UW Seattle Accepted vs. Rejected Applicants: GPA, Computer Science and Awards in 81 Real 2026 Decisions

What separated UW Seattle accepted vs. rejected applicants this cycle? Grades, awards and, for computer science applicants, the major itself. The University of Washington admits about 39% of applicants by its College Scorecard rate, but its CS program is one of the hardest to get into anywhere, and that showed up clearly in our data.

We compared 81 UW Seattle applicants from self-reported 2026 r/collegeresults posts: 56 admitted, 18 rejected and 7 waitlisted. (One admit came off the waitlist.) UW has no early round, so everyone applied regular decision. This is part of a larger comparison of accepted vs. rejected applicants at top colleges, which explains how the data was collected. (UW's official rate is well above the 15% cutoff used for that article's pooled numbers, so its decisions aren't in the pooled figures there.)

People who post results skew strong, so 69% of this sample got in. Only 25 applicants weren't admitted, which is a small group, so treat every gap below as a hint, not a rule.

UW Seattle admitted student GPA and SAT

The GPA gap, about 0.2 on the unweighted scale, is one of the widest of any school we've written up. 15 of the 46 admits who stated a GPA had a 4.0, versus 3 of 18 among everyone else. Test scores were close, and course load was about the same.

The award gap was the other big difference. 71% of admits listed a national-level award, versus 36% of everyone else, and admits listed a median of five awards versus two. That's unusual: across top schools combined, national awards made little difference. At UW, applicants who couldn't point to recognition beyond their own school did noticeably worse in this sample.

Computer science: the hardest door at UW

11 of the 21 applicants who listed computer science were admitted (52%), versus 45 of the 60 who didn't (75%). In our comparison of CS applicants at 36 colleges, UW had the biggest gap between CS applicants and everyone else.

UW's own numbers explain why. The Paul G. Allen School admits CS students directly, and for the 2025 cycle it admitted 37% of Washington residents who applied, but only 5% of domestic non-residents and 2% of international applicants. Almost everyone in our sample is from outside Washington. We break those figures down in UW computer science acceptance rate.

Other majors did much better. By the majors applicants listed (some listed more than one), engineering applicants were admitted 18 times out of 26, social sciences 14 of 18, biology and health 14 of 18, and the humanities 10 of 12.

Which activities UW admits listed more often

• Tutoring or teaching: 55% of admits versus 24% of everyone else, the biggest activity gap at UW.
• Debate, speech or Model UN: 30% versus 12%.
• A competition placement award: 61% versus 44%.
• A varsity sport (not recruited): 48% versus 32%.
• A named scholarship or fellowship: 20% versus 4%.
• A paid job: 38% versus 24%.

And some showed up more often among applicants who weren't admitted:

• Robotics or engineering teams: 11% of admits versus 32%.
• A research publication or paper award: 5% versus 24%.
• Research: 41% versus 56%.
• An internship: 36% versus 52%.
• Coding or tech projects: 18% versus 28%.

This looks like the opposite of Georgia Tech and UIUC, where research lined up with admission. The likely reason is the major mix: 16 of the 25 non-admits were aiming at CS or engineering, and research, robotics and coding are concentrated among those applicants. So these activities probably came bundled with the hardest-to-enter major, rather than counting against anyone. The activities that came out ahead, teaching, debate, sports and jobs, are spread more evenly across majors.

Residency

Only 6 posters said they live in Washington (3 were admitted), so this sample can't measure an in-state advantage. Among out-of-state and international applicants, 46 of 67 were admitted. UW's own Common Data Set shows almost no residency gap campus-wide for Fall 2025: 45.7% of in-state applicants admitted versus 42.2% from out of state. The big residency gap is in specific majors like CS, as above. We compare other flagships in in-state vs. out-of-state acceptance rates.

Washington residents should also know that the state's guaranteed-admission program doesn't cover the Seattle campus; see Washington's WAGAP guaranteed admission.

What UW Seattle applicants can take from this

• If you're applying for CS from outside Washington, plan around the CS admit rate, not the campus rate. It's a separate, far smaller pool.
• Grades did the most sorting. Admits were ahead by about 0.2 on unweighted GPA.
• Recognition beyond your school mattered here. National-level awards were twice as common among admits.
• Teaching, debate and sports showed up more among admits than research or robotics did, though that partly reflects who applied to which major.
• Washington resident? UW's own data shows a 47% in-state admit rate vs. 39% out of state; see UW, WSU and Western admissions for Washington residents.

UW Seattle's College Intel page carries the same applicant-profile comparison, updated as new posts are logged.

Sources

• College Intel's tally of self-reported r/collegeresults posts, 2026 admissions cycle (445 posts logged as of Oct 16, 2026; 81 with a UW Seattle decision). Recruited athletes and transfer applicants excluded. Aggregates only; no individual post is reproduced, and no figure rests on fewer than 3 people.
• University of Washington Paul G. Allen School admissions data by residency, 2025 cycle, as cited in UW computer science acceptance rate
• University of Washington Common Data Set 2025-2026 -- Office of Planning & Budgeting (in-state and out-of-state admit rates, Fall 2025)
• College Scorecard -- U.S. Department of Education (UW's official admission rate)