Admission Rate Rumor?

UWfromCA
Fri, 09 Jan 2015 17:55:00 +0000

I would expect the admission rate drop again this year for non-residents. The number of non-resident applications is increasing (up almost 10% last year and could be even higher this year), as UW has become a favorite of highly qualified Californians who are finding it more and more difficult, for a myriad of reasons, to gain admission to UCB and UCLA. If that continues, in a few years, the non-resident admissions rate could get to 30%, which affects the overall admissions rate and statistical profile, but it would take more time for the overall admissions rate to reach 30%.

A similar trend occurred at UCB and UCLA during the last 20 years. In the mid 1990s (which this “old timer” who went to grad school at UW in the 1990s will tell you is not that long ago!), the freshman admissions rate for UCLA was around 50%, and now it is under 17%, fueled mostly by a huge increase in the number of applications (both in-state and non-resident).

The mean GPA for the 2014 freshman class at UW is 3.76; at UCLA it is 3.85; the 25/75 ACT at UW was 25/31; at UCLA it was 26/32. I would not be surprised to see these margins continue to close over the next few years.