How does WSU really compare to UW now?

Colleges and Universities Washington State University
#18

<p>WSU is definitely on an upward trend; Floyd's administration is clearly focused on moving WSU to a higher caliber than it has been known for. For instance, one of his major priorities is to make WSU a member of the AAU (Association of American Universities), which is an association of the top research universities (UW has been a member for quite a while, incidentally). And like you said, there have been a lot of construction projects in recent years, although to be fair, there is a ton of construction happening at UW right now, as well.</p>

<p>In any case, the current state of affairs is that UW is largely a better school than WSU. Having taken 2 years of Running Start classes at WSU (born/raised in Pullman), and now being a second-year student at UW, I feel I am able to adequately comment on the academic difference between the two. In my mind, there is no doubt that UW is a harder school overall. Still, WSU is a good enough school that fit should be a more important concern.</p>

<p>Dunno much about other WA schools, so I can't provide much insight there. Good luck!</p>

<p>Edit: One more thing. I hear the WSU Honors College is pretty kickass, so consider that for a nice boost over a regular WSU degree.</p>

#19

<p>I got into WSU, UW, and PLU. If I were to get into Virginia Tech I would go there, but if I don't I just want suggsetions. Also before people assume its UW - Tacoma, and WSU - Vancouver. I plan to get a bachelor in computer science and then a M.S. and then probably transfer for a PhD.</p>

#20

<p>Death12652 - Re UW, what quarter did you apply for? I ask as they have yet to notify folks for Fall 2011 enrollment.</p>

#21

<p>Fall of 2011, I got mine back becuase its UW Tacoma not Seattle. They respond sooner.</p>

#22

<p>
[quote]
Seattle, Gonzaga, SPU, PLU, and Whitworth are all religious

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If you mean Seattle University, yes it's a Jesuit school, but it's not a school of religion. Students are not required to attend mass, take religion classes, or for that matter, even to be Catholic. Don't rule out these schools on that basis alone.</p>

<p>Both of my brothers went to WSU (graduated late 70's), and they both have said for the record that UW is the superior school. However, they're both having successful careers; one got a degree in business and is now a manager at Boeing, the other took his ME degree to Stanford and got a PhD there. </p>

<p>It's good to hear that WSU is beefing up its academics; UW needs the competition. But it will take many years for these measures to affect perception. Wazzu's reputation as an isolated party school is too well-established to be changed during your son's tenure there.</p>

#23

<p>I know several WSU grads who are successful professionals...they didn't have a problem getting and keeping a job in their field. </p>

<p>Congrats to them. I certainly hope that there are people who can get jobs with a degree from WSU, but what does that have to do with UW being an academically superior University to WSU? UW is one of the leading research universities in the world, that's not my opinion, it's a fact.</p>

#24

<p>I really don't understand the issue people have with community colleges, to say they are easier is a serious misnomer. They definitely offer an environment that is more conducive to learning than Universities. Students are assigned homework more often, and have more one on one time with professors at community colleges than at universities.</p>

<p>School ranking systems are pretty broken. UW is going to be ranked above WSU because they have both a medical and law school which WSU is lacking. </p>

<p>This is fairly anecdotal, but I have heard of many students at UW wasting most of their first year on unnecessary classes. There are too many students and too few classes, so it is nearly impossible to get in classes for your major unless you are a sophomore or higher, or your degree is in general studies.</p>

#25

<p>
[quote]
Congrats to them. I certainly hope that there are people who can get jobs with a degree from WSU, but what does that have to do with UW being an academically superior University to WSU? UW is one of the leading research universities in the world, that's not my opinion, it's a fact.

[/quote]

This is true. But it is questionable whether a prospective student or parent should care.</p>

#26

<p>baronbvp-</p>

<p>Hope you have a great visit in April! You have five great schools on your list. We are taking our son to see Whitman soon as he does not remember much about Walla Walla from being dragged along with his sister.</p>

<p>It is good that you are keeping an open mind. We have had family and friends at both the UW and WSU and I would never say that one is better than the other. It depends on what you want to do and other factors, for sure. We know many WSU students/grads that turned down the UW for WSU for various reasons. Common pluses for WSU are the residential community...the more traditional student body (age-wise, UW has an unusually high number of older students), size, non-city environment, college town feel, honors program, wanted to experience something different but stay in state, scholarships/finances, specific major, Ferdinands...(the ice cream...that's my favorite), the list goes on.</p>

<p>We know many successful/happy recent WSU grads- an accountant, physicist, architect, engineer, teacher. Our youngest D (a college freshman) applied to WSU as her only PNW school and would have happily attended. Our girls preferred WSU to UW for some of the reasons above and to WWU because of the wider variety of majors-drawing different types of people. (I really like Western and we know many grads/students there as well.)</p>

<p>Our son was just at the UW last week and informed me that he would prefer to apply to WSU as well because of size and location. There are many that would feel the exact opposite for the same reasons. Aren't we lucky to have so many good choices?</p>

<p>We also know other that attend or happily attended UPS and Whitman. Can't get my kids to bite on UPS but maybe Whitman this time around. Both have very nice campuses. I think the surroundings tend to be the deal breaker, though.</p>

<p>Anyway, have fun and let us know your impressions or if you have any more questions.</p>

#27

<p>I am a WSU undergrad and I think that WSU is trying to improve its reputation. WSU has some great programs, including the zoology/pre-vet program that I am in currently. I was considering attending UW, as I am from Seattle and both my parents went there, but they do not have a zoology program. I was also drawn to WSU because they are trying desperately to attract more academically driven students and I got a full ride there.
That being said WSU does live up to its reputation as a party school and I do feel like some of the early sophomore and freshman classes are "dumbed down" to account for all of the party students on campus. Once you are working in your major, the classes are more difficult and the professors are much better. WSU also has great opportunities for undergraduate research and internships, especially if you are pre-vet. I am currently in raptor club on campus and work as an intern at the vet school clinic. The journalism and engineering departments also seem to present many opportunities on campus.
I think that UW probably still has more prestige, but WSU has some really great programs and tons of opportunities to excel.</p>

#28

<p>My son is choosing between WSU and U of MT , and Montana State. Any thoughts on comparisons between these 3? He favors the MT towns over Pullman. While I think the setting is important, I want to focus more on thenactual schools. Major unclear.</p>

#29

<p>Scopes - I am not familiar with the MT schools and their surrounding areas. However, I can only say that my D who is attending WSU from OOS loves it. </p>

<p>Biggest challenge has been getting use to the weather (we are from CA).</p>

<p>Pullman is pretty mello and there is not a lot around other than WSU (and U of ID), but it is amazing how busy and how much fun he can have as it relates to the WSU campus and related activities.</p>

#30

<p>This may not be relevant to this argument, but WSU's vet school is ranked quite high. Also, if you are looking into graduate school, rank isn't everything. Quality of research and your ability to be successful (high impact publications, conferences, etc) within that subfield of research is much more important than a rank number.</p>

#31

<p>OK, so you were miserable in Pullman - wrong place for you. My son is studying architecture and is in the Honors College. In his senior year internship - in architecture and city planning - he asked his employer to compare UW and WSU architecture programs. It was easy, they wouldn't even consider hiring a UW Graduate because the UW program is all architectural theory and history, with very little real-world (AKA job-related) skill emphasis. On a program by program basis I'm sure you'll find other examples as well. Want to study Viticulture and Oenology? UC Davis or WSU - no such animal at UW. Want to go to Medical School? That one goes to UW. The fact is both are excellent schools, and will remain that way as long as they get the support they need from the sate legislature. The other fact is they are very different (urban vs. small town) experiences. My son is very happy at WSU and could not imagine going to the UW, even afte spending his first day of holiday visiting his friends at UW.</p>

#32

<p>This is insane that I have to re-post this in the WSU forum. If you're trying to make people think that you're a serious human being, you should not make fallacious arguments that are easily proven false. Here you go, a Husky defending WSU:</p>

<p>Okay, I have to try to catch my breath. That uwrejects.com was hilarious though.</p>

<p>There's a lot of bogus stuff on here so let me just try to address this briefly. WSU is a legit school. It's not as good as UW, but then again for you to find a school as good as UW you have to head east to Chicago or south to the San Francisco Bay. So that's not as strong a slight as others make it out to be.</p>

<p>I know that most people will not make Phi Beta Kappa, but PBK has to certify the Gen-Ed liberal arts curriculum in order to grant a chapter to the school. To wit there are 4 such schools in the State of Washington. UW, WSU, University of Puget Sound and Whitman College. </p>

<p>Tuition at UW and WSU? Roughly $10,000 for in-state.</p>

<p>Tuition at UPS and Whitman? Roughly $40,000</p>

<p>So basically if you don't get into UW and you do get into WSU, you had better go there and have a good time and get your degree. There is no other school in the state which is of the scholastic rigor and value as these 4 schools. As a result, any claim that WWU holds the same regard as WSU is fallacious. WSU is a legitimate high research doctoral institution which makes significant contributions to science. The fact that it is significantly inferior to UW should not count against it because: ALL OF THE REST OF THE SCHOOLS ON THE PLANET ARE ALSO INFERIOR TO UW EXCEPT FOR 15-20 OTHERS!!!</p>

<p>We have fun watching our football team beat theirs and saying "they all have one thing in common, since they were first learning football they all dreamed of playing in the Purple and Gold." But that doesn't mean they aren't a legit school. They are, big time.</p>

<p>Also, for the record, WSU does have a Nursing college and they also run a joint project for medical school in their Spokane campus with UW. They're also a fine Vet School and they have an elite Economics Ph.D program and they're one of the best programs for Criminal Justice study in the nation. They also have an amazing College of Communication with fully functional TV station and all that.</p>

<p>If you can get into UW and you're not trying to major in Communication, Criminal Justice or Agriculture then you need to go to UW. If you don't get into UW then you're probably not getting into UPS or Whitman either. So the only other school I would ever recommend someone going to in this state is WSU.</p>

#33

<p>Let's be clear, WWU, Seattle U, Gonzaga, Pacific Lutheran, Whitworth and Evergreen are all vastly inferior schools to WSU. Bet on that.</p>

<p>Also, UPS is a LAC.</p>

#34

I know this is an old post, but I find it very interesting as a student who considered both schools. Personally, UW is a better fit for me, but the real decision making factor was admittance into my major. My brother chose WSU because he knew he could get into his major-computer science-and that he would be higher above average at WSU than he would’ve been at UW. In all honestly, if I did not receive admittance into my program, I would not have chosen UW because of the high level of rigor and competition. I think I would be equally happy in both schools, but more challenged here at UW. Also, I really enjoy being in Seattle but that is a very personal preference that applicants should consider

#35

@edu12345 Well said. As a transfer student and former computer science major, it was demotivating for me to see that no matter how well I did in my classes, the likeliness of me being accepted into the UW’s CS dept was very low, even if I was accepted into the university. I eventually changed majors naturally and thus attended the UW in the end, but I’ve seen many CS hopefuls forced to take on alternative CS-related majors and transfer students qualified for UW general admissions but deniable for CS transfer to different universities.

#36

What do both UW and WSU students have in common? They all applied to UW.

#37

I went to WSU. I toured UW. It is a pretty campus, but I would not even apply there. The teachers at WSU care about students. When I went there i had a TA who skipped her own class to help me understand how to do an assignment. I had a teacher find some research for me when i couldn’t find what I was looking for. I changed my major when i was at WSU, I had an un-diagnosed learning disability as as such had a hard time in school. Since being diagnosed, i have talked to many schools trying to determine where I want to attend schools. I would go back to WSU, but my GPA is not very good and I was advised not to return and to start over with my GPA. But as I was talking to schools I spoke to many admissions people and professors at UW. I am not kidding, these professions start to lecture me about how irresponsible I was, how they would never take someone who didn’t take their education seriously. Umm the Doctors did not know I had a learning disability, how was I suppose to know. These admissions “professions” were rude and had totally uncalled for behavior.

And just to compare. I applied to UO and wrote a personal statement explaining my situation. They had no problem with this issue and I got accepted into their biology program, you know a top ranked program. When I applied a woman from the office of admission called me and asked me if I knew about their disability office and wondered what other accommodations that she could help me find. Humm, kinda of consider UW and UO similar academically, but apparently, not professionally.

You could not pay me to attend UW, I personally think they all have a stick up their proverbial a holes cause they think they are so awesome. No, no they are not.