Hey guys, was just wondering about University of Washington. How did you like it? Did you have enough time to do things for yourself and have fun? Was it a high stress and competitive environment? How hard is it to make grades, and on AVERAGE how many hours of homework do you put in per day? Some of my concerns are listed below as well, so please answer as thoroughly as you all can. I'm deciding between wait listed schools right now and I'm torn, especially between this and Wisconsin Madison. Thanks!
1-Weeding of pre-meds(1 cutthroat and very harsh weeding - 10 very friendly and no weeding)
2-Biology Department (1 worst - 10 best)
3-Research opportunities- competitive to get?
4-Pre-med advisory services- helpful or not?
5-Breadth of Biology major courses
6-Environment and other students- cutthroat or relaxed?
7- Load of coursework- is it overwhelming or is it manageable?
University of Washington is clearly the better UW. These seem like strange schools to be choosing between but.
As far as the criteria your interested in:
1- Science classes are typically curved with a mean grade between 2.6-2.9. So you have to do very well in order to get a med school caliber grade (3.5+). Keep in mind not everyone in the pre-reqs wants to go into medicine so the average exam can be pretty low sometimes. Which means you don't have to be getting 90s in order to get As. Still, though, most people at UW are decent students, so if you don't want any competition I don't think either UW would be a good idea.
2-The biology department is OK. The building and program doesn't get as much love as some of the more lucrative fields like bioengineering or computer science, but its a solid program. I liked most of my professors. The intro to bio professor wrote the textbook for all the intro to bio courses, whatever that is worth to you.
3-UW is a huge university with tons of research opportunities. Of course some will be more competitive in others (neurosurgery research was usually competitive...wonder why). But if you want to learn the about scientific method you have a good chance of doing some kind of research.
4- Pre-med advising sucks. It's too big of a school to get great advising. SDN and online are better than advisers IMO. As a more general piece of advice, it's important to get many perspectives and advice on how to succeed on the pre-med journey. Don't just listen to advisers. You'll notice some important themes and hopefully realize the people who actually know what they are talking about.
5-They have any type of biology you want to study. You can take a class on mushrooms if you want.
6- It's a big school. You will have the full range of student personalities. If you head into a more competitive major (you don't just get to chose your major at UW, you have to apply for it) there might be some more competition. Just doing a biology major should be pretty relaxed though.
7- This will depend on which classes you decided to take together. It can even depend on which professor you get for the course. You have to be savvy and know your limits and give yourself a course load you can manage. Start off with a schedule you know you can excel with and add from there. So I guess it depends on you whether it is overwhelming or manageable. I'm sure this goes for all colleges.
In short, UW is a great school in a beautiful city. You will have every opportunity you need to get into medical school. I would go there again in a heart beat.
