If any one here is thinking of applying to the nursing program at UW, or is on the fence, I just want to share with you my experience.
As we know, the University of Washington Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing is a highly-ranked, competitive, high-quality program. In 2019, nearly 700 people applied. In 2020, nearly 600 applied. Each year, around 80 get into the program. This low acceptance rate is similar to many other programs at UW like Computer Science, Engineering etc.
Uw Nursing School Acceptance Rate
For those who are unaware, the nursing program requires above a 3.0 GPA, a list of required science courses with UW VLPA and I&S requirements, at least 100 hours of direct patient care experience (nursing assistant, EMT, medical assistant, etc.), a letter of reccomendation from a supervisor, and a written essay. Of the 600 who applied, about 200 make it to the proctored essay, an hour-long essay about various patient care scenarios and 3 math questions. To select the cohort, they use all of these factors to whittle that 200 to 80 students. The apppication period is only once per year in mid January.
My first application had a GPA of 3.83, 400 hours healthcare experience, and a letter of recommendation from my manager. I took all of my prerequisites except for Microbiology at the UW Seattle campus (I took micro at a community college). While I will admit my first application in 2019 was not amazing, I was still invited to the proctored essay. I feel like I was pretty prepared for my second application in 2020. After finishing my prerequisites right after Winter 2019, I moved to a position in a hospital setting. I completely revamped my essay, got a letter of reccomendation from a Nurse Manager from my floor, had a GPA of 3.85 cumulative, volunteer experience, and over 1600 healthcare hours at both a memory care facility and an acute care setting at a hospital. I wrote a much better proctored essay in my opinion the second time around.
Disappointingly, I was rejected the second time as well. Despite having a stellar application according to advisors I met with, I still did not do well enough to make it in. Perhaps my essay wasn’t good enough or my letter of reccomendation was lacking or I didnt have enough leadership experience, I will never know. I am not trying to blame UW, the nursing admissions board, or other students that made it into the program. I am okay with being rejected as it is just a part of life you have to deal with. I am only trying to share my experience about just how difficult it is to get into this program.
In addition to it being a very difficult program to get into, I actually stumbled into other roadblocks while trying to apply for other nursing programs.