Although the UW prefers instate residents, Iam strongly inclined to believe otherwise. Last year, the UW accepted quite a number of out of state applicants. Most were from California. It is very strange they would accept so many out of state residents considering only 84 seats are available.
My general perception of the UW SOP is that they always have a large applicant pool each year, and the basis for which they make their decisions is mostly on GPA and PCAT. I am not making this generalization arbitrarily, but those who did gain acceptance last year, did have PCAT in the 90+ range and GPA's definately above 3.5+. This is not to discourage those who have applied.
The UW SOP is a tough school both to get into and graduate from.
WSU COP usually waits until the end of April to reply back to applicants. I know that last year, they accepted 101 applicants, for available 90 seats. I know this sounds strange, but they were gambling on the fact that 11 of the applicants would deny their offer of admission. I doubt this occurred.
