University of Washington Admissions Eligibility

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freakazoid

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"Residents of the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, or Idaho are eligible to apply. Applicants from outside this five-state region who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or who have demonstrated a commitment to serving underserved populations will be considered. "

This is from the Univ of Wash website . . . how do you demonstrate a commitment to serving underserved populations? Does that mean they screen out all other applicants??

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freakazoid,

What this means is that if you are outside one of these WWAMI states, your application will be screened unless you make it clear in your personal statement that you wish to work with rural or underserved populations. A word of caution, however...the admissions committee knows how to smoke out liars. So, putting that in your personal statement without proving your committment with post-secondary experiences is not going to help, only hurt. So, if you're out-of-state, unless you're really interested in serving underserved populations (or you walk on water), you may want to think about not applying.

The above information was provided to me by the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the UW MMEP program about a week ago.

And to those who might think I'm just trying to better my odds, know that I'm from within the WWAMI region, so I'm only competing with other Idaho residents.

Hope this info helped.
 
I agree. Dont apply to UW as out of state unless you are applying for their MD/PhD program. In that case, they dont care whether you are a resident of that area or not.
 
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Thanks guys. :)
 
Wolferman or any other wise sages...
So, since I do want to work with underserved populations as a career....question: I'm out of state (AZ) and have a demonstrated background with underserved immigrant populations, currently working fulltime as a Tuberculosis Coordinator for Mexican immigrants with the disease residing in the US, as well as past volunteer experineces with Mexican immigrants at several free clinics. Fluent in Spanish, too.

Should I go ahead and submit the online secondary now, so that they don't reject me without this knowledge? I touched upon it in my AMCAS essay, but didn't expound as much as I know they would like to hear.

Call the ad office? Email? Ayudame!
 
By the way, I REALLy want to go to UW! Of course, I'll make that clear in my statements, too!
 
Originally posted by Pinki
Should I go ahead and submit the online secondary now, so that they don't reject me without this knowledge? I touched upon it in my AMCAS essay, but didn't expound as much as I know they would like to hear.
If they invited you to fill out a secondary application, I'm pretty sure that your primary intrigued them a little. If you mentioned in your secondary that you are committed to underserved populations, then they'll know as soon as you sumbit. But I don't think you need to hurry and sumbit just so they don't reject you. After all, they invited you to fill out a secondary. They will read it.
 
Pinki--

They have invited you to fill it out, right? I know some people on SDN have provided a link to it, and I don't think you're supposed to know about the link before they tell you. Just wanted to make sure.
 
Freakazoid -
Um, no, no invitation to fill out the secondary. Are they sending those out yet, as far as you know?
 
Don't send the UW secondary until invited to do so. People got some nasty letters last year for sending in the seondary before they were so invited. The invitation for completing the secondary might take a while as they take a look at all in-state and WWAMI applications first. Last year they sent the request for secondary applications by e-mail.
 
I actually emailed the admissions office at U Washington because I really wanted to go there since they have such awesome programs. I also told them that I am committed to serving underpriv. populations as seen in my ECs. They told me too bad because they rarely accept anyone out of that region. So, unless you have awesome scores, you should reconsider.
 
I'm not sure if they will accept any out of staters who aren't from WAMI or WICHE, unless it is a special program. If their track record is any indication, MSARs say they accept ~11 out-of-staters each year, and I think their highly competitive MD/PhD program is bigger than that. (not sure if this included WAMI/WICHE or not).

UW is a really good school, but I wouldn't suggest applying if you're from out-of-state. There are a number of schools like this. :\
 
I have worked with doctors in poor communities in Mexico and Peru and wrote about these experiences in some detail in my PS. I am an AZ resident and was rejected w/o secondary invitation from UW:) but got into 2 other great schools.
 
This is a suggestion only for those who have hard-core interest in UWSOM. If you really want to attend UW and you have the money and some flexibilities, you could consider establishing residency in Washington state. I'm not sure whether you have to have lived in WA for 1 year prior to application or prior to matriculation. In any case, call UW's Residency Classification Office for details before making any hasty plans.

As others have said, UW's MD-only program takes hardly anyone from out-of-state, maybe 0-3 per year. And those are probably limited to extraordinary URMs. Schools like UW and UC-Davis are essentially closed to non-residents, and there's not much you can do about it. I agree with the advice that you should not send in the secondary unless you were invited to. If you do get invited, I still think your chances for admission as an out-of-state applicant are extremely slim. But the application fee for UWSOM is cheap, so it's probably worth applying.
 
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