UW has the highest matriculation rates of any school in the country, so I think they just aren’t trying to sell their school on interview day. I personally found that refreshing because I knew UW was my top choice and I found some other similarly ranked schools trying too hard to sell the school to interviewees. But if you didn’t have connections to the school and just wanted a better picture of what the school has to offer, I could see how that could be disappointing. I met a few students that seemed to have a pretty tight knit group, but I do get where you are coming from. I agree they didn’t sell their research strength on interview day at all. But as a UW undergrad there were so many opportunities to get involved in research, and I’m sure as a medical student there are even more opportunities. They have the second highest total grant funding for research for any institution in the country, and that just goes to show how many research opportunities exist here. I think UW is the type of school that there are so many opportunities—whether it be community based or research based—that it just ends up being up to you to decide what you want to spend your time pursuing. I also haven’t interviewed at any school that has such a strong presence within their state. Pretty much any community you go to in WA has UW run clinics and a huge network of UW physicians. If you have been/ended up getting admitted definitely consider second look to get a picture of the school!
