University of Washington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great school. But visit to make sure you like Seattle. Go in February when it’s dark from about 4:15 in the afternoon until 8:15 the next morning.

People in the pnw are different. It’s a great place and I’d move back (but live outside Seattle).

Or stay for summer term when it’s light until 10 pm and students spend their free time hiking in the mountains, swimming in the lake, and renting ski boats.

The dark isn’t great but it’s rarely cold enough to need a hat and gloves (I wear mine 1x/year at most) and skiing is 50 minutes away. I swim outdoors all winter. The climate here is rainy but the temps rarely dip below the 40s and that makes winter different than East coast winters and more tolerable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great school. But visit to make sure you like Seattle. Go in February when it’s dark from about 4:15 in the afternoon until 8:15 the next morning.

People in the pnw are different. It’s a great place and I’d move back (but live outside Seattle).

Or stay for summer term when it’s light until 10 pm and students spend their free time hiking in the mountains, swimming in the lake, and renting ski boats.

The dark isn’t great but it’s rarely cold enough to need a hat and gloves (I wear mine 1x/year at most) and skiing is 50 minutes away. I swim outdoors all winter. The climate here is rainy but the temps rarely dip below the 40s and that makes winter different than East coast winters and more tolerable.

This is comical and untrue. Lived there for years and during covid so very recent and it was definitely cold enough for hats and gloves. 🤣 You need to remember that it also depends if you are there during El Niño or La Niña.

Every 3 years is like a diff experience in weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how have i heard nothing about Washington on DCUM and non stop UC babble - digging deeper, this is a fantastic state school - that #7 ranking ( although not geared toward undergrad etc, more about research etc) is absolutely insane - my kid wants west coast and I’m ashamed I didn’t even bring this up. If you can call a university with 50k kids a hidden gem, this would be it - and tech placement is ridiculously good - won’t get that from Bucknell or Williams!

I think that’s some of the low-key west coast vibes coming out. I went to an Ivy and remember being confused by my roommate from Portland and her friend from Seattle. They were crazy smart but nothing like the other kids who were always subtly dropping stuff about their resumes and the classes they were taking and their SAT scores. UW has really done a lot over the last decade or so and graduates slip into local internships and jobs at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and way more interesting small tech companies so much more easily than kids at more prestigious schools. Seattle is still a small city in a lot of ways and it takes care of its own.

Plus UW has a great quality of life, beautiful setting, and classic big school activities and social life.

When was the last time you actually went back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have experience with applications to UW? It's on my DC's radar, so we checkout our school's Naviance admissions. DC is outside the GPA and SAT lines surrounded by green checks. However, there have been few than 75 applications over the past 3 years. We aren't going to be able to visit, so we have watched some campus tour videos. How's the student life?

If you like the PNW, you might also want to look at the University of Oregon and Oregon State. Both Eugene and Corvallis are beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We visited and my DS loved it — pretty campus set in a great city, with public transportation making things easily accessible.
He ended up not applying because he is set on being a math major, but UW requires ‘application’ into that major after freshman year, and admittance was very low. He didn’t want to take the chance that he wouldn’t get into the math major. Not sure if other majors are like that, or how your kid feels about a major, but that was what stopped my kid from applying.

I wonder why they have that system. It doesn't benefit anyone and drives a ton of people away.

It’s a HUGE school. They couldn’t care less if some people are driven away. Seriously, it’s giant and can’t keep up with demand.

I guess it makes sense; but then you have schools like UT, Berkeley, hell UVA that seem to have figured it out with the same amount. A&M is massive and 1/4 of students are engineers and they’re expanding the program even further.

I guess maybe they have room. This school is in the middle of a major city. It’s not the major driving force.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how have i heard nothing about Washington on DCUM and non stop UC babble - digging deeper, this is a fantastic state school - that #7 ranking ( although not geared toward undergrad etc, more about research etc) is absolutely insane - my kid wants west coast and I’m ashamed I didn’t even bring this up. If you can call a university with 50k kids a hidden gem, this would be it - and tech placement is ridiculously good - won’t get that from Bucknell or Williams!

I think that’s some of the low-key west coast vibes coming out. I went to an Ivy and remember being confused by my roommate from Portland and her friend from Seattle. They were crazy smart but nothing like the other kids who were always subtly dropping stuff about their resumes and the classes they were taking and their SAT scores. UW has really done a lot over the last decade or so and graduates slip into local internships and jobs at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and way more interesting small tech companies so much more easily than kids at more prestigious schools. Seattle is still a small city in a lot of ways and it takes care of its own.

Plus UW has a great quality of life, beautiful setting, and classic big school activities and social life.

When was the last time you actually went back?

98105 for the last 15 years.

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great school. But visit to make sure you like Seattle. Go in February when it’s dark from about 4:15 in the afternoon until 8:15 the next morning.

People in the pnw are different. It’s a great place and I’d move back (but live outside Seattle).

Or stay for summer term when it’s light until 10 pm and students spend their free time hiking in the mountains, swimming in the lake, and renting ski boats.

The dark isn’t great but it’s rarely cold enough to need a hat and gloves (I wear mine 1x/year at most) and skiing is 50 minutes away. I swim outdoors all winter. The climate here is rainy but the temps rarely dip below the 40s and that makes winter different than East coast winters and more tolerable.

This is comical and untrue. Lived there for years and during covid so very recent and it was definitely cold enough for hats and gloves. 🤣 You need to remember that it also depends if you are there during El Niño or La Niña.

Every 3 years is like a diff experience in weather.

I grew up in VT so maybe my bar for hats and gloves is different, but I promise I’ve pulled them out less than 3 times since 2020 and 2 of those times were for actual snow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We visited and my DS loved it — pretty campus set in a great city, with public transportation making things easily accessible.
He ended up not applying because he is set on being a math major, but UW requires ‘application’ into that major after freshman year, and admittance was very low. He didn’t want to take the chance that he wouldn’t get into the math major. Not sure if other majors are like that, or how your kid feels about a major, but that was what stopped my kid from applying.

I wonder why they have that system. It doesn't benefit anyone and drives a ton of people away.

It’s a HUGE school. They couldn’t care less if some people are driven away. Seriously, it’s giant and can’t keep up with demand.

I guess it makes sense; but then you have schools like UT, Berkeley, hell UVA that seem to have figured it out with the same amount. A&M is massive and 1/4 of students are engineers and they’re expanding the program even further.

I guess maybe they have room. This school is in the middle of a major city. It’s not the major driving force.

UT nearly touches the state capitol in a downtown tech hub. I think Washington just has a bad major declaration process. It'd cost them little to move to the standard system where you apply to the major you will be at admissions.