<p>in the Education section of the Seattle Times
5/18/08 By: Nick Perry</p>
<p>[Education</a> | University of Washington rejects a record number of applicants | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004422043_acceptance18m.html]Education”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004422043_acceptance18m.html)</p>
<p>I read the Seattle Times article and I can’t say I’m surprised. 1990 was a high birthrate year, and was, in fact, the highest birthrate year since the end of the baby boom with 4,158,000 individuals being born. (The highest year during the baby boom was 1957 with 4,300,000. 1956-1962 all had birthrates over 4.1 million each year) The High school class of 2008 has been big all the way through which translates into more pressure on the educational institutions which serve the student populations. Our neighbor was wait-listed at Stanford but was told recently that NONE of the wait-listed students there were admitted. His fall back school where he was accepted? UW.</p>
<p>I would call this a trickle down effect. In most previous years, many of the wait listed/rejected students would have gotten in but this year is the exception.</p>
<p>It seems to also be just about GPA. I am in-state, and the vast majority of my friends with 3.8s or above got in no problem, but a friends with 3.2s and 3.5s got rejected, even with far superior extracurriculars.</p>
<p>I don’t believe it’s just the GPA. They take into account all your classes you have taken, your activities and your SAT score, and of course, your ESSAY (application). Did your friends who had a lower GPA take challenging classes, how did they do on their SATs? Cuz my GPA was 3.5-ish but I had challenging classes</p>
<p>HAHA i got in with a 3.0 GPA… but with a 1410 combined SAT crit and math with tri-varsity athlete as EC’s… in other words its defininlty not JUST the GPA</p>
<p>I heard that it will be worse next year. If you look at the article, it DOES seem like the deciding factor is your GPA but there are exceptions.</p>
<p>Until people I knew began getting their rejections or not getting their early admissions, I had not checked the 1990 birth rate. Not only is it a peak, it is a one-year peak with the birth rate dropping after the 1990 births - meaning few schools want to have to make room for the additional kids. Georgia Tech, which is a semi-elite but self-selection school has had an acceptance rate in the mid to high 60s. This year they had an acceptance rate right at 50% and stated that they turned away many that their statistical model said would have been good students.</p>
<p>It<code>s not just GPA… I got in with a 3.5, and I</code>m in-state, but go to a pretty good private school, so that probably played a big role in recalculating my GPA</p>
<p>much more than GPA.
Read on . . .
[UW</a> looking beyond test scores, GPA](<a href=“http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/265572_admissions05.html]UW”>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/265572_admissions05.html)</p>
<p>approaching that ever so scary 50% admit rate! oh no!! the avg applicant might not get accepted!!</p>
<p>Half?! Wow, just last year, wasn’t it two thirds?</p>