Hello everyone,
I’m going to be a freshman at WA Community College this fall 2024, and I was planning to transfer after the 2nd year of CC(FALL 2025), but I changed my mind to transfer after the 1st year(FALL 2024) as the UW Design major takes 3 years regardless of transferring after the 2nd or 1st year.
So I want to ask if transferring after freshman year would be much harder than transferring after 2nd year?(Please let me know if you know the specific rates!) I am afraid to apply after the 1st year because of the competitiveness for first-year transfer, since the UW website mentioned they have limited spots for transfer students who completed less than 90 credits.
I also got rejected by UW Seattle once as I applied as a freshman last fall so I am going to put much more effort into academics and activities in CC to show improvements and my passion; I will show my progress in Design study in a personal statement as I go through the first year of CC, and also highlight extra activities such as the Honors College, Student Office Leaders of the CC(these are just plans, not done yet) and getting more transferable credits in summer quarters, etc…
Is there any advice or tips for getting into UW after freshman year? And will 3 years of Design Curriculum with good preparation for Design study be a ‘good excuse’ to get in as first-year transfer students? Or will applying after 2nd year still be the best, safest choice, as I’m still considering taking 5th year to study Design at UW?
According to How to apply – Office of Admissions , your high school transcript is required if you have less than 40 quarter credits of transferable course work (1 academic year is 45 quarter credits or 30 semester credits).
Presumably, this means that a sophomore transfer applicant will be evaluated based on both high school and college records.
Go to summer school this summer, take a full load. Take a heavy load fall, winter, and spring. Get straight A grades. You can be applying to transfer with >45 quarter credits.
The short answer is that it’s pretty easy for WA community college students to transfer into UW if they have just decent grades.
Longer answer: yes, it’s likely easier (nearly guaranteed) after 90 credits with decent grades. Last year UW accepted over 70% of WA community college transfers and the average GPA was only in the 3.5 range. Not all that difficult if you put in the time. It’s also not difficult to take 20 credits per quarter (usually just 4 classes) mostly online at community colleges either. Take some credits this summer to get things rolling and I bet you’ll be at UW by next fall (2025). Just apply until you get accepted.
On a similar note, it’s very difficult to transfer to UW from other 4-year universities though. That acceptance rate is closer to only 20%. So if your goal is to attend and graduate from UW, you are much better off attending a WA community college first vs. going to another in-state or out-of-state university (e.g. WSU, Oregon, WWU etc).
Thank you for the information! Just want to confirm, I know UW Seattle accepts many CC transfers with 90 credits(2 years of CC), but its website(UW Seattle-Transfer-Holistic Review-Our goals&priorities section) mentions that, The UW is committed to the following transfer goals and priorities to benefit students from Washington’s community and technical colleges.
Among transfer students, the highest admission priority is given to Washington community and technical college transfer students with either an academic associate degree or 90 transferable credits taken in preparation for a professional academic major. Applicants with fewer than 90 credits may be admitted when early transfer is advisable, but the number of such transfers will remain small. The UW admits applicants who have completed fewer than 40 quarter credits (slightly less than one year of college) at the time of application. However, admission for these applicants is competitive and limited.
So I was thinking transferring as a first-year CC transfer would be much harder. Please let me know if you know more information, or I will plan to contact the advisors from CC or UW, thanks again!
My understanding is they admitted 73% of applicants last year. I believe that w/b of all WA community college applicants. Not just those with 90+ credits. So, just apply when you’re ready and you should have a good shot.
