onhcetum

If the University of Washington is so highly ranked as a top 25 school, why does it have such a high acceptance rate? Is their a catch?

If it so prestigious, why is it so easy to get into?

My friend got in with a 1800 SAT Score and sub 3.5 GPA.

schrizto

Because it's a state school. And the last time I looked, it wasn't top 25. Nowhere close to that.

Old College Try

Because its standards are low, relatively few top candidates would even considered going there, and its school colors include purple.

Abetterlife

you are thinking of washington university in St loius.

onhcetum

No, I'm not.

Coolbrezze

University of Illinois acceptance rate is nearly 70%, and they are usually rank near schools with acceptance rate nearly half of their own.

SophieGermain

Well, part of the reason the UW has a high acceptance rate is probably because it has so many students... its big even for a state school. And the quality probably depends on what department you're talking about- Computer Science is supposed to be really competitive, but I've heard WSU has a better Communications department. UW also has a good med school.

Also, it might make a significant difference if your friend with a 3.5 GPA and 1800 was a good athlete, lived in-state, had significant extracurriculars, was a legacy, etc. The UW app has a lot of writing attached to it, so I doubt they go straight off numbers.

applicannot

University of Washington is nowhere near top 25. Maybe the ranking you're looking at is just public schools? An 1800 is usually just fine for a state school, except the more competitive ones like UVa, Chapel Hill, maybe College Park.

mom2collegekids

Very large state schools are designed to educate its residents. Therefore, they are supposed to accept reasonably intelligent students.

Many state schools have "formula admittance" - meaning that they state a minimum a student must have - certain college prep classes, certain minimum GPA, certain minimum test scores. That will limit applications right there. Few would even bother to apply if they don't meet those minimums. Therefore, the school doesn't have to reject many.

U Wash is ranked about #40 (more or less)

bclintonk

Lots of reasons. With roughly 29,000 undergrads, U Washington is big, even for a public---and that means lots of places to fill. Some other top publics like UC Berkeley (25,000 undergrads), Michigan (26,000) and UVA (15,000) are smaller.

Second, its applicant pool is relatively small--about 20,000 v. 48,000 at UC Berkeley and 30,000 at Michigan. Even UVA, with roughly half the number of undergrad seats to fill, gets almost as many applicants (18,000) as U Washington.

Why the small applicant pool? Well most of U Washington's student body (88%) is in-state v. 65% at Michigan and 72% at UVA (Berkeley at 92% is even more heavily in-state that U Washington, but then California's a much bigger state). And the State of Washington with roughly 6.5 million people is not a particularly large state, dwarfed by California's 37 million and much smaller than Michigan's 10 million; smaller even than Virginia's 7.8 million. That means a smaller pool of in-state graduating seniors to draw on to fill up all those places.

So it's a matter of simple math. If you've got a lot of seats to fill and not a large applicant pool, you'll need to accept a high percentage to fill the seats.

Kulakai

UW also has a transfer agreement setup with dozens of comm. colleges in WA similar to transfer agreements in CA/VA and other state school systems. I think everyone just loves the PNW and has a hard time leaving it

ctyankee

Transfer students aren't in the admit rate stat so it's not directly relevant.

Or they could do what Michigan does - allow a larger number of OOS students thus improving the pool of students.

mom2collegekids

>>>>>
Or they could do what Michigan does - allow a larger number of OOS students thus improving the pool of students.
<<<<

Is it an "allowing" issue? I didn't think Washington had a "cap" on the number of OOS admits like a few top publics do.

If UWashington doesn't have such a cap, then nothing is stopping it from having a larger pool of applicants, except maybe the school isn't doing much to attract OOS students.

Greta

UW doesn't need to be any bigger than it already is and under normal budget conditions, UW hasn't needed a lot of OOS tuition dollars. The current economy not withstanding, if OOS students bump instate students from a limited number of admission slots because UW needs/wants the tuition money, that will be a sad day for the State of Washington.

ctyankee

It's not about being bigger, it's about being better.

Bclintonk,

That 87 percent in-state seems likely to be all campuses. Certainly OOS students would only be interested in the flag ship so the Seattle campus in-state percentage is what we need.

It's reported that 51 percent of applicants come from OOS. I have a hard time believing that they accept an equal number of OOS applicants compared to in-state - thus it seems reasonable to assume they have a cap on OOS admits - however you may want to phrase it.

Source: http://www.washington.edu/regents/me...s/acad/a-4.pdf