Cherry Blossom Update
Current Aerial Footage:
Looks like the trees are in peak bloom this week:
https://www.washington.edu/video/campus-webcams/
A brief history of the cherry trees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDK6unQlpeQ
Also featured in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4R-YZ-VZhQ
Best wishes to everyone!
@ChiMom191 , congratulations to your daughter! She might enjoy reading about the work of Prof. Emily Levesque, whose research program is focused on improving our understanding of how massive stars evolve and was recently featured by Crosscut:
https://crosscut.com/2020/03/human-elements-studying-stars-going-back-time
Prof. Levesque also has an entertaining Twitter feed that is enjoyable to follow.
Does anyone have any inside scoop or thoughts on if UW will be delaying their college decision deadline to June 1? Many schools are. We had plans to visit UW again to get another look, but obviously this is not happening.
This is late but my D was accepted IDHonors and Purple and Gold OOS scholarship of 7200K/year. She is very excited and has a tough decision ahead of her.
UW 4
W 4.75
Valedictorian
5 APs done: 4s and 5s, currently completing 3 APs
OOS: CA
ACT 33
no SAT or subject tests
long breadth and depth on ECs
ASB, 4 year varsity athlete, Girl Scouts, Piano
it’s between to UCLA or UW
Would love any input on honors and advantages of? Ty.
@tntnmom UW Honors:
PROS: The classes move faster and go deeper. (If your student is a good fit then this is a big advantage…otherwise, it could be a problem. If you assume that every UW/UCLA kid is an AP/IB kid, then what was your kid like in AP classes? Did they just want the A or did then hunger for more depth? Did they crave connecting the dots between different classes or did they have single-focused interests?) The classes are small and there is a cohort community. There is an effort to connect multiple disciplines to solve world problems. The biggest advantage is the lack of bureaucracy regarding honors classes. The professors give you far less busy work and assume that the material they teach you will eventually be of practical use in research, further education or your career. They’re not teaching to make you jump through a hoop but to really understand the material.
CONS: Your AP credit is mostly useless. You have to take the honors versions of the AP classes. Honors has a lot of requirements and is a lot of work. It’s not a fast track to graduation but rather an enriched experience.
Note: Honors has two parts - interdisciplinary and departmental. Students wanting to have that cohort experience and look at world connections etc. will start as freshman in the interdisciplinary program. Students who only want the single-subject focus can opt for departmental honors junior year.
UW vs. UCLA - both are amazing, huge schools. Obviously the weather and the culture are very different in the surroundings. I think that you should pick the school based on your major and which community makes you feel at home. Once you’ve picked the school, then you can decide on the honors track. Maybe you just need to ask your student if they want to hike or swim in the ocean. Then you’ll know which school to choose. As per honors, ask them if they like to talk with their peers about their studies vs. about non-school related things.
@Huskypup24 thanks for your detailed input! Its greatly appreciated. It’s a difficult decision in many ways and for us as parents… hard to think about paying OOS tuition (even with the P & G that she got) for a public school when D was accepted to UCLA instate. How do you know the detailed Honors information you wrote about above?
The money difference between UW with a scholarship and UCLA is not that much in the long run. The biggest difference will be how happy your student is and how motivated they will be in their major. Pick the school that makes you, the student, happy and excited. Also, it is very important to know that majors are not guaranteed at UW. If you are direct to engineering, you still have to prove yourself to get into specific engineering majors. More than half of the majors at UW have capacity constraints. If your student is really happy and therefore works really hard, there are additional scholarships in later years.
However, LA and Seattle are very different cities with very different priorities. Some love LA some hate it and some people can’t handle Seattle’s gray others thrive in wet. While Seattle has become more like California in the last decade, there are still big personality differences. How does your daughter feel about the environment - what would she sacrifice to save the salmon? Is fashion important to her? Imagine other questions.
@Huskypup24 : I would love to be able to private message you but neither one of us have 10 replies yet lol. So I am closer so I will try to make 2 more posts and then reach out to privately. If you don’t mind. 
It sounds like you are a WA resident. Unfortunately, we have not even visited UW. 
Our plan was to make a trip if she was admitted… well… we all know how that has turned out.
I was waitlisted at the UW Honors Program. Does anyone know anything about this? Can I appeal or write a LOCI? How many are waitlisted/chance of getting off it? The honors program was going to play a major role in my college decision.
Has anyone pulled off the waitlist found out about scholarship information yet? Is that just going to be mailed or will we see it in the portal?
@tntnmom Hi!! Four years ago, we were in a similar situation. Down to 2 schools - one instate (NorCal), the other UW. Of course, things were different then…we had the opportunity to visit both campus in the weeks leading up to decision day.
Would love to give you my OOS state parent perspective but am new to CC and don’t know all the rules. I have a current high school senior (so I get what you are going through) and a senior at UW Foster School of Business with a job he accepted back in Nov. 2019…and as of yesterday still on track despite the coronavirus.
In a nutshell, this is what I know for sure: University of Washington isn’t just an stellar education. It is a launch pad to the future!!
Anyone have experience in trying to extend a deadline of accepting/declining scholarship? Ours is 4/15 even though decision day is 5/1. We’re in-state.
For those of you pulled off the waitlist, financial aid can be found in your portal. Log into your MyUW portal, and on the left of your home page you will find UW Resources. Select it and then select Student Finances. You will be able to find your offer. They should have also emailed you so if you cannot find it, check your spam and promotion folders.
Has anyone pulled off of the waitlist (OOS) received their letter in the mail yet? Still waiting on scholarship information… Thanks!
@DisneyMom74 My son was just accepted off the waitlist about 2 weeks ago, OOS in NJ. The official letter came in the mail a few days ago. Unfortunately no scholarship info mentioned, but didn’t really expect it since he was originally waitlisted.
Is the admitted student preview working for anyone?
no it’s not working for me or my friend. has anybody figured it out?
For some reason, my son’s UW portal was updated today (Apr 18th) with a “Notice of Revision Award” on his financial aid page. It says “Notice of Revised Award” and there’s a newly added line item (other than the usual subsidized and unsub loans) that says: “Offer of Gift Aid: Undergrad University Grant” and the amount is $5,926.
It’s particularly odd cause he’s in-state (WA) and I never heard of UW handing out extra financial aid like that… and we didn’t ask or make an appeal. In fact, there was no email notification or anything and we only noticed by accident because today he was about to accept his offer from an out-of-state school instead. Probably still will… but…
Just curious if anyone who has already been accepted has had this happen to them as well… in-state or OOS? Perhaps worth checking for some of you. Mind you, I think it’s just for the Freshman year and not a renewing type award for all four years. But that’s my point… it came out of the blue. Not sure if there’s any deeper hidden meaning with the term “gift aid” as well.
@acquaformosa Hi there, in state, just checked and we have no revisions like you did, sadly. Thanks for the heads up.
I got into UW for Pre-Science but want to switch to Business Administration (which was my second choice major). Is it difficult to switch? (I am OOS)