Recently the site "College Navigator" (http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/) changed the financial aid information that is provided on the site, I'm assuming due to the new net calculator requirements for schools.

Now if you search for a school you'll see a "net price" tab where you can see the average net price in relation to a families income range. This is a very helpful tool in determining how generous a school is with financial aid and what parents can expect to pay.

The Seattle campus of the University of Washington will move to a pooling admission and notification process for applicants to the 2011 autumn freshman class.  The freshman application for autumn 2011 will become available for submission on October 1, 2010, and the application deadline will be December 15, 2010.  All freshman applicants for autumn quarter will be notified of their admission status between March 15 and March 31, 2011. This change affects all applicants in high school including Washington state Running Start students. For applicants to the freshman class of 2012, the Office of Admissions expects to move the application deadline up two weeks, to December 1, 2011.

What is a ‘pooling admission process’?

A pooling admission process means that admission decisions are neither finalized nor communicated until all applications have been received and assessed.  Pooling stands in contrast to a rolling admissions process, in which decisions are generally made and communicated as applications are received and assessed.

Why has the University of Washington moved to an earlier application deadline and a pooling admission and notification process for the autumn freshman class?

Over the past five years, the University has experienced a rapid and sustained increase in freshman class applications.  About half of the freshman applications arrived on or shortly before the former January 15 deadline.  In a time of budgetary constraint, the Office of Admissions’ ability to process and holistically review these applications in a timely manner has become increasingly difficult.

More importantly, the practice of rolling out admission decisions from December through March began to cause significant anxiety among applicants and their families, leading to thousands of phone calls and emails about application status and decision notification.  By moving to an earlier application deadline as well as to a single admission decision notification window for all freshman class applicants, the Seattle campus of the University of Washington hopes to bring more clarity to the admission process, relieve undue anxiety among students and their families, and improve the efficiency and speed with which the Office of Admissions is able to process and holistically review an ever growing application pool.

The Honors Program’s application deadline will be the same as the general freshman application deadline this coming year – December 15.

Representatives from colleges continue to schedule events in the Northwest as the Fall admissions cycle nears. For more details regarding other colleges coming to the area, see this previous post. Students are reminded to register on the admissions pages for all of their colleges of interest to make sure to receive invitations to these important events.

Up to 150 currently waitlisted students, mostly resident, will receive an offer of admission during the next week or two.  Once these students have had adequate opportunity to confirm their enrollment  the projected enrollment will be reassessed and a much smaller second round of waitlist offers will be made.  This second round of offers will most likely occur mid-June or later.

In addition to making a first round of waitlist admission offers this month, the admissions office will also inform most of the remaining students on the waitlist who now clearly have no chance of admission that they should definitely plan on their alternate college choice.  When these May communications are complete, there should only be a hundred or so students on the waitlist from which to enroll the last group in June.  They are anticipating closing the waitlist entirely by July 1 while building a freshman class of 5500-5550 students.