TONS of questions (Seattle, Bellevue, Pullman: apartment, violent crime, dorm)

[CityOnDown5250]

I greatly appriciate all who answer. My question is regarding the University of Washington or Washington State. Im a freshman at a small private university in New York, and I am considering transferring out there. I just wanna get to my questions.
1. What is Seattle like?
2. What is Pullman like? How does it compare to Seattle?
3. Is is "easy" to get into the University of Washington or Washington State?
4. What is life like at either of these two schools?
5. What are the people like on campus?
6. What is the acceptance rate of each school?
mod cut: rainout -- let's not get into our usual arguments on the rain situation
8. How cold is it in the winter? coming from the Northeast were used to blizzards and snow storms, so the snow isnt something unique to me.

Thanks to all who answer. Im really considering joining the Pac-10 for academics. Anyone who can tell me anything about either school would be greatly appriciated. Thanks!

[Jennibc]

UW is very difficult to get into if you are an out of state resident. You would need have extremely high grades as a transfer student.

Pullman is a small town, Seattle is a mid sized city in terms of population but is dense so it seem like a big city (not like NYC but more like Boston)

It's not as cold here in the winter. It doesn't pour rain, it drizzles, it's overcast quite a lot.

[mitsuturbo]

I can only answer questions 7 and 8. It doesn't really rain all the time here. We get less annual rainfall than NYC or Atlanta GA here in Seattle. It rains very lightly quite often. Often times it will rain a bit and the sun will peek through here and there. Sometimes it doesnt rain for days and days. If you hate wet, damp, cloudy conditions.. you won't like it here outside of summer. As for winter.. when i go out to start my car in the morning, i rarely feel i need to wear a jacket. The same goes for if i walk a couple blocks to the store at night. It gets down into the 30's, but that's usually just before dawn and it's gradually back in the 40's and 50's by noon. We're now approaching the middle of winter, and have only 8 daylight hours per day. Conversely.. in the summer we shall be enjoying 16 hours of daylight per day, and many beautiful, clear, warm (even hot on occasion) days.

(cold and hot are relative terms.. but my basis for comparison is that i've lived in Fairbanks AK for nearly 3 years, and the mojave desert for a summer)

[Dendrite]

I did my post-graduate degree and post-doc at UW about (whew, has it really been that long?) 15 years ago so please take this with a grain of salt:

1) My favorite NW city. Big, bustling, beautiful, great seafood. Downsides: traffic, grey rainy winters, cost of living/housing (but if you're in NYC you're used to cost of living!). This is kind of a tough one to answer, it's a bit like trying to address "what's Boston like?"

2) Night and day difference. One of my sons is currently at U of I (Moscow, ID) which is about seven miles from WSU (they're right across the state borders from each other). The schools share some classes and profs given their proximity. Pullman vs. Seattle? Think NYC vs. upstate. Pullman is very much eastern WA. Dry climate, farm country (wheat) with colder, snowier winters. Seattle is green (rain) with milder winters and much less snow. The politics in the cities and towns of eastern WA tend to be more conservative than those in western WA (probably an overly broad generalization). Nonetheless, university towns will be university towns. This is purely personal but I think the campus of UW is prettier than that of WSU but you're going there for the school not the view.

3) Sure, top grades, good recommendations and great standardized test scores will serve you well where ever you apply. Keep in mind non-resident tuition though-

4) Like that of any other large state university.

5) Not sure on this one, the admissions offices of UW and WSU can provide these stats to you.

6) Nope, it lets up once in a while...

7) Pullman will be similar to what you're used to weather wise in the northeast without the humidity. Seattle winters will be milder in temperatures with much less snow than eastern WA (not that Pullman gets a ton of snow- some years yes, other winters not as much). You can check the cumulative weather stats here for exact annual snow and rainfall numbers.

There may be current students on the board who can give you more detailed insights but this will get you started!

Good luck!

[mikec34]

Originally Posted by CityOnDown5250

I greatly appriciate all who answer. My question is regarding the University of Washington or Washington State. Im a freshman at a small private university in New York, and I am considering transferring out there. I just wanna get to my questions.
1. What is Seattle like?
2. What is Pullman like? How does it compare to Seattle?
3. Is is "easy" to get into the University of Washington or Washington State?
4. What is life like at either of these two schools?
5. What are the people like on campus?
6. What is the acceptance rate of each school?
mod cut: rainout -- let's not get into our usual arguments on the rain situation
8. How cold is it in the winter? coming from the Northeast were used to blizzards and snow storms, so the snow isnt something unique to me.

Thanks to all who answer. Im really considering joining the Pac-10 for academics. Anyone who can tell me anything about either school would be greatly appriciated. Thanks!

(2) Why did they put a state university in Pullman? I'd say any city that is near another city (village?) called Moscow (look at a map) is probably not exactly a metropolitan place. You may like that, though. How about some facts?
http://censtats.census.gov/data/WA/1605356625.pdf
Pullman is obviously a tiny village in Eastern Washington where it gets bloody cold. nasty weather, check it out:
Average Weather for Pullman, WA - Temperature and Precipitation

And for a really nasty 10 days of your life:
10 Day Weather Forecast for Pullman, WA - weather.com

Seriously, I don't know how people can survive such harsh conditions.

Generally speaking, commodities are cheapear in small towns. Rents will usually be chepaer as well. You may also feel more focused on your studies being in an isolated town.




(3) Except for pac-10 schools in california, I've never heard anyone say pac-10 schools are particullarly difficult to get into. Maybe it's different for out of state students at "U-Dub". UofW is normally considered a pretty decent Uni amongst Pac-10 folk, though.






(1) Now onto Seattle the one thing I might have any right to talk about....all I can say is that possibly besides Paris, France, there's no city 'better' I've been to (and I've been to several big ones in northern hemisphere). Violent crime is relatively low (check city-data.com for such data or FBI records). It's fairly dense for an American city, which is good for walking the city. The mastransit system, while many in Washington will complain, is pretty darn good relative to many american cities. This is especially true IN Seattle. Unbelievable food (including Bellevue). Most gorgeous (mt. rainier, entire puget sound system, port townwend, B.C., Canada, Cascades, etc, etc) part of the country that HAS a REAL city WITH jobs. Fairly influenced by Eastern and SE Asia (food, etc). May or may not be a good thing. Weather is a cool or cold moderate weather. You know, it rains in the winter unlike many place that get cold and dry. You'd think, oh, nasty, who wants to be wet and cold!? But that rain and clouds keeps it warmer than you might think. The summers don't get hot very often (over 80f for consecutive days is hot to me). In fact, it's pretty rare to see an A/C unit. They don't suffer from infinite suburban sprawl so other towns are fairly close. Traffic generally sucks, though.


And oh, UofW is pretty close to DT Seattle. Again, may or may not be a good thing. If you are a student living in a dorm or nearby apartment I think UofW would be an awesome place to attend because of its proximity to a real city. Lake Washington nearby is a treat just to drive over if you can appreciate natural beauty that is.

[chubba]

to me, I think the UW general acceptance rate is quite high, however, depending on what your major is or what you're going to major in, some departments are pretty competitive to get into. Getting into UW in general doesn't mean you will get to the major you wanted.. like I know the Business School in UW is pretty competitve to get into. of course there are also departments that are not competitive. I know many people in UW who do not get into the Business School end up majoring in Economics, for example. In terms of the people, a lot of diversity, you will end up meeting people who will share the interests as you.. however you have to take the initiative by joining clubs or organizations that interests you and I am sure you will.. there are clubs for almost anything.. People won't just talk to you in class on the first day and try to get to know you, even your teammates for a group assignment/project will end up only be facebook "friends" with you after the assignment or the quarter is done..

[tankratt]

Fist off getting in to the UW is hard like everyone has said, but you will have a little more advantage being from New York, the colleges try to get kids from all over the country, My daughter was accepted to USM, Temple, Villanova, Washington State, and turned down at the UW why? The three east coast shools wanted west coast kids. She Chose WSU because she wanted to stay close to home, now she wants to transfer to Gonzaga

[Jennibc]

UW is STRICTLY by the numbers because it is huge. They take your GPA multiply it by some factor, take your SAT (weighting it higher) and then multiply by another factor, add the two together, and if you reach the index you're an admit if not, they decline you. When I was in high school my grades were not good (2.9 back before grade inflation took over high schools everywhere) no one in my class with lower than a 3.5 got in unless he or she had a very high (above 95th percentile) SAT. My understanding is that it is more competitive now. So I ended up going to community college for a year and half, got my grades up (to a 3.8) then they let me in as a transfer.