The University of Washington
said it will change its admission process for incoming freshmen
beginning later this year, including moving up the admissions deadline.
The Seattle school said it will begin using a “pooling admissions
process,” which mandates an earlier application deadline for
prospective freshmen. Under the new system, applications for the autumn
2011 class will be received from Oct. 1 and Dec. 15 and applicants will
be notified of their admission status before March 31. Next year, the
school said it will move up the application deadline to Dec. 1.
The school currently uses a “rolling admissions process,” which
communicates to future students their application status as soon as
they’re received and assessed.
“We’ve found that rolling out admission decisions from December
through March was causing significant anxiety among applicants and
their parents, leading to thousands of phone calls and e-mails about
application status and notification about decisions. By moving to an
earlier application deadline as well as a single admissions decision
window for all freshman class applicants, we hope to bring more clarity
to the admissions process, relieve undue anxiety among students and
their families and improve the efficiency and speed with which we are
able to process and holistically review ever-growing application
pools,” said Philip Ballinger, assistant vice president for enrollment,
in a statement.