University of Washington rejects a record number of applicants

Any other year, Matt Sims probably would have been a shoo-in for the University of Washington.

The 17-year-old is an Eagle Scout and has lettered three times for the Mercer Island High School swim team. This year, he received an "A" in his Advanced Placement physics class and reached the summit of Mount Rainier. He scored a combined 1,280 on the SAT critical reading and math, far above the national average. If there was a weak spot on his application, it was his 3.5 grade-point average.

But with a record 20,000 freshman applications to the UW's Seattle campus, Sims was among the nearly 8,000 students who were not accepted. He was offered a spot on the wait list, but he has opted to attend Washington State University come fall.

This year, competitive universities across the country are turning away more students than ever before. Blame it on the "baby boom echo" — the wave of baby boomers' children who are creating the biggest high-school graduating class in history, some 3.3 million students, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The demographic spike is expected to climb even higher next year before easing back to just under 3.2 million graduating students in 2013 — but that's of little comfort to this year's graduates.

Take Sims' classmate Kinsey Gross, 17, who has won scholarships for her artwork, did well in four tough AP classes this year and is a member of the National Honor Society. She comes from a line of Huskies. Her mother, aunt and grandfather attended UW, and everyone expected she would, too. But she was not initially accepted either, and she agreed to be on the wait list.

"My initial reaction was that I was really, really frustrated. I thought I was going to get in. But I guess it's not reasonable to assume you are going to get in," Gross said. "I guess I do feel a little bit like our class got shafted. The next couple of years are huge compared to every other year."

Mercer Island High college counselor Mj Hillstrom was so taken aback by Gross' case and others that she petitioned UW admissions officers. On Friday, Gross got good news — she had been accepted after all.

Yet Gross is an exception. The UW may not turn to its wait list this year, and it has accepted just a handful of wait-listed students with successful petitions or other extenuating circumstances.

As a result, this year's UW freshmen are on pace to arrive with record test scores. Confirmed students — something of a moving target before fall — are averaging 1,211 on the SATs and a 3.72 GPA.

Statewide trend

Although the squeeze is being felt most at the UW, application counts also are breaking records at other universities across the state.

Applications are up 12 percent at Washington State University this year and up 7 percent at Western Washington University. Applications to Seattle University hit 5,000 for the first time, and just 65 percent of those students were accepted.

Although students these days apply to a wide range of colleges, the increase in applications can't be attributed to that alone. In fact, a statewide study by WSU indicates the number of college applications per student has held steady over recent years.

UW Admissions Director Philip Ballinger said this year has been particularly hard. His office has fielded hundreds of calls, many more than usual, from angry and surprised parents. He has personally talked to about 70 families.

"More families this year have simply had a sense of disbelief. Like, how is it possible?" Ballinger said. "These are students who have done good work. They've gotten A's and B's and been very active. When they don't get admitted, it's simply difficult to take ... these are very good students who would do very well at the UW."

Ballinger said he struggles to find explanations for those students and their families: "Your timing was bad. I don't know what else to say," he tells them.

Foreign applications

There have been other surprises. Colleges across the country have noticed big spikes in the number of foreign freshman applications — something admissions officers say is due to the cheap U.S. dollar and increased demand from places like India and China.

At the UW, foreign freshman applications are up 40 percent this year, to more than 2,200. Even more startling, the number who have firmed up commitments by putting down deposits has more than doubled. The number of international freshmen who have confirmed at WSU is up 80 percent.

Another trend over time is that women continue to outpace men. The 2008 freshman class at the UW is expected to be made up of 54.2 percent women and 45.8 percent men. At the private Seattle Pacific University, the incoming class will be made up of about 68 percent women.

All these students are putting a strain on university infrastructure. Even with its tough admissions standards, the UW expects a record freshman class this year of more than 5,500.

Paul Brown, director of the UW's student-housing project group, said the plan this fall is to convert one building from upperclassman housing into a freshman dorm. Even so, he said, many freshmen will be required to live in "triples" — small dorm rooms designed to sleep two that have been modified to fit three.

Brown is spearheading an $850 million dorm renovation and expansion project. The first of eight new buildings is expected to open in fall 2011.

A time for reflection

Hillstrom, the counselor at Mercer Island High, said she talked to Ballinger in advance and knew some of the numbers, but she was surprised at the cases of six or seven students who weren't admitted.

Hillstrom said she advises her students to apply to between four and eight colleges. A couple should be "safety schools," a couple can be longshots and the rest should be somewhere in the middle, she says.

"As students go through the whole process, they need to do a lot of reflective thinking: Who am I? Where am I going in life? How will I fit in with this college? How will it be good for me, and my education?" Hillstrom said. "There's a lot of soul-searching for students and their parents."

Sims said he's OK with not getting accepted to the UW. He's planning to major in mechanical engineering at WSU and go on to graduate school anyway.

"I plan to make as many friends as I can and enjoy the experience," he said. "It's not all about school."

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com