Because University of Washington – Seattle is our local public flagship (and an excellent one, too!), the majority of my seniors end up applying each fall. This is the time of year when I receive messages of dismay when students realize that not only is UW-Seattle not on the Common Application, but that they are one of the only colleges that exclusively uses the Coalition Application. This application system rolled out a few years ago with a goal of increasing college access (but really a goal of taking some $ away from the Common App), and unfortunately it has just not been utilized much by colleges or students. Except for UW. The application system is clunky and not particularly user friendly, requiring students to fill in huge sections of information before they can even access college-specific materials. Additionally, there are a lot of add-on components (like the Locker) that sound good in theory but are in fact not viewed by many colleges. <Okay, rant over.>

Here are some tips as you approach your UW Coalition application this fall.

*Transcript information – As mentioned above, UW requires you to fill in all of the general Profile information before you can access the UW-specific questions, essay sections, etc. This includes basics such as demographic information, but it also requires students to manually type in every single class they have taken from 9th to 11th grade, their grades in each class, and then their current/projected senior year schedule. This process is very tedious, so I recommend starting the app a few weeks early and ensuring you have your HS transcript (+community college transcript if you did dual enrollment) ready to go when you work on the application.

*Testing – UW moved to a test optional (almost test-blind) admission process earlier in the pandemic, but the language on the website has been confusing to students, leading many students to think that they should go out and take tests in order to be competitive for admission. In a recent webinar, I learned that only 200 / 48,000 students actually had SAT or ACT taken into account when making the final admission decision last application season. (Yes, that is 0.4%.) Because this is such a small percentage of applicants, and because they are only looking at scores to bump a student up into a more positive outcome (versus pulling a student down), testing exclusively to improve chances at UW does not make sense for the vast majority of students. Some exceptions: home-schooled applicants (2023 and beyond), students with 1400+/31+ and a weaker curriculum and/or GPA, and possibly some international students.

* Activity log – Unlike the Common Application which has space for 10 activities, the Coalition only allows students to include eight extracurricular activities. Students with expansive resumes will likely need to cut down their activity log to fit. That said, I love that the Coalition gives students additional character count to describe their activities, as well as any leadership roles, individual distinctions, etc. While you can just cut/paste from the Common App, I strongly recommend that students work on their activity log for UW in a separate document (Word, Google Doc) to refine the descriptions and take advantage of the extra space.

I hope this helps to clarify some of the fun nuances of the Coalition application. Happy application season, everyone!