The University of Washington will have more room for in-state students in this fall’s freshman class, thanks in part to a legislative requirement that the university enroll 4,000 in-state freshmen at its Seattle campus.
The high school class of 2012 is also benefiting from the fact that UW has received fewer applications from freshmen hopefuls.
The Legislature is requiring the university to enroll 150 more in-state freshmen than last year. But the university says it will accept at least 300 more because not all of them will decide to attend.
UW admissions director Philip Ballinger told The Seattle Times that the university has received just 9,361 in-state applications, down from 10,447 last year.
“Their chances are definitely better,” Ballinger said of the applicants. Acceptance letters are expected to be mailed out after March 15.
State Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, called it “great news.”
The requirement to admit 4,000 in-state students was a provision Orwall sponsored last legislative session in a law giving the state’s four-year schools the flexibility to set their own tuition. The requirement starts this fall and continues indefinitely.
The move was a reaction to the UW’s increase in enrollment of nonresident students, who pay nearly three times as much in tuition and fees. This fall, the UW expects to enroll 1,800 to 2,000 nonresident freshmen, Ballinger said.
The out-of-state students help subsidize the cost of educating Washington youth, but lawmakers are tired of hearing stories of top scholars who didn’t make it in.
For example, Orwall heard from the parents of a senior at Aviation High School in Des Moines who scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his SAT, but didn’t get in at the UW. That student ended up going out of state to pursue a degree in engineering, she said.
Why in-state applications have dropped is a bit of a mystery. Because the state’s high-school population has decreased, there is a slight drop in the number of graduating seniors this year, a trend that is expected to continue.
But Ballinger thinks students may be self-selecting. Having heard how difficult it has become to get into the UW, they may not even be applying, he said.
Meanwhile, Washington State University has seen in-state applications grow by more than 13 percent for the Pullman campus compared to the same period last year. So far, WSU has received 6,469 in-state applications.
“That just confirms, for me, that’s it’s probably – in part – perceptions,” Ballinger said. “The perception at WSU is that they’re growing the class, which is a good thing. The stories that came out of the UW were that good students can’t get in.”
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