If you stay on it, I believe they’ll have some disclosure obligations. Best of luck with the expected run-around.
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I find your views very balanced, and respectful; and really enjoy reading them. Thank you being a sane voice here @dawgdad22
I’m personally not very concerned with the institutional priorities that UW has; they can fill all of their class as they wish. I’m also an advocate of equity and inclusion. I do realize the privilege my kid enjoys living in an affluent neighborhood, going to a competitive high school, and all the access to the best of resources money can buy. So, certain sections of the society deserve to be taken care of to create a level playing field.
My issue with UW is the lack of transparency and expectation settings. I’d expect them to clearly state that:-
- Major plays a role in admission; not just DTM, even other majors. We’ve seen enough evidence of people taking advantage of this loophole.
- They have a cap by high school, so if you’re in a competitive high school of certain zip codes, you’d have a harder time getting in
- Acceptance rates or spot availability for non-URM, non-low-income groups.
When someone goes to UW admission site, and read about their majors, and acceptance rates, it’s bound to create false hopes. Parents should not need to be on CC and read notes from anonymous posters on what to expect with admission at UW, and that it’s harder than you think. I don’t think I’d ever go as far as to say that as a high tax payer my high stat kid must be admitted to UW—this is ridiculous to be honest, but there’s no excuse for lack of transparency.
Need David Graves to lead UW admissions for a few cycles.
I think one of my frustrations is that these institutions seem to communicate information somewhat selectively to fit their preferred narratives and it doesn’t always feel objective. And they believe that they get to define and decide what is “fair”. One example, you would hear less about is that UW, for example, admits 46% of women and 38% of men. I suspect driven by academic profiles, so this is probably “fair”, and similar to other competitive universities. Some may argue there are social and other implications however, worth considering.
This isn’t meant to start a heated debate, just to give an example of how the messenger seems to have complete control over the message I guess - and without transparency their preferred point-of-view may be amplified.
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I have heard that before. Last fall our “experienced” friends with kids at UW would offer unsolicited assurance, “hey, for your daughter—being a woman, and a full IB Diploma, you have a sure shot ticket to UW.”
And we’d be like, “Awesome” (secretly hating the passive aggressive stereotyping)
Yet, here we are: rejected by UW for even pre-social-science 
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My son was offered a place on the UW Honors waitlist. The website says less than 10% are pulled from the list. Does anyone know the rough number of students typically offered a place?
Daughter is a waitlist honors as well.. Honors admit will make it interesting for us given that she did not get a direct admit to Fosters and the small class sizes for honors would be appealing.
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Very bright kid you have. College does not want to admit kid struggling with depression in my opinion, comfort him, what people think is going to have a drastic effect on their lives.
Life is just how you experience and reflect with your personal lives, there is never so called such fairness or what so ever , many times just pure luck. a CS education from WSU, TAMU not much different from UT, UIUC, UW or CMU, the kids around him maybe different.
Always look at the positive side of things that happened to him, graduating first place from his class at wsu can still earn him a good spot in top 10 CS graduate schools, putting in lots of side project can still get him a top paying job, if a name matters that much to him, put in a plan to transfer to some top engineering schools after one or two years.
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With admission to UW, your son still have plenty of good opportunity to go back into CS, a major in information systems or data science focus not bad either, I would think that may work out better than a direct WSU CS
If small class sizes is a goal - just a suggestion but look at the Spring 2025 or prior Time Schedules on classes. The Honors classes aren’t always at ideal times and especially if you are seeking a Foster standard admit - there aren’t a ton of Honors options in that pre-req field at all. Honors tends to be more impactful in the science fields in options like the chem series for ex.
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This in the most recent year, just to be current, is 35% admit rate Male with 28% yield and 42% female admit rate with 25% yield. CDS stats. About 6k more women applied than men in last cycle. So slightly closer than 46/38 female:male in last data. The overall entering class is 57/43 F:M for 24-25 reporting cycle.
It will be interesting if you can get data on the SAT Math scores of admitted students to CS at Washington. A 750 is great for most majors at most schools. CS at Washington is a different situation. A special situation. Washington is a top 10 CS program, ranked ahead of schools like Caltech, Michigan and UT Austin. They are getting inundated by applications from elite students with perfect test scores from all over. If you go test optional, or have a 750 math score, that really stacks the deck against you.
Sorry to see this and Good luck to your child! As someone who has hired 100s of CS engineers , I can vouch that the college does not matter when we evaluate the engineers, worst case, let him do a masters at a prestigious university
We did postmortem when my daughter did not get into a couple of top public schools when her friends from the same high school with lower overall GPAs and SAT scores made it, and we did have very strong EC and Reccos as well. After ruling out transcript errors, the only thing that seemed plausible was that she was filtered out because of a low GPA in one of her subjects .. While she had mostly A* and As , she had a D in junior year in an unrelated non STEM/non major subject and we were told that top public schools sometimes filter kids that had grades lower than a C in any subject to manage the applications. Not saying this applies to you, but I will not be surprised that you got filtered out ( agree that 750M is on low side for CS, it is considered low even for Business which my kid applied to)
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I appreciate the update. I do get tired of combing through those spreadsheets. Seems to show a similar trend and I’d guess this isn’t something schools would care to address through the ‘holistic’ review. If it were swapped, I suspect the response might be different. Fine. Also, when you compare the racial make up of the classes to the state populations you see trends that wouldn’t fit popular narratives too.
My thought was just that these institutions select the portions of the story they want people to hear, from a point of view, but that doesn’t mean it’s the whole story.
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I admire your posts here so this is not an argument, just context of stat inputs matter to the output. The actual admit chance of male/female at UW is nearly the same - about 1 in 3. The yield% and app numbers skew that 42/35 or 46/38 depending on your year. Lies Lies and D Statistics is the quote right? 
Admissions is sales - they definitely have a narrative.
Thanks so much for the kind words! My son is currently deciding between WSU Honors Computer Science (my personal preference since it’s just a 3-hour drive away) and potentially attending school in Montreal, Canada, Computer Science co-op. That one’s not my first choice — it’ll be much harder to support him emotionally from 7 hours away by plane — but ultimately, the decision is his, and I support him no matter what he chooses. We have some roots in Canada. He is Canadian, and his older sibling is Comp Eng in Toronto.
His essay was very honest — he talked very openly about his struggles with depression, the journey of reclaiming himself, finding support through his track and field team, and his readiness to support others with a similar condition. I believe this kind of vulnerability and growth should be seen as a strength. But I also recognize that colleges like UW may see it as a long-term liability, especially if they’re concerned about what could happen with him on campus. That’d be bad for their publicity.
What concerns me most is that schools often tout “inclusivity”, but that doesn’t always seem to extend to students who need extra emotional support. I have three sons, and they’re all very different. My middle one — who’s been on this journey — is deeply introspective, self-aware, a high achiever, and driven to excel. Not the party type at all.
Looking at the data, his GPA placed him precisely in the 91st percentile of 11000 admitted students (internal data). And his 1500 SAT score came from just first one and only attempt. He’s been doing Math 2 years ahead of the rest of his peers as hi cap student, spending hours with folks 3 years older than him. He went to school early. If UW’s admissions officers couldn’t recognize the significance of his personal growth and resilience, - fine! Then perhaps UW just isn’t the right school for him!
He is ready to move on and I support him irrespective of how far he wants to go.
Cheers,
I personally think the smaller class sizes and Socratic-style learning in the WSU Honors program might really suit him. I’m not pressuring him at all — he has several good options to choose from (UW Prescience, WSU Honors CS, ASU which he’s flat-out rejecting to go to, Concordia in QC). But some of his friends are already heading to WSU anyways (not in CS, but in other programs), which could help support his emotional well-being.
I really don’t want him to feel caught in a constant rat race. Especially UW prescience to CS might be yet another challenge that could be avoided entirely. This field — whether it’s Computer Engineering, CS, or AI/ML — can be intense and competitive by nature, like jumping from platform to platform in a Mario game. So finding the right environment matters.
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At the risk of chewing on the bone here, women are accepted at a significantly higher rate though right? A 7-8% higher acceptance rate. That’s not just a rounding type of error or difference. Probably earned, and driven by higher academic profiles. But if it were swapped, I’d just suggest that it would likely be wiped out during the holistic review process - and probably appropriately so.
I’m not suggesting any victims here, just that we don’t often get the whole picture from admission departments. And many people, rightfully so, rely on those communications to understand the nuances related to admission decisions. And only a few of us choose to spend our spare time flipping through university common data spreadsheets to try to see the entire picture (man, that last sentence just really made me reconsider some things…)
Although unrelated needed help with a decision
Uw foster direct admit vs unc non assured business(I apply after first year) vs Wisconsin business school direct admit
Would be extremely grateful for any suggestions
Wow what great options! Each has their amazing opportunities,but in different areas of the country. You don’t mention cost. Only UNC folks can help with the level of difficulty getting major after first year. I am a big proponent of fit and expanding horizons in college. No idea where you reside but leaving comforts of one area might be great or not. Not sure you can really go wrong with any of those options.
Has anyone had a recent honor’s program acceptance? My child is still waiting to hear. I know the window is March 15 to April 15, but it sounds like some have already heard that they were accepted and I don’t know if it is rolling.