, I got accepted to grad school a couple of times to U of W, but when I went to talk to them....well, lets just say they are NOT student oriented.

The worst thing about the U of W is the competitive admit to your major.

"For any school you chose to attend check to see if your major is COMPETITIVE ADMIT. That means that after two years of going to school, you might NOT get into your major. That is what happened to my daughter and she dropped out as a result. Last I looked the U of W had LOTS of COMPETITIVE ADMIT majors."

As a parent and taxpayer.......that NEEDS to change. Two years of education and then you do NOT get admitted to your major, because the University does not want to shift priorities??

That is a waste of taxpayer money that the U of W could care less about. Remember a few years they wanted to become a PRIVATE college so they could raise tuition!!

As a parent, and a taxpayer somebody needs to remind the University of Washington that they are a PUBLIC UNIVERSITY serving the people of Washington state....not themselves.

I didn't even know that "competitive admit" was a thing. At WSU, you just declare your major after your sophomore year, and then you get it. Now that I think about it, however, there may have been a few majors, like architecture or engineering, that only accepted a limited number of new majors. I guess maybe that's the same thing. I never had any competition issues - not in my undergrad, at least.

[Ruth4Truth]

OP, if you're a junior, and there's a community college in your town, take a couple of CC classes in your junior and senior years. Read the UW admissions requirements very carefully, and take CC classes that address the admission requirements in areas that your HS does not cover. For example: anthropology, economics, sociology, etc. (there's a list on the UW's admissions req. page). That would do a lot to improve your chances.

What are you planning to do with your two remaining summers? What language/s do you have? What about doing some kind of exchange program or study abroad program? This would really broaden your experience, give you something to write about in your essay for admission, and could give you some unique perspectives to contribute to the UW community. Notice on their admission req's page they say they're looking for people whose experience will enrich the environment for other students, or some such. Do what you can to become that person. Good luck!

And you can contact the admissions dept. and ask to speak to an advisor, to get more info on the "competitive admit" major issue. I don't know anyone for whom that was a problem. Most ppl declare their major after 2 years, not a big deal.

[tobester]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

And you can contact the admissions dept. and ask to speak to an advisor, to get more info on the "competitive admit" major issue. I don't know anyone for whom that was a problem. Most ppl declare their major after 2 years, not a big deal.

Competitive admit is a problem with engineering ... requires a very high GPA your first year to be admitted to the College of Engineering. A quote from their website:

Departmental admissions are competitive. Simply meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission. For the most current information regarding competitiveness please visit Department Admission Statistics.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by tobester

Competitive admit is a problem with engineering ... requires a very high GPA your first year to be admitted to the College of Engineering. A quote from their website:

Departmental admissions are competitive. Simply meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission. For the most current information regarding competitiveness please visit Department Admission Statistics.

This makes sense. I was thinking that it must apply to some of the more technical majors.