University of Washington : Online degree programs, admissions & Financial Help

Logo of University of Washington

The University of Washington, commonly referred to as Washington or informally U-Dub, or locally as UW is a public flagship research university based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, UW is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast and features one of the most highly regarded medical schools in the world.  It is one of the best online degree college or university of world.

The university has three campuses: the primary and largest in the University District of Seattle and two others in Tacoma and Bothell. Its operating expenses and research budget for fiscal year 2014-15 is expected to be $6.4 billion. The UW occupies over 500 buildings, with over 20 million gross square footage of space, including the University of Washington Plaza, consisting of the 325-foot (99 m) UW Tower and conference center. The university of Washington School of Nursing is best program at that area.

Washington is an elected member of the Association of American Universities, and its research budget is among the highest in the United States. In athletics, the university competes in the NCAA Division I Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12). Online courses of university of Washington is highly fast growing program.

Academics and researches

In 2006, the University of Washington research budget passed the $1.0 billion milestone. Virtually all of the funding came from peer-reviewed research proposals. UW research budget consistently ranks among the top 5 in both public and private universities in the United States.  UW is also the largest recipient of federal research funding among public universities and second among all public and private universities in the country, a position that the university has held each year since 1974. The university is an elected member of the Association of American Universities.

UW students include 136 Fulbright Scholars, 35 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Marshall Scholars and 4 Gates Cambridge Scholars.  As of the 2011–12 autumn term, the university had 42,428 students, making it the largest university (in terms of student population) on the west coast. About 33% of all undergraduates are members of minority groups.

The University of Washington recruits faculty and staff from around the world. Among the faculty, there are 151 members of American Association for the Advancement of Science, 68 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 67 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 53 members of the Institute of Medicine, 21 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 6 Nobel Prize laureates, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, 1 winner of the Fields Medal, 29 winners of the Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering, 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, 15 MacArthur Fellows, 9 winners of the Gairdner Foundation International Award, 5 winners of the National Medal of Science, 5 winners of Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, 4 members of the American Philosophical Society, 2 winners of the National Book Award, and 2 winners of the National Medal of Arts.

In May 2010, the University of Washington's six Nobel laureates were honoured by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, at a special dinner held in Seattle. They were Hans Georg Dehmelt, E. Donnall Thomas, Edwin G. Krebs, Edmond H. Fischer, Leland Hartwell and Linda Buck. The event was organized by Seattle’s Swedish Consulate as part of ‘Sweden Week’.

The University of Washington library system is the 18th largest library in the United States, with holdings of more than 7.5 million volumes. The Association of Research Libraries ranked the UW library system between the top fifth and fifteenth in various categories.

UW is also the host university of Research Channel program, the only TV channel in the United States dedicated solely for the dissemination of research from academic institutions and research organizations. Current participation of Research Channel includes 36 universities, 15 research organizations, two corporate research centers and many other affiliates. UW also disseminates knowledge through its proprietary UWTV channel and online.

To promote equal academic opportunity, especially for people of low income, UW launched Husky Promise in 2006. Families of income up to 65 percent of state median income or 235 percent of federal poverty level are eligible. With this, up to 30 percent of undergraduate students may be eligible. The cut-off income level that UW set is the highest in the nation, making top quality education available to more people. Then UW President, Mark Emmert, simply said that being "elitist is not in our DNA".  "Last year, the University of Washington moved to a more comprehensive approach [to admissions], in which the admissions staff reads the entire application and looks at grades within the context of the individual high school, rather than relying on computerized cutoffs."

Since 1977, there has been a Transition School and Early Entrance Program on campus.  "The Early Entrance Program is the Robinson Center’s original early university entrance program. Recognized as one of the most prestigious early university entrance programs in the nation, this program facilitates early entry to the University of Washington for a carefully selected group of sixteen highly-capable young students younger than fifteen (15) years old. As mandated by state law, students must have completed 6th grade in order to enroll in the Transition School." This Robinson Center also has a program called the UW Academy for Young Scholars: "The UW Academy is the premier early university entrance program for high school students in Washington State. A small cohort of up to thirty-five academically advanced and highly motivated students are admitted to the UW Academy each year. Students apply to the UW Academy during their 10th grade year, and if accepted, withdraw from high school at the end of 10th grade to enroll as freshmen at the University of Washington." All Academy students are automatically admitted into the UW Honors Program.

In 2014, teams from the University of Washington School of Oceanography and the UW Applied Physics Laboratory successfully completed construction of the first high-power underwater cabled observatory in the United States.

Undergraduate admissions

The University of Washington's admissions process is "more selective" according to U.S. News & World Report. For students entering Fall 2014, 17,451 freshmen were accepted out of 31,611 applicants, a 55.2% acceptance rate, and 6,361 enrolled.

Among freshman students who enrolled in Fall 2014, SAT scores for the middle 50% ranged from 540-660 for critical reading, 580-700 for math, and 450-660 for writing. ACTcomposite scores for the middle 50% ranged from 25–31. The middle 50% of high school GPA ranged from 3.64-3.93.

Reputation and rankings

In international rankings University of Washington was ranked 15th among the world's top 500 universities by Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2015 and has been consistently regarded to be among the top 20 by the institution.  In Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2015–16), it ranked 32nd worldwide and its World Reputation Rankings of the same year considered it to be 33rd. Meanwhile, QS World University Rankings (2015/16) ranked it 65th globally.

In U.S. rankings U.S. News & World Report ranked UW's undergraduate program tied for 52nd among "national universities" and tied for 16th among public universities in its 2016 rankings.  Among graduate programs, in 2015 U.S. News ranked UW's programs in primary care first, family medicine first, rural medicine first, clinical psychology second, library and information sciences third, social work third, statistics third (Department of Biostatistics) and seventh (Department of Statistics), nursing fourth, computer science sixth, public health sixth, education sixth, pharmacy tenth, research medicine tenth, business 23rd, engineering 27th and law 28th. In the Washington Monthly National University Rankings, University of Washington ranked 7th in 2015.  The Top American Research Universities ranked University of Washington 11th among the top 50 American universities in 2010 published by The Center for Measuring University Performance, Arizona State University.

Rankings published by institutions of other places: Leiden Ranking (2013) published by Leiden University of Netherlands ranked University of Washington 27th among the world 500 major universities.  In 2011, University of Washington ranked 8th among the world 2,000 universities in University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) published by Middle East Technical University. At the same time, the Top 200 Colleges and Universities in the World on University Web Ranking published by 4 International Colleges & Universities placed it at 8th.

There are rankings for some specific domains as well. It ranked 13th among 300 Best World Universities in 2011 compiled by Human Resources & Labor Review (HRLR) on Measurements of World's Top 300 Universities Graduates' Performance . In Kiplingermagazine's 2014 "Best Values in Public Colleges" list, the university ranked 11th for in-state students and 28th for out-of-state students In 2011, the university ranked second among universities by number of undergraduate alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers, at 110.  UW tied for third in 2010 (94 volunteers), first in 2009 (101 volunteers),  first in 2008 (104 volunteers) and first in 2007 (113 volunteers). In the Global Language Monitor's rankings of universities by Internet presence, UW ranked 12th in 2012. In 2012, SmartMoney named the University of Washington as 6th best salary returns on tuition. The university was also listed as a "Public Ivy" in Greene's Guides in 2001. Washington is an elected member of the American Association of Universities.

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