The University of Washington is the public flagship of the Pacific Northwest, a Tier 1 research university with roughly $1.9 billion in annual research expenditures, a medical school that consistently ranks among the nation’s top primary-care programs, and a Seattle location that places its undergraduates a short bus ride from Amazon, Microsoft, the Allen Institute, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. It is also one of the largest selective public universities in the country, enrolling roughly 36,000 undergraduates on the Seattle campus alone. Over the past five admissions cycles, UW has done several things that set it apart from comparable flagships: it has held firm on test-optional admissions, keeping scores out of its standard review while peers reinstated testing; held its in-state tuition close to flat in nominal terms; and watched application volume grow by half while its acceptance rate compressed to the high 30s before ticking back up in the most recent cycle.
This report draws on five years of UW’s Common Data Sets (2021–22 through 2025–26), covering the entering classes from Fall 2021 through Fall 2025. It pairs that data with the university’s published admissions communications, the Allen School’s Direct to Major statistics, the Husky Promise framework, and IPEDS data to give applicants a working picture of what UW has been doing and what the data implies for current applicants.
Applications, admits, and the shape of selectivity
UW received 48,840 first-year applications for the Fall 2021 entering class, admitted 26,121, and enrolled 7,252. By Fall 2025, applications had grown to 72,933, admits had risen to 30,446, and the enrolled class had settled at 7,129. Application volume grew nearly 50 percent over four cycles. The admit rate dropped from 53.5 percent for Fall 2021 to a five-year low of 39.1 percent for Fall 2024 before reversing up to 41.7 percent for Fall 2025. Yield trended the opposite way, sliding from 27.8 percent in Fall 2021 to 23.4 percent in Fall 2025, the lowest in the window.
| Fall 2021 | Fall 2022 | Fall 2023 | Fall 2024 | Fall 2025 | |
| Applications | 48,840 | 52,488 | 62,421 | 69,166 | 72,933 |
| Admits | 26,121 | 24,942 | 26,545 | 27,076 | 30,446 |
| Admit rate | 53.5% | 47.5% | 42.5% | 39.1% | 41.7% |
| Enrolled | 7,252 | 7,415 | 7,000 | 7,196 | 7,129 |
| Yield | 27.8% | 29.7% | 26.4% | 26.6% | 23.4% |
Source: University of Washington Seattle Common Data Sets, Section C1, 2021–22 through 2025–26.
Three patterns inside the data are worth flagging. The first is that the Fall 2025 admit-rate reversal was an admissions decision, not a softening of demand. Applications climbed 3,767 over the prior cycle, but UW admitted 3,370 more students, the largest single-year increase in admit volume in the window, producing the lowest yield. The operational pattern is clear: when UW needs to hit its enrollment target, it widens the admit pool rather than dipping into the wait list.
The second pattern is that enrolled class size has held steady, between 7,000 and 7,415 in every reported year, reflecting campus capacity and Washington state policy expectations around in-state enrollment. The third is that a yield in the 23 to 28 percent range is consistent with what one expects at a non-residential public flagship that offers no Early Action or Early Decision. UW uses a single November 15 deadline, and its yield looks like a competitive public flagship rather than a selective private.
The in-state, out-of-state, and international split
UW publishes a residency breakdown of applicants, admits, and enrollees in Section C1, and the differences across the three groups are among the most striking in any public flagship’s data. For Fall 2025, UW received 15,260 in-state applications, 44,619 out-of-state applications, and 13,054 international applications. It admitted 45.7 percent of in-state applicants, 42.2 percent of out-of-state, and 35.6 percent of international applicants. But yield differed dramatically across the groups, with Washington residents enrolling at far higher rates than non-residents.
| Fall 2025 | Applied | Admitted | Admit rate | Enrolled | Yield |
| Washington residents | 15,260 | 6,980 | 45.7% | 4,595 | 65.8% |
| Out-of-state (U.S.) | 44,619 | 18,813 | 42.2% | 1,843 | 9.8% |
| International | 13,054 | 4,653 | 35.6% | 691 | 14.9% |
Source: University of Washington Seattle Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C1. Yield is calculated as enrolled divided by admitted.
The 9.8 percent out-of-state yield is the single most important operational fact about UW admissions. For every U.S. student outside Washington who is admitted, roughly nine in ten enroll elsewhere. That is partly a function of pricing (non-resident tuition is well above three times the in-state rate), partly geography, and partly the role UW plays in many out-of-state applicants’ calculus, where it functions as a high-quality alternative to a peer flagship closer to home, and the closer option usually wins. The math forces UW to admit a relatively large out-of-state cohort to fill fewer than 2,000 non-resident seats.
Washington residents face the inverse calculus. Their yield of nearly two-thirds means UW can admit conservatively and still fill its in-state seats. The Washington legislature has historically expected roughly 70 percent of first-year enrollment to come from state residents, and the Fall 2025 enrolled class was 64 percent in-state (4,595 of 7,129). For a Washington resident with a strong record, UW remains a very high-probability admission to the university as a whole, even if the most selective majors are competitive on their own terms.
Direct admission to CS and Engineering: the inner selectivity ring
UW operates a layer of selectivity that the headline CDS numbers obscure. Its most in-demand majors run on direct-admit pathways, where applicants are evaluated for the major at the point of application rather than after a year of pre-major coursework. The Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering uses a Direct to Major (DTM) pathway for CS and Computer Engineering; the College of Engineering uses a Direct to College (DTC) pathway for its full engineering slate. Applicants who clear the relevant threshold receive a binding offer to the major along with the UW admission letter; those who do not are typically admitted as pre-majors or pre-sciences and pursue the major through later capacity-constrained review.
The three-year average admit rates UW publishes for these pathways show how much variance the major-level review introduces. The Allen School DTM rates run dramatically below the overall university admit rate, particularly for non-resident applicants. Among Washington residents, the three-year DTM admit rate is about 30 percent; among non-residents, it is about 2 percent. Engineering DTC sits between the two extremes, at 43 percent for residents and 37 percent for non-residents, much closer to the university-wide rate. The DTM picture is the more selective story.
| Allen School DTM (CS/CE) | Fall 2023 | Fall 2024 | Fall 2025 |
| WA residents (applications) | 2,155 | 2,094 | 1,617 |
| WA residents (admit rate) | 26% | 27% | 37% |
| Non-WA U.S. (applications) | 5,059 | 4,961 | 3,916 |
| Non-WA U.S. (admit rate) | 2% | 1% | 5% |
| International (applications) | 1,326 | 1,448 | 1,413 |
| International (admit rate) | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Source: Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, Direct to Major Admissions Statistics, 2023–2025 cycles. The Allen School began publishing DTM admit-rate data publicly in 2023.
Two numbers deserve a closer look. For Fall 2024, the Allen School admitted 46 of 4,961 non-resident U.S. applicants who listed CS or CE as their first-choice major, a 0.9 percent admit rate, comparable to MIT’s overall admit rate. The Fall 2025 cycle loosened to about 5 percent (181 admits out of 3,916), but the arc remains in the low single digits. For international applicants, the rate has held flat at 2 percent across all three reported years, with admit counts of 21, 30, and 30. UW publishes roughly 30 international DTM admits to CS and CE combined per year; that number is both the operational ceiling and, most years, the operational floor.
The Washington-resident DTM picture is different. The 37 percent admit rate in Fall 2025 brought 599 in-state students into the Allen School directly. The Allen School notes that “hundreds of students with high grades are not offered DTM admission,” consistent with the math: roughly 1,000 to 1,500 in-state applicants each year have credentials strong enough to be plausible candidates, and the school admits a third to a half of that pool. For non-resident families weighing UW for engineering or computing, the honest framing is that university admission may be reasonably attainable while direct-major admission is the long shot, and that pre-majors face capacity-constrained internal admission for the most popular options.
Testing: test-optional in name, close to test-blind in practice
UW’s testing policy is the single most important way the institution differs from peer flagships in 2026, but it needs to be described precisely. In June 2020, UW permanently removed the SAT/ACT requirement, and the university now describes itself as “technically test-optional.” In the standard holistic review, admissions readers do not see submitted scores, so for the overwhelming majority of applicants a test score neither helps nor hurts. Applicants are not disadvantaged for submitting low scores or for submitting none, and scores are not required or considered for admissions scholarships or the Honors Program.
Two narrow exceptions keep UW from being purely test-blind. First, UW says scores above its middle 50 percent (historically framed as roughly 1400 SAT or 31 ACT and up) may be considered for a handful of applicants who might not otherwise be admitted, so a very high score can help at the margin in a small number of borderline cases. Second, home-schooled applicants and applicants from schools with non-standard grading (no letter or numeric grades) are still required to submit scores, with an exception for home-schooled students who have completed a year of college coursework through Running Start.
This still places UW in a small minority of large public research universities. Among peer flagships, Michigan reads scores when submitted (test-optional), while Georgia Tech, Texas, Florida, and Georgia require or effectively require testing. The University of California system is the closest large-system analogue, though UC goes further: it is fully test-free, considering no scores at all, whereas UW keeps the narrow “handful” exception.
Two implications follow for applicants. First, for practically every applicant, the SAT and ACT do not function as a differentiator at UW. Rigor of curriculum, unweighted GPA, the personal statement, and the short-response questions carry the weight that test scores might carry elsewhere. The average enrolled GPA of 3.84 in Fall 2025, with 76 percent of the class above 3.75, reflects that transcript-dominant reading. Second, the small exception is not a reason to invest heavily in testing for UW specifically; it applies to a handful of borderline cases, and a strong score helps far more at the many peer institutions that read scores fully.
What the C7 says about how UW reads files
Section C7 of the Common Data Set asks every institution to classify the relative importance of academic and non-academic factors. UW’s C7 contains several entries that set it apart from most selective universities. Rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and application essay are Very Important, consistent with the holistic-but-transcript-dominant approach. Standardized test scores are reported as not part of the standard review, consistent with the test-optional policy described above. Class rank is Not Considered (UW notes that high schools increasingly stop reporting it). Recommendations are Not Considered, which is unusual: UW does not require or invite letters of recommendation as part of the standard freshman application, a real operational difference from peer privates and from many flagships.
On the non-academic side, extracurricular activities, talent/ability, first-generation status, work experience, and volunteer work are all marked Important. Character/personal qualities and state residency are Considered. Alumni relation, interview, religious affiliation, and level of applicant’s interest are Not Considered. The last item matters for strategy: UW does not formally track demonstrated interest, so campus visits, email opens, and rep visits do not register as factors in the decision. For families deciding how to allocate a visit budget across a school list, UW is one of the few selective universities where a visit can be treated purely as a fit-evaluation exercise. That said, even where interest is officially Not Considered, student contact may register informally in the file, and low-cost steps such as registering through the admissions website and attending UW visits to local high schools signal seriousness without requiring travel.
Cost of attendance and the Husky Promise
UW’s published 2026–27 cost of attendance reflects the bifurcated pricing structure typical of public flagships, with an especially wide gap between in-state and non-resident pricing. Washington-resident tuition and fees for first-year undergraduates run $13,406. Non-resident tuition and fees run $44,640. On-campus food and housing (double occupancy, full meal plan) add $18,405. All-in published cost of attendance, including books, transportation, and personal expenses, comes to roughly $34,300 for a Washington resident living on campus and roughly $65,500 for a non-resident.
| Fall 2021 | Fall 2022 | Fall 2023 | Fall 2024 | Fall 2025 | |
| In-state tuition + fees | $12,076 | $12,242 | $12,643 | $12,973 | $13,406 |
| Non-resident tuition + fees | $39,906 | $40,740 | $41,997 | $43,209 | $44,640 |
| Food + housing (on-campus) | $14,871 | $16,068 | $17,982 | $18,405 | $18,405 |
Source: University of Washington Seattle Common Data Sets, Section G1. The CDS reports G1 figures for the academic year that follows the reporting year (e.g., the 2025–26 CDS reports projected 2026–27 costs). Modest year-over-year tuition increases reflect Washington legislature caps on resident tuition growth.
UW’s financial aid framework rests on the Husky Promise, the university’s guarantee to cover full tuition and standard fees for any admitted Washington resident who qualifies for federal Pell Grants or the Washington College Grant, files the FAFSA or WASFA by UW’s financial-aid priority deadline, and enrolls full-time. Tuition is covered first by federal and state grants; if those do not equal full tuition, UW makes up the difference with institutional grants or scholarships, and awards rise automatically if tuition increases. Over 8,000 UW students across the three campuses are covered in a typical year, and the program functions as a meaningfully more affordable alternative to many private colleges for lower- and middle-income Washington families. The Husky Promise covers tuition and standard fees only; it does not cover food, housing, books, or transportation, which families fund through a mix of Pell, state grant aid, work-study, and modest loans.
For families above the Husky Promise threshold but below upper-middle income, UW packages need-based aid using the federal methodology. The university awards roughly $231 million a year in scholarship and grant aid to enrolled undergraduates. Average aid packages run modestly compared with selective privates, reflecting UW’s much lower in-state sticker price. For non-resident families the calculus is less favorable: UW does not commit to meeting full demonstrated need for non-residents, and merit aid for out-of-state students (chiefly the competitive Purple and Gold Scholarship) is limited. A non-resident family that does not qualify for substantial need-based aid will likely pay close to the $65,500 all-in figure.
The student body, retention, and outcomes
UW’s first-year retention rate has climbed steadily across the window, from 93.0 percent for the Fall 2020 cohort to 95.0 percent for the Fall 2024 cohort. Six-year graduation rates run in the 83 to 85 percent range, with the most recent at 85 percent. These figures place UW in the upper tier of public flagships for persistence and completion, comparable to UCLA, Berkeley, Michigan, Virginia, and North Carolina. The four-year graduation rate sits at roughly 71 percent for the most recent cohort, reflecting both UW’s advising infrastructure and the rising rate at which first-year students arrive with AP, IB, and dual-enrollment credit.
The mix of degrees conferred is heavily weighted toward STEM and computer science. Computer and information sciences has grown sharply over the five years, in line with national trends and UW’s capacity expansion in the Paul G. Allen School. Engineering, biological sciences, and social sciences round out the largest discipline shares. UW’s student-to-faculty ratio sits at roughly 20-to-1; intro classes can run to several hundred students, while upper-division courses in most majors are substantially smaller.
Closing observations
Four threads from the five-year window are worth pulling forward for families currently weighing UW.
First, the right way to read UW’s acceptance rate depends entirely on residency and on the target major. The headline 41.7 percent admit rate for Fall 2025 conceals a 45.7 percent rate for Washington residents, a 42.2 percent rate for out-of-state U.S. students, and a 35.6 percent rate for international applicants. The selectivity ring inside those numbers is tighter still: the Allen School’s Direct to Major pathway admits 2 to 5 percent of non-resident applicants and 26 to 37 percent of residents. Strong Washington residents should treat the broader university as a high-confidence school and Allen DTM as a competitive but realistic target. Strong out-of-state students should treat overall UW admission as a likely target and CS/CE direct admission as a long shot regardless of profile, with the understanding that admission to UW as a pre-major does not solve the capacity problem in the most popular majors.
Second, the testing policy is real and consequential, but it is test-optional, not test-blind in the strict sense. In the standard review, scores are not read, so applicants whose strongest credential is a high SAT or ACT generally do not benefit from submitting at UW, and applicants with weaker scores are not harmed by withholding. The narrow exceptions are that a very high score can tip a handful of borderline applicants, and that home-schooled and non-standard-grading applicants must submit. The roughly 80 percent of enrolled students who did not submit scores in recent cycles are not a disadvantaged category; they are the modal admitted student. The corollary is that the transcript carries disproportionate weight. Rigorous coursework, strong grades, and a credible upward trajectory through eleventh grade are the most important application elements, with the personal statement and short-response questions as the secondary differentiator.
Third, UW does not require letters of recommendation for the standard freshman application, and the C7 marks recommendations as Not Considered, a real operational difference from most peer institutions. Applicants should still cultivate strong relationships with teachers and counselors for use in other applications but should not feel obligated to solicit letters specifically for UW. The freed capacity is better spent on the personal statement and the activities list, both of which UW reads carefully.
Fourth, UW is one of the strongest in-state values among American public flagships, and one of the more expensive out-of-state options. Washington-resident families whose incomes qualify for the Husky Promise should run the UW Net Price Calculator before deciding the university is unaffordable; many will find UW costs less than nearby private alternatives and less than out-of-state public options. Non-resident families should run the same calculator with realistic assumptions about need-based aid and compare UW against the public flagship in their home state, which will almost always offer a better net price.
