western washington university personal essay

Writing Personal Statements

What is personal statement?

The personal statement (also known as a statement of purpose) is an essential piece of your application to graduate or professional school.   It usually consists of a brief history about yourself while addressing your academic and career goals. It offers the admissions committee to hear your “voice” and portray relevant experiences that showcase your strengths and preparation.

How to I get started?

• Use clear organization and the mechanics of an academic essay by including a strong opening or thesis, details to support your claims, and a clear summarization.​
• Read each prompt carefully and make every effort to understand and respond to it.​
• Remember that this isn’t a research paper, it’s a personal essay—using clear, easy to understand language is more important than trying to sound “academic.” The committee is trying to get to know YOU so be as authentic as you can.

What should I write about?

Here are some questions  to help you shape your composition (allow yourself some time to free write and get your ideas flowing):​

• What are your career goals?​
• When did you originally become interested in the field?​
• What people or life events shaped or influenced your goals?​
• How have you learned about and explored the field?​
• What work or volunteer experiences contributed to your knowledge?​
• Are there gaps or discrepancies that should be explained?​
• Have you overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships?​
• What personal characteristics enhance your performance?​
• What skills and traits do you bring to the program?​
• Why are you interested in “x” school?

What are some other writing tips?

Be selective and don’t bore the reader with too much detail 

Capture attention but do not use quotes.

Show the committee that you have thought carefully about your application and have specific experiences and reasons why you are   applying to this   particular program .

For example, medical school applicants saying they are good at science or statements such as “I like working with people.”

Readers may have differing opinions from yours—such as religion and politics.

See how it flows; remember that admission committees will read   many   of these, so make yours compelling and easy to read. 

DO NOT rely upon spell-check. Have others review your statement. 

• Your first draft   doesn’t   have to be perfect initially. Seek feedback and  be prepared to edit .  ​
• Useful resources include professors, friends, family, professionals   you have   worked with.  ​
• You can also connect with the   Hacherl   Research & Writing Studio , located in Wilson Library’s Learning Commons area.

We are here to help!

As you develop your personal statement, remember that we are here to help!  Ensure that your resume will earn you an ​interview by scheduling an appointment with a graduate school advisor or requesting written feedback via email.​

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. Henry David Thoreau

Western Washington University | WWU

• Cost & scholarships
• Essay prompt

Want to see your chances of admission at Western Washington University | WWU?

We take every aspect of your personal profile into consideration when calculating your admissions chances.

Western Washington University | WWU’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Additional info essay.

Describe any special circumstances that created challenges or opportunities for you while in high school and what you learned from those experiences. This might include personal or academic challenges, being the first person in your family to pursue college, inconsistent grade trends, a grade point average or test scores that you feel do not reflect your potential, or anything else you feel the Admissions Committee should know about you and your ability to succeed in college.

College of Interdisciplinary Studies Essay

Describe your educational goals, academic interests, and the reason you are applying to Fairhaven College. The best length for the essay is whatever length it takes you to respond to the prompt in its entirety. If the essay you used for your Western application addresses these components, you can upload the same essay.

Select-A-Prompt Essay

Help the Admissions Committee learn about you beyond what we can see in your academics and activity list by expanding on one of the prompts below. Your response will be reviewed for both admission and scholarship purposes.

Your essay must be your own work. Please do not use another writer‘s work, or make use of Artificial Intelligence software (Chat GPT, Bard, etc.) to write your essay. If plagiarism or use of AI is suspected or determined, your application may be deemed incomplete or withdrawn from consideration.

Most essays are about 500 words, but this is only a recommendation, not a firm limit. Feel free to take what space is necessary for you to tell your story. You can find tips for writing a strong application essay on our website.

Please select one of the essay prompts and provide your response. Provide your essay response below. Note: If you feel you have already addressed this in your Common App Personal Essay, please copy the relevant section of your essay into the essay box below.

Describe one or more activities you have been involved in that have been particularly meaningful. What does your involvement say about the communities, identities or causes that are important to you?

Share a meaningful experience and how this has helped shape you in your preparation for college. This could be related to your passions, commitments, leadership experience, family, or cultural background.

Admissions essay - topic of your choice. If you have written another essay that captures what you want the Admissions Committee to know about you, feel free to share it here.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

Tips for Writing Application Essays & Personal Statements

Description

If you need to write a graduate school application essay or personal statement, or if you need to work on a personal statement for declaring your major, consider dropping in to the Hacherl Research & Writing Studio for feedback and tips!

Working sessions are on Wednesdays Jan. 11 & 18 from 10am to noon in Haggard Hall 210.

Students can drop in any time during the session for support with their personal statements. Bring your guidelines for your specific statements if you have them.

Questions? Email us at [email protected]. 

[Image Description: A student and a Studio Assistant working on two laptop computers at a table in the Hacherl Research & Writing Studio.]

From Wednesday, January 11, 2023 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST at Western Libraries, Hacherl Research & Writing Studio, HH 210 .

Psychology Department

Major Application Short Answer Essay Questions

The  Major Application Short Answer Essay Questions * provide students interested in applying to WWU's psychology or human development majors an opportunity to convey who they are and how their individual lived experiences, values, and goals align with their intended major.

Please respond to both prompts with no more than 250 words each (overall word limit of 500 words; exceeding 250 words per prompt will result in application points lost): 

• In the Department of Psychology, we encourage and educate majors to apply psychological science to address societal needs and problems. What societal issues motivate you to pursue a degree in psychology? How and why? Please provide at least one specific example.
• Review the  Psychology Department Values Statement  and reflect on your own goals and values. In your own words, describe specific ways your participation in the major would contribute to creating this learning community for all members of the psychology program. These specific examples should derive from your upbringing, lived experiences, goals, personal values, and/or interests. 

*These prompts must be submitted before your new major application can be evaluated. The application portal will open at the beginning of fall, winter, and spring quarter.

Can't access the Short Answer Essay Questions?  Self-enroll in our Psychology Interest Canvas course

Curious about the Department of Psychology's DEI commitment? Check out our DEI Initiatives Webpage

Writing Tips to Consider

-Before crafting your response, reflect on your individual lived experience, strengths, academic history, etc.

-Address the prompts directly

-Think and write deeply, with full transparency

-Provide specific examples when possible

-Make sure who you are and how your goals/values align are crystal clear in your responses; consider what makes you a good fit in the Psychology Department

Remember: Quality of writing is not being evaluated; however, please use spell check and write in complete sentences to make sure your ideas come across as clearly as possible. Plagiarism of any kind is not tolerated.

Looking for Essay Response Support?

The WWU  Hacherl Research & Writing Studio  is ready to support your major application essay response writing process with a variety of connection options:

Daily Studio Hours :  https://library.wwu.edu/rws Request an Appointment :  https://wwu.libcal.com/appointments/rws Online Chat :  https://askus.library.wwu.edu/chat/widget/9c7774dae5b758529d82f5bc433029ca Submit a Draft :  https://library.wwu.edu/node/2341

Essay responses are the #1 way you can influence and improve your major application outcome.

Connect today!

Spring '24 Major Application

Available Friday 4/5 @ 8:30AM through Friday 4/19 @ 11:59PM

Apply in THREE easy steps:

1. Submit a  Major Application Webform

2. Complete the  Major + Graduation Requirement Review  that matches your intended major

3. Submit responses to the  Major Application Essay Questions

Need access to the review and essay questions?  Self-Enroll Here

Currently enrolled in PSY 203 as a transfer student?

Optional Step #4: Submit a  Major Application Exception

Past acceptance rates and data can be found  here

Personal Statement

Writing a personal statement.

Before you begin, take time to think about the following key concepts you'll be writing about.

Tell a Story

As you explore these questions, look for a single concept that best defines who you are and/or where you are going. The unifying theme you choose is important: It will help you organize your ideas, select supporting evidence for claims of what you have achieved, and provide a roadmap for your readers. It will also convey to the readers how you see and understand yourself.

You might begin by asking yourself:

• “What are the qualities, values, goals, experiences, and activities that best define who I am?”
• “What individuals, experiences and challenges that have influenced my thinking and career goals?”
• “What are the most important things for the committee to know?”
• “What do I hope to achieve and why I believe my goals are worth working toward?”

Your Personal History

• Family and friends – those who influenced your values, ideas, interests, and goals
• Education - special programs, influential classes and/or professors, and independent research projects; informal experiences, such as books or lectures that have had an impact on your thinking and/or career choices
• Work experiences and internships – those that enabled you to develop/discover leadership abilities, introduced you to new ways of thinking about the world, taught you new skills
• Travel – opportunities to learn new perspectives, new ways of doing things; experiences that have made you aware of challenges and/or problems that you would like to help solve
• Community service – activities that put you in touch with people who are different from you, that enabled you to assume new responsibilities, that gave you a vision of what might be achieved
• Political activities – experiences that instilled an appreciation of the democratic process or, conversely, alerted you to the problems our society faces
• Talents – the importance of music, art, writing, sports, etc. to your life

Before You Begin

Read the assignment carefully and be sure you clearly understand what you are asked to write about.

Get to Know Your Audience

Review the application materials carefully. They often provide information about who will be reading your application as well as guidance on how you should think about your audience. Committee members may or may not have in-depth knowledge of your field.

If you are applying for a specialized fellowship, you can probably assume that readers will have some technical knowledge of your field. If, on the other hand, you are applying for a general scholarship – i.e. one that is open to students from a broad range of fields, you should explain briefly the points that would not necessarily be understood by a general audience.

Get Organized

A personal statement should flow naturally. That does not mean, however, that it should, in its final form, lack any organizational structure.

As one final step before you begin to write, you might sketch out a basic outline – i.e. a logical progression of ideas that you want to include. In the process of writing, you are likely to discover a better arrangement, and, as that happens, follow your instincts.

The initial outline can serve as a check that important ideas and critical points are not lost in the creative process. It should not, however, undermine the creativity, originality, or inspiration that accompanies the writing process. Let your personality – including a sense of humor – emerge.

Writing the Personal Statement

A few pointers to keep in mind as you write and, further down the line, as your re-write and revise your essay:

• Be yourself. Speak with your own voice, sharing your own ideas about your own goals. Ask others to read your essay and give you feedback, but preserve your own voice.
• Think in terms of telling a story: make your writing fresh and engaging.
• Write clearly, simply, and concisely. Write clearly and honestly about yourself and your aspirations.
• Open the essay with a strong paragraph that provides a framework and introduces critical elements that you intend to explore in the main body of the essay. Find a way to catch the readers’ attention.

In the main body of the essay

• Describe your experience in your field of study and convey your knowledge of the field.
• Refer to classes, conversations with experts, books you have read, seminars you have attended, experiences you have had.
• Make a convincing argument that you know something about the career you have chosen.
• Do not overstate your achievements. Be prepared to acknowledge your role as part of a team.
• Focus on a few, well-chosen examples, and use these to develop your ideas. Depth is better than breadth. Select experiences that have been most important, those that have shaped your development and defined the direction you have chosen.
• Be current. Concentrate on where you are now and where you are going.
• Address weaknesses in your resume by providing honest explanations – for example, feel free to explain that you had financial responsibilities that prevented you from participating in community service or assuming leadership positions.
• Avoid obvious clichés.

Once finished with the essay:

• Proofread and ask others to proofread. -Check spelling and grammar.
• Does the essay flow naturally? Is it organized? Logical?
• Does the main theme come through clearly? Is it powerful? Convincing?
• Have you provided relevant examples and explained them appropriately?

Western 2022-23 Honors Publication

HONORS COLLEGE

ADMISSION TO WESTERN’S HONORS COLLEGE

While admission to Honors is selective, application review is holistic and values a variety of student perspectives, experiences, and attributes.

APPLYING TO HONORS

Apply by the Honors Priority Deadline in early January, or by the Regular Decision Deadline in early March. Learn more about deadlines and applying at honors.wwu.edu/apply.

A complete application to Honors College includes:

1. A sample of your best analytical writing

2. A personal essay responding to the prompt(s) found on our website

3. Highly recommended: letter(s) of recommendation from a teacher or counselor

TRANSFERRING TO HONORS

Current Western students and transfer students are welcome to apply. Honors requirements will be discussed on an individual basis to develop a curricular pathway best for each student.

Access to specific Honors advisors

No additional fees

Apply to Honors today: honors.wwu.edu/apply

“The Honors College fundamentally shaped my Western experience in a positive way. The coursework stretched my mind and helped me view the world in a deeper, more nuanced way. Perhaps most importantly, it was through the Honors College that I met lifelong friends and formed meaningful connections with amazing professors.”

HONORS CURRICULUM

First-year honors curriculum.

First-year students in Honors take a year-long sequence that includes the following classes:

HNRS 101 - The Big Picture: Lecture series with WWU faculty (1 cr)

HNRS 105* - Navigating the Human Experience – Post-Modernity A: Comparative culture in the modern world; emphasis outside North America and Europe (4 cr)

HNRS 103* - Navigating the Human Experience – Pre-Modernity: Students navigate ideas drawn from outside a modern framework of thought (4 cr) OR

HNRS 104* - Navigating the Human Experience – Modernity: Students navigate how a modern framework of thought came to be (4 cr)

STEM INTEREST

HNRS 106* - Navigating the Human Experience – Post-Modernity B: Comparative culture in the modern world; multicultural and gender studies (4 cr)

LOWER DIVISION COLLOQUIA

Two Honors Colloquia* are required. These 200-level classes are offered each year in areas such as economics, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, and geology.

UPPER DIVISION SEMINARS

Two Honors Seminars are required. Faculty compete to teach these 20+ seminars, which cover an array of fields and topics that are refreshed each year.

SENIOR PROJECT

Students partner with faculty to complete an original, independently designed, concentrated work in a student’s major field or another field of interest.

See past projects at cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors. * Courses fulfill GUR requirements

Students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are encouraged to consider enrollment in our Honors Calculus* and Honors General Chemistry* sequences.

STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS

Complete Honors requirements while studying abroad in Greece (Navigating the Human Experience, HNRS 103), or Ecuador (Culture, Politics, and Geology, HNRS 105 + HNRS 212).

Learn more about courses: honors.wwu.edu/ curricular-pathways

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN A COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY

Since its founding in 1962, WWU Honors has functioned as a small college within a larger university, incorporating the best aspects of both.

You can pursue any major, have access to fellowship and internship advising, and have the option to live in an Honors residential cluster.

Honors average class size: 18 students

Classes taken in Honors: 15-20%

Western Washington University (WWU), in compliance with applicable laws and in furtherance of its commitment to fostering an environment that welcomes and embraces diversity, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and parenting status), disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status or genetic information in its programs or activities, including employment, admissions, and educational programs. Inquiries may be directed to the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance, Title IX and ADA Coordinator, Western Washington University, Old Main 345, MS 9021, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-650-3307 (voice) or 711 (Washington Relay); [email protected].

WWU is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities upon request. To request an accommodation, please contact the Disability Access Center, Wilson Library 170; (360) 650-3083 (voice) or (360) 255-7175 (VP); [email protected]. One week advance notice appreciated. To request this document in an alternate format, please contact the Office of Admissions, Old Main 200; (360) 650-3440; [email protected]. (8/2022 version)

Western Washington University

Western isn’t a place where you show up for four years, learn a few things, and get a job that bores you. That’s for normal schools. We want people with an appetite for ambition and who want to make a positive impact in their communities. Through close relationships with professors and a community dedicated to equity, justice, sustainability, and academic excellence, we help people find their purpose. And we inspire them to pursue that purpose with everything they’ve got. We bring together those who want to change the world with the people who are changing it.  This is a place where, together, we can MAKE WAVES. Incredible Location: Western's campus is in the heart of the beautiful city of Bellingham, an ideal college town located between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC on the Puget Sound. Academic Excellence: Whether you choose from one of our 200+ academic programs or design your own major, you'll enjoy the full support of world-renowned educators who will help bring your ideas to life. Unlimited Opportunity: Western offers more than 200 clubs on campus, career connections, outdoor adventure, research, and leadership opportunities.

Academic programs.

• Art & Design
• Communication
• Engineering
• Finance/Accounting
• Government/Political Science
• Liberal Arts
• Performing Arts
• Social Science

Student experience

• Co-op/Internship Opportunities
• Disability Services
• Intramural/Club Sports
• LGBTQIA Services
• Military/Veteran Services
• On-Campus Housing
• Study Abroad
• Undergraduate Research

Application information

Find out about requirements, fees, and deadlines

• You will receive a response from the Office of Admissions by December 31.
• You’re guaranteed expedited scholarship review and financial aid notification if admitted.
• You still have until May 1 to confirm your intent to enroll.

Western Washington University (WWU) does not accept Common App for Transfer students. Transfer students inside and outside the United States may apply using our Transfer application . Students who continue to earn college credits after high school graduation (excluding credit earned during the summer after high school graduation) are considered transfer students. Visit our Transfer page for more information .

Additional Information

Take a tour of Western's beautiful campus! Let our student tour guides lead you and a small group on a 60-minute campus tour. They will give you the inside scoop on everything Western and answer your questions as you explore. There's also a 30-minute admission information session included in the tour. To schedule a visit, click here!

Admissions office

516 High Street Bellingham , WA 98225 , United States of America

Phone number

(360) 650-3440

For first-year students

Admissions website.

admissions.wwu.edu/

Financial aid website

www.finaid.wwu.edu/

Undocumented or DACA students

admissions.wwu.edu/undocumented-students

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Western Washington University Requirements for Admission

Choose your test.

What are Western Washington University's admission requirements? While there are a lot of pieces that go into a college application, you should focus on only a few critical things:

• GPA requirements
• Testing requirements, including SAT and ACT requirements
• Application requirements

In this guide we'll cover what you need to get into Western Washington University and build a strong application.

School location: Bellingham, WA

This school is also known as: Western

Admissions Rate: 92.7%

If you want to get in, the first thing to look at is the acceptance rate. This tells you how competitive the school is and how serious their requirements are.

The acceptance rate at Western Washington University is 92.7% . For every 100 applicants, 93 are admitted.

This means the school is a nearly open admissions school. They accept nearly all students, so for the most part, you just need to submit an application to get in. But if you don't meet all their application requirements, you'll be one of the very few people who gets rejected.

We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies . We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools , from state colleges to the Ivy League.

We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.

Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

Western Washington University GPA Requirements

Many schools specify a minimum GPA requirement, but this is often just the bare minimum to submit an application without immediately getting rejected.

The GPA requirement that really matters is the GPA you need for a real chance of getting in. For this, we look at the school's average GPA for its current students.

Average GPA: 3.49

The average GPA at Western Washington University is 3.49 .

(Most schools use a weighted GPA out of 4.0, though some report an unweighted GPA.

With a GPA of 3.49, Western Washington University requires you to be around average in your high school class. You'll need a mix of A's and B's, and very few C's. If you have a lower GPA, you can compensate with harder courses like AP or IB classes. This will help boost your weighted GPA and show your ability to take college classes.

SAT and ACT Requirements

Each school has different requirements for standardized testing. Only a few schools require the SAT or ACT, but many consider your scores if you choose to submit them.

Western Washington University hasn't explicitly named a policy on SAT/ACT requirements, but because it's published average SAT or ACT scores (we'll cover this next), it's likely test flexible. Typically, these schools say, "if you feel your SAT or ACT score represents you well as a student, submit them. Otherwise, don't."

Despite this policy, the truth is that most students still take the SAT or ACT, and most applicants to Western Washington University will submit their scores. If you don't submit scores, you'll have one fewer dimension to show that you're worthy of being admitted, compared to other students. We therefore recommend that you consider taking the SAT or ACT, and doing well.

Western Washington University SAT Requirements

Many schools say they have no SAT score cutoff, but the truth is that there is a hidden SAT requirement. This is based on the school's average score.

Average SAT: 1240

The average SAT score composite at Western Washington University is a 1240 on the 1600 SAT scale.

This score makes Western Washington University Competitive for SAT test scores.

Western Washington University SAT Score Analysis (New 1600 SAT)

The 25th percentile SAT score is 1140, and the 75th percentile SAT score is 1340. In other words, a 1140 on the SAT places you below average, while a 1340 will move you up to above average .

Here's the breakdown of SAT scores by section:

SAT Score Choice Policy

The Score Choice policy at your school is an important part of your testing strategy.

Western Washington University has the Score Choice policy of "Highest Sitting."

This means that you can choose which SAT tests you want to send to the school. Of all the scores they receive, your application readers will consider the SAT score from your single highest test date (the sum of math, reading, and writing).

This is important for your testing strategy. Because you can choose which tests to send in, and Western Washington University only considers your highest score on a single test date, you can take the SAT as many times as you want, then submit your strongest score. Your application readers will only see that one score.

Therefore, if your SAT score is currently below a 1140, we strongly recommend that you consider prepping for the SAT and retaking it . You don't have much to lose, and you can potentially raise your score and significantly boost your chances of getting in.

Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and SAT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.

Western Washington University ACT Requirements

Just like for the SAT, Western Washington University likely doesn't have a hard ACT cutoff, but if you score too low, your application will get tossed in the trash.

Average ACT: 27

The average ACT score at Western Washington University is 27. This score makes Western Washington University Moderately Competitive for ACT scores.

The 25th percentile ACT score is 25, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 30.

ACT Score Sending Policy

If you're taking the ACT as opposed to the SAT, you have a huge advantage in how you send scores, and this dramatically affects your testing strategy.

Here it is: when you send ACT scores to colleges, you have absolute control over which tests you send. You could take 10 tests, and only send your highest one. This is unlike the SAT, where many schools require you to send all your tests ever taken.

This means that you have more chances than you think to improve your ACT score. To try to aim for the school's ACT requirement of 25 and above, you should try to take the ACT as many times as you can. When you have the final score that you're happy with, you can then send only that score to all your schools.

ACT Superscore Policy

By and large, most colleges do not superscore the ACT. (Superscore means that the school takes your best section scores from all the test dates you submit, and then combines them into the best possible composite score). Thus, most schools will just take your highest ACT score from a single sitting.

We weren't able to find the school's exact ACT policy, which most likely means that it does not Superscore. Regardless, you can choose your single best ACT score to send in to Western Washington University, so you should prep until you reach our recommended target ACT score of 25.

Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and ACT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.

SAT/ACT Writing Section Requirements

Currently, only the ACT has an optional essay section that all students can take. The SAT used to also have an optional Essay section, but since June 2021, this has been discontinued unless you are taking the test as part of school-day testing in a few states. Because of this, no school requires the SAT Essay or ACT Writing section, but some schools do recommend certain students submit their results if they have them.

Western Washington University considers the SAT Essay/ACT Writing section optional and may not include it as part of their admissions consideration. You don't need to worry too much about Writing for this school, but other schools you're applying to may require it.

Final Admissions Verdict

This school offers nearly open admissions, which means they give almost every student an offer of admission. To be safe, you should aim for a 1140 SAT or a 25 ACT or higher . If you can achieve this, you're pretty much guaranteed a spot in the incoming class.

Admissions Calculator

Here's our custom admissions calculator. Plug in your numbers to see what your chances of getting in are. Pick your test: SAT ACT

• 80-100%: Safety school: Strong chance of getting in
• 50-80%: More likely than not getting in
• 20-50%: Lower but still good chance of getting in
• 5-20%: Reach school: Unlikely to get in, but still have a shot
• 0-5%: Hard reach school: Very difficult to get in

How would your chances improve with a better score?

Take your current SAT score and add 160 points (or take your ACT score and add 4 points) to the calculator above. See how much your chances improve?

At PrepScholar, we've created the leading online SAT/ACT prep program . We guarantee an improvement of 160 SAT points or 4 ACT points on your score, or your money back.

Here's a summary of why we're so much more effective than other prep programs:

• PrepScholar customizes your prep to your strengths and weaknesses . You don't waste time working on areas you already know, so you get more results in less time.
• We guide you through your program step-by-step so that you're never confused about what you should be studying. Focus all your time learning, not worrying about what to learn.
• Our team is made of national SAT/ACT experts . PrepScholar's founders are Harvard graduates and SAT perfect scorers . You'll be studying using the strategies that actually worked for them.
• We've gotten tremendous results with thousands of students across the country. Read about our score results and reviews from our happy customers .

There's a lot more to PrepScholar that makes it the best SAT/ACT prep program. Click to learn more about our program , or sign up for our 5-day free trial to check out PrepScholar for yourself:

Application Requirements

Every school requires an application with the bare essentials - high school transcript and GPA, application form, and other core information. Many schools, as explained above, also require SAT and ACT scores, as well as letters of recommendation, application essays, and interviews. We'll cover the exact requirements of Western Washington University here.

Application Requirements Overview

• Common Application Not accepted
• Electronic Application Available
• Essay or Personal Statement Recommended for all freshmen
• Letters of Recommendation
• Interview Not required
• Application Fee $65
• Fee Waiver Available? Available
• Other Notes

Testing Requirements

• SAT or ACT Considered if submitted
• SAT Essay or ACT Writing Optional
• SAT Subject Tests
• Scores Due in Office January 31

Coursework Requirements

• Subject Required Years
• Foreign Language 2
• Social Studies 3
• Electives 1

Deadlines and Early Admissions

• Offered? Deadline Notification
• Yes January 31 September 15
• Yes November 1 December 31

Admissions Office Information

• Address: 516 Bellingham, WA 98225-5996
• Phone: (360) 650-3000 x3000
• Fax: (360) 650-7369
• Email: [email protected]

Other Schools For You

If you're interested in Western Washington University, you'll probably be interested in these schools as well. We've divided them into 3 categories depending on how hard they are to get into, relative to Western Washington University.

Reach Schools: Harder to Get Into

These schools are have higher average SAT scores than Western Washington University. If you improve your SAT score, you'll be competitive for these schools.

Same Level: Equally Hard to Get Into

If you're competitive for Western Washington University, these schools will offer you a similar chance of admission.

Safety Schools: Easier to Get Into

If you're currently competitive for Western Washington University, you should have no problem getting into these schools. If Western Washington University is currently out of your reach, you might already be competitive for these schools.

Data on this page is sourced from Peterson's Databases © 2023 (Peterson's LLC. All rights reserved.) as well as additional publicly available sources.

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Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

5 University of Washington Essay Examples by Accepted Students

What’s covered:, essay example #1 – diversity, cripplepunks, essay example #2 – diversity, community in difference, essay example #3 – diversity, food, essay example #4 – diversity, dinnertime conversations, essay example #5 – interdisciplinary studies, where to get your university of washington essays edited.

The University of Washington is a selective school, so it’s important to write strong essays to help your application stand out. In this post, we’ll share essays real students have submitted to the University of Washington. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).

Read our University of Washington es say breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Prompt: Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the University of Washington. (300 words)

The first time I looked up the term cripplepunk I was in ninth grade, almost bedbound with severe hip pain. It took half a second for the page to load, and another half a second for me to process what I was seeing. There before me, against the muted grey of my phone’s dark mode, is the community I thought I would never have. I could have scrolled for hours, absorbing the images of models in powerchairs wearing ornate gowns, snarky patches on guide dog vests, and decorated canes. I kept coming back to the page, enchanted with the movement. Although the term cripplepunk wasn’t used until 2014, the spirit of the movement is present in most disabled people, from Frida Kahlo to the participants in the Capitol Crawl. The cripplepunk movement is intentionally subversive, fighting against the ableism and pity that disabled people encounter at every turn. Cripplepunks take a “so what if I am?” approach to ableism, refusing to be ashamed of symptoms, accommodations, or mobility aids. It’s a diverse movement too, where a 60-something veteran dealing with decades-old injuries can guide me through the process of buying and decorating my first cane. In cripplepunk circles, a deafblind Black woman can teach the world that disabled people can have dreams for their futures. The cripplepunk movement is a movement where I can offer sympathy, advice, and support to the same people who helped me through otherwise isolating moments and new cripples alike. That work doesn’t just happen online though. My work as a cripplepunk happens everywhere, classrooms and grocery stores alike, by being visibly and unashamedly disabled, vocally confronting ableists, and campaigning for greater accessibility.

What the Essay Did Well

One of the primary strengths of this “Diversity” essay is its writer’s enthusiasm about the cripplepunk movement, which helps readers feel connected to them. At the very beginning of this response, we are introduced to the term ‘cripplepunk,’ but just like the student, we are not exactly sure what it means. We go through the process of learning about the movement with the student as they bring to our minds “images of models in powerchairs wearing ornate gowns, snarky patches on guide dog vests, and decorated canes.” By bringing us along to their first introduction to cripplepunk, this student forms a connection between themself and the reader. We get “enchanted” alongside them.

At the same time, we get enchanted by the student, who positions themself as mature and insightful. As they describe how the cripplepunk movement wasn’t labeled until 2014 but “the spirit of the movement” existed long before, they address the ways that community doesn’t need to have a name to exist. They position community as anything that makes individuals not feel alone, then follow that description up with a definition of community as “people who help others through otherwise isolating moments.” This deeper reflection displays this student’s insightful-nature and maturity.

Finally, this essay’s structure works very nicely. It is simultaneously anecdotal and reflective, and, to top it all off, the student provides an image of them in “classrooms and grocery stores alike” showing off their diversity and their pride. The anecdote draws the reader in, while the reflection reveals this student’s personality and perspectives. Combined, the reader gets a good idea of who this student is and how they would fit into the campus community.

What Could Be Improved

The one thing this essay didn’t address was how this student will add to the diversity of the University of Washington. Although we get a good sense of the unique community this student came from and how it shaped them, we still want to know how they will contribute to their campus community. This student could have easily revised the last few sentences to say something along the lines of this:

“I intend to bring the cripplepunk movement with me to the University of Washington. I’ll proudly display myself on campus so I can teach my fellow classmates about disabilities and encourage other disabled students to be unashamed of who they are.”

Reworking the conclusion to discuss how they will take the lessons they have learned from being part of the cripplepunk community and share those lessons with a new community would show admissions officers exactly what this student would bring to campus. It doesn’t have to be an extensive response, but the essay should include some reference of University of Washington. 

In my youth, I found solace in communities of my peers who shared portions of my identity; from speaking the same second languages to sharing similar tastes, I was quick to bond with those I was similar to. 

When I moved to Oregon, I found myself miles away from these connections. My fragmented identity found little to attach to my peers. Inkling connections uprooted as I attended three different middle schools throughout my years. “Community” felt like a bubble I was floating upon, inherently a part of yet never fully immersed. 

At the end of math class towards the middle of eighth grade, I felt a tap on my shoulder. A tall girl with glasses and a tooth gap stood behind.

“Do you want to sit with us at lunch today?”

Stemming from this small invitation, I found myself part of a community of peers with whom I never thought I could relate. Our interests diverged and collided in all regards; we were of different gender identities, sexual orientations, and ethnic backgrounds. While I was the only person of color in our friend group, I cherished the different experiences we brought to the table. I recounted my struggles accepting my culture while I heard the stories of my friends who were dealing with gender dysphoria. 

In the following years, I wholeheartedly applied this multifaceted outlook to my sense of community. I engaged with peers both different and similar to me; I found community at Indian festivals with my fellow South Asian peers and community with my closest friends with whom I can form strong emotional connections, despite our dissimilar backgrounds. 

This ever-growing sense of community has helped me thrive and will better help me engage within the student body at the University of Washington

As this student explores the struggle of finding community, their essay not only reads like a Diversity essay but also like an Overcoming Challenges essay . 

The main strength of this essay is the arc it presents. We learn about their background (moving around a lot) and we learn that community didn’t always come easy for them. The sentence “‘ Community’ felt like a bubble I was floating upon, inherently a part of yet never fully immersed” articulates their isolation particularly well. At the same time, this sentence shows their profound awareness of the true meaning of community. They understand that being a part of a formal group like a school organization, an ethnic group, or a sport does not necessarily mean one feels community.

As the essay progresses, the student comes to understand that community does not have to exist within any formal bounds at all. You can find community with people completely different from you. Through their reflection, this student clearly shows an understanding of the importance of diversity. Not only is this essay able to demonstrate the meaning of community to this student, but it also displays how diversity is an integral part of community, which is exactly what admissions officers want to see.  

The beginning of this essay is a little slow, so the whole essay would benefit from reordering it and changing the structure a bit. Essays tend to start off with an anecdote to hook the reader and then go into more elaboration. However, it takes a few sentences before this student gets to their anecdote. We learn about this student’s experience feeling part of (or isolated from) a community prior to middle school, but the essay isn’t overly engaging before the anecdote.

The anecdote livens up the essay and brings a renewed sense of excitement and engagement to the reader, so opening the essay with the story of getting invited to lunch would spur that interest from the beginning. After the quick anecdote, the student could explain why it was so meaningful to be invited to lunch and find a community at that table because they had felt that they were missing a community throughout middle school. Restructuring the essay like this would mean it wouldn’t be told chronologically, but a deeper emotional connection with the student, and interest in their story, would be established off the bat.

“Beta, food is ready,” Amma yells as I quickly traverse her words.  She made dosas and aloo curry, my favorite. I followed the strong, flavorful scent to the kitchen, the same place where I subsequently got serenaded by hymns sung by Amma.  I helped set up the table, decorated with a box of misplaced cheerios and a bowl of Gulab jamun Appa set out for us before he left for work.   I watched my brother go into the garden to collect one of our banana leaves, acting as plates for the eight guests arriving soon for lunch. The natural grassy smell that emanated from the leaves signaled Amma that guests would be coming soon. She laid out the dosas on the table and aloo in a bowl, exerting an ounce of pride from the squint of her eyes.  The aroma of dosas and aloo curry has followed my family for generations. Every generation that was taught the art of making a dosa assimilated a new idea, evolving my family’s South Indian cuisine. My appreciation of my community lies within its versatility for the continuation of traditions and beliefs, passing them down for generations to come.   Guests started coming in for lunch, holding their food, seasoned with the stories of their lives. Despite the incredible array of foods on the table, the box of cheerios remained in sight to the public. Like me, it didn’t align with the norms of its environment, but remained firm. Its bright yellow color pervaded, attracting many. However, it had its own stories and journey that couldn’t hold comparison to others. This “ambiguity” represents diversity within culture. Its multidimensional perspective allows for cuisine and culture to bring a multitude of stories together, creating a home for all, including me.

This essay exemplifies how to respond to the Diversity prompt, an essay archetype used by many colleges. Effective responses do just what this essay does, by describing both a culture and the applicant’s place within it. Especially successful essays convey important, relevant aspects of the community with quick yet evocative descriptions, like of the aloo curry and hymns, that also help readers get to know the applicant better. In this essay, we see their thoughtfulness, keen eye for detail, involvement with their family and community, and appreciation for their heritage. 

One more especially powerful aspect of this essay is the vivid, descriptive language. There’s the smell of curry, the sound of singing, and the visual of the bright yellow Cheerios box, all of which draw us into this student’s world with all five senses. In particular, the metaphor of the Cheerios box standing out in the midst of the home-cooked, traditional South Indian meal is unexpected and heartwarming, and helps ensure that this rich essay will make a strong impression on UW admissions officers.

Even in a strong essay like this one, there’s still room for improvement. One thing that would make this supplement more effective would be a bit more detail on the central metaphor of the Cheerios box. Why does the author align themselves with the American breakfast cereal, instead of the food being cooked by their grandmother? 

The description of the box as “not aligning with the norms of the environment” is compelling, but not supported by details about the applicant’s personality, or reflections on their identity. While metaphors are a crucial part of many college essays, you always want to be as explicit as possible about what a metaphor is saying about you, to ensure the admissions officer reading your essay fully understands your point.

Additionally, on a structural level, this essay would benefit from being split into two or even three paragraphs, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because one big block of text is a little rough on the eyes. Secondly, because breaking up your ideas ensures each one gets your reader’s full attention–at the end of each paragraph, they can reflect on the point you’ve just made before continuing on to the next one.

At my dining table, a silent war was being waged. Each side wielded glances, smirks, and snide remarks concealed under composed postures. The discomfort was palpable. Yet, newly eight-year-old me moved obliviously between my grandmas. To me, they were nearly the same person wh o loved me and, on this delightful occasion, had provided me with considerable compensation for lasting another year. 

My first call to battle came sitting in the passenger seat of my grandma, Judy’s Toyota. As we rolled through the hills of Idaho, she spoke to me about a recent election and her opinions on various healthcare issues. Moved from a place of deep sorrow, she described my Aunt’s struggle to obtain insurance due to a pre-existing condition. She suggested her solutions, and I listened attentively, curious about her ideas since I had yet to form my own.  

Months later, I found myself in a hammock under a sweeping eucalyptus, engaged in a similar discussion with my other grandma, Teresa. As a healthcare worker, she was very involved with the issue, yet her ideas fell completely opposite Judy’s. 

This was when I discovered the origin of the hushed hostility afflicting my family. 

The family I come from may seem divided with their vastly different views, but together, these women taught me the importance of being a listener. I learned that to understand an issue truly, you must first consider all thoughts and opinions, no matter how much you may disagree. The animosity I observed resulted from closed minds and echo chambers; from their discomfort, I’ve learned that progress can only be made through compromise and communication. At UW, I hope to contribute my distinct perspective on problem-solving alongside my engineering knowledge to collaborate with others through programs like Engineers Without Borders to create impactful solutions to universal problems. 

In this essay, which is another strong response to the “Diversity” prompt , the student does a great job of explaining how being around different opinions has shaped their own perspective, as well as capturing the role they play within their family. The response highlights what the student has learned not just about their grandmothers’ opinions, but about listening in general and forming opinions of their own.

This essay is also a good reminder that writing a strong response to this kind of prompt doesn’t require you to focus on a distinct culture–you can write effectively about aspects of your identity, like the conversations at your family dinner table, that aren’t typically associated with diversity. So long as your growth and character are at the center of the story, like they are for this student, the essay will do a great job of demonstrating who you are to the admissions committee. 

The other especially effective part of this essay is the end, where the author connects their theme to a specific program and future at UW. This detail goes above and beyond what the prompt asks for, to show admissions officers exactly how this student plans to participate in the University of Washington community. Although quick, this line drives home the relevance of this student’s skills and experience to UW’s values as an institution, which helps admissions officers picture them on campus.

While this kind of concrete connection to the school can take your essay to the next level, you want to be sure that you make the connection in a way that feels natural. The majority of your essay should focus on some aspect of your identity and what it reflects about your broader character–only mention something specific about the school if you have extra space, and it’s directly connected to what you’ve discussed. It’s always nice to have a cherry on top of an already strong essay, but ultimately the most important thing is always to answer what the prompt is actually asking.

What Could Be Improved 

Overall, this is a super strong essay, with very little to improve. The only thing that we would consider changing is the time periods the student chooses their examples from. While the anecdotes are strong and paint a vivid picture of a conflict that goes back years, stories from when the author was eight may seem less relevant to an admissions committee that is looking to admit that student ten years later. 

If you have a story that dates back to your childhood, you should weigh the benefits of starting at the very beginning of the story against the benefits of including anecdotes that show how you behave in that community now. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all rule here: simply be conscious about the choices you make with your essay, to ensure you communicate your key points as effectively as possible.

Prompt: Consider two very different subjects you have previously studied; tell us how you imagine bringing those together at UW to engage with a pressing societal concern. This could be a local, national, or global concern.

In my youth, my mother helped instill a curiosity about the natural world in me. Her work in consulting regarding climate change and environmental systems made me question my direct and indirect impact. I delved into these interests further in high school by taking broad coursework in the sciences. In AP Biology, I was baffled by the reactions and transformation that occurred with simple manipulation. In AP Environmental Science, I was able to apply these biological processes to environmental concepts I noticed on the daily.

In my junior year, I took AP Economics, a class on the polar opposite spectrum from biological and environmental sciences. However, while studying economics, I was able to establish connections between economic and environmental concepts. My father, who has a grounded education in economics, helped me understand the links between these seemingly disparate subjects. The subjects were foundationally interlinked; simple ideas coincided, such as the tragedy of the commons and its relation to marginal analysis. 

As I noticed these intersectional ties, I saw that addressing the impending climate crisis through an economic lens was necessary for implementable, impactful change. There were opportunities for the government to impact climate action— these included economic incentives and regulations to influence the market price, changing producer and consumer behavior to be environmentally friendly. These policies helped protect the welfare of not only the environment but also of individuals who are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. 

My interest in communication studies links to this; I hope to thoroughly understand these subjects in an interdisciplinary context to provide the means for others to do the same.

  At UW, particularly in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program, I hope to conjoin my interests in economic policy, science, and communications to gain the leverage and sound academic foundation necessary to address these concerns.

One of the best things this essay did was make use of a simple structure. This prompt asks for a lot from students: discuss two interests, identify the relationship between the two interests, show that the relationship relates to a pressing societal concern , and describe how you will engage with that concern at UW. While it is possible to answer all of these questions with a creative structure, this student’s use of a simple structure helped keep all of the parts of the essay organized. The essay followed the same format as the prompt: two paragraphs about their interests and relationship between them, a paragraph on a societal concern, and two final paragraphs on how they will tie everything together at UW.

Utilizing this structure allowed the student to fully establish both of their interests as unique entities before combining them. Going into detail on what excited them about environmental science and economics in the first place made their genuine love for the topics shine through. Also, including specific concepts like biological reactions and tragedy of the commons shows this student’s knowledge in these respective fields, in addition to their passion.

This student also does a good job of explaining the relationship they see between environmental sciences and economics. Explaining how they were “foundationally interlinked; simple ideas coincided” gives some insight into how this student thinks. We learn that they used logic to connect seemingly different topics that share common ideas. Establishing this logic-based link helps us understand how they devised solutions to address the pressing issue of the climate crisis in the third paragraph. The reader is left with the impression this student is genuinely fascinated by these two topics and has an interest in continuing to combine them in the future.

This student struggles with the transition to discussing their future goals. Since they devoted a large portion of their allotted word count to their interests in science and economics, they were left with very few words to discuss their interest in communication and how all three fields can be tied together. This leaves the essay feeling rushed and less genuine at the end.  

If they cut down on some words earlier in the essay—perhaps only mention their interest sparked from their coursework or their parents, rather than delving into detail on both—they could devote more space to their interest in communication studies later on. Then, this student could add more depth to the sentence “ My interest in communication studies links to this,”  by replacing it with something like:

“As I have seen the importance of science and economics for saving our planet, I have realized that interdisciplinarity is what will save the world. Disparate fields must join together for change to occur. I plan to join the inherently interdisciplinary communication studies program to show the world the importance of communication between disciplines.”

Do you want feedback on your University of Washington essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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WWU Honors College

A community of students who want to expand their college experience with an interdisciplinary focus.

Societatem Colimus Pro Scientiam Humanitus Enitentes

We cultivate community by striving compassionately for knowledge

Honors at Western

Since its founding in 1962, Western’s Honors College allows students to combine the best of a private liberal arts college experience (small classes, interaction with professors and other students, and the opportunity to work on research and creative activities with faculty) with the advantages of a much larger public institution, including a wide variety of majors, outstanding academic facilities, and numerous extra-curricular options.

The Honors College is structured in a way that provides a graduated, on-going experience for students as they engage in increasingly sophisticated work while moving through their Western degree. From captaining our national championship rowing team to editing newspapers to organizing our TEDx event, Western Honors students are campus leaders.

National Recognition

WWU Honors has received recognition as one of the very best in the nation. And, it’s part of Western Washington University, which earns national attention for the overall quality of undergraduate education (U.S. News and World Report, 1998-2021) and top value in public colleges ( Kiplinger’s, 2019 ). Western is also nationally recognized as a leading producer of Student Fulbright Scholars and Peace Corps volunteers, many of whom were WWU Honors Students.

Honors Highlights

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Learn more about Western's Honors College and observe first-hand what Honors classes are like.

Study Abroad with Honors in Greece

In the Honors Global Learning Class Cluster,  Democracy's Origin Story , your first term at WWU can include 2 weeks in Athens, Greece with Dr. Tristan Goldman, the Honors College Associate Director!

Spring 2024 Capstone Presentations

Mark your calendar for Spring Quarter Senior Capstone presentations! We have about  100 presentations . Spring presentations will be in person in Old Main 330 classrooms with a Zoom option. To arrange your virtual attendance at any presentation, please email  [email protected]  to request the Zoom link. All times listed are in Pacific Time.

Welcome Our New Director!

Dr. Kimberly Lynn has been chosen as the next Director of Western Washington University’s Honors College. Lynn will just need to move across campus for her new role; she is a professor of Global Humanities and Religions at Western, and that department’s chair since 2015. She will officially start her new role at Western on Aug. 19.

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Students admitted to the UW now have until June 1 to commit, a result of FAFSA delays. We anticipate that financial aid offers will be sent in late April or early May.

Transfer personal statement

All applicants must write a personal statement and submit it with the transfer application for admission. The personal statement should be a comprehensive narrative essay outlining significant aspects of your academic and personal history, particularly those that provide context for your academic achievements and educational choices. Quality of writing and depth of content contribute toward a meaningful and relevant personal statement.

You should address the following topics in your personal statement. Within each subtopic, such as Academic History, write only about what is meaningful to your life and experience. Do not feel compelled to address each and every question.

Required elements

Academic history.

• Tell us about your college career to date, describing your performance, educational path and choices.
• Explain any situations that may have had a significant positive or negative impact on your academic progress or curricular choices. If you transferred multiple times, had a significant break in your education or changed career paths, explain.
• What are the specific reasons you wish to leave your most recent college/university or program of study?

Your major & career goals

• Tell us about your intended major and career aspirations.
• Explain your plans to prepare for the major. What prerequisite courses do you expect to complete before transferring? What led you to choose this major? If you are still undecided, why? What type of career are you most likely to pursue after finishing your education?
• How will the UW help you attain your academic, career and personal goals?
• If you selected a competitive major, you have the option of selecting a second-choice major in the event you are not admitted to your first-choice major. Please address major or career goals for your second-choice major, if applicable.

Cultural Understanding

Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the University of Washington.

Optional elements (include if applicable)

Educational challenges/personal hardships.

Describe any personal or imposed challenges or hardships you have overcome in pursuing your education. For example: serious illness; disability; first generation in your family to attend college; significant financial hardship or responsibilities associated with balancing work, family and school.

Community or volunteer service

Describe your community or volunteer service, including leadership, awards or increased levels of responsibility.

Experiential learning

Describe your involvement in research, artistic endeavors and work (paid or volunteer) as it has contributed to your academic, career or personal goals.

Additional comments

Do you have a compelling academic or personal need to attend the Seattle campus of the UW at this time? Is there anything else you would like us to know?

Content, as well as form, spelling, grammar and punctuation, will be considered. Suggested length is 750-1000 words.

• Online application: You should write your statement first in a word processing program (such as Word) or a text editor, and then copy/paste it into the text box provided on the application. All line breaks remain. However, some formatting may be be lost, such as bold, italics and underlines. This will not affect the evaluation of your application.
• PDF application (spring applicants only): Type or write your statement on 8.5’’ x 11’’ white paper. Double-space your lines, and use only one side of each sheet. Print your name, the words “Personal Statement” and the date at the top of each page, and attach the pages to your application.

Tell us who you are

Share those aspects of your life that are not apparent from your transcripts. In providing the context for your academic achievements and choices, describe your passions and commitments, your goals, a personal challenge faced, a hardship overcome or the cultural awareness you’ve gained. Tell us your story. Be concise, but tell the whole story.

Be specific

Personal statements too often include sentences such as “I’ve always wanted to be a Husky” or “My whole family attended the UW.” Although this may be important to you personally, such reasons are not particularly valuable to the Admissions staff because they do not tell us anything distinctive about your experiences and ultimate goals.

Write like a college student

Your personal statement should reflect the experience and maturity of someone who has already attended college. It should reflect your understanding of the components of an undergraduate education, such as general education and the major. We want to read how, specifically, your academic and personal experiences fit into your academic, career and personal goals.

Keep in mind

• We want to know about your intended major and career aspirations, and we want to know your plan to get there.
• You have the option of selecting a second-choice major. If you do, be sure to address it in your personal statement.
• The UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values and viewpoints.

All writing in the application, including your essay/personal statement and short responses, must be your own work.  Do not use another writer’s work and do not use artificial intelligence software (ChatGPT, Bard, etc.) to assist or write your statement.

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History Awards Over $440,000 in Scholarships and Prizes

The Department of History is delighted to announce this year’s scholarship and prize recipients. Thanks to our dedicated and generous alumni and friends, we were able to award an impressive $440,000 to 41 undergraduate and 4 graduate students in recognition of their academic excellence and service. In addition to the student awards, members from our faculty and staff, as well as one Washington educator, were given special recognition for their outstanding service.

Undergraduate Awards

Maurice d. and lois m. schwartz scholarship.

Created in 1977 as one of the first endowed scholarships at the University of Washington, the Maurice D. and Lois M. Schwartz Scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic excellence and a commitment to the study of non-Western history. While a student at the University, Mr. Schwartz became fascinated with the Middle and Near East. In 1934, Professor Pollard, head of the Department of Oriental Studies, secured funds to support a promising undergraduate who would serve as a reader to him as well as attend to clerical tasks within the department. That student was Maurice Schwartz, and nobody could have imagined just how big that little investment would one day pay out. The Schwartz Fund has been a vital source of tuition support to the students of this department for many decades. Now, due to a final bequest from their estate, the impact of their generosity will be even stronger. This year, and going forward, we are able to give out the equivalent of 63 quarters of resident tuition, or essentially award an entire year of tuition to 21 resident students! We will forever be grateful for the generosity of Maurice and Lois, and it is an honor to present these awards in their name. Alec Benson, Kyle Clark, Brionna Dulay, Aidan Dveirin, Saul Gonzalez, Eleanor Hoffman, Katherine Hoffman, Clara Kehoe, Sophie Knight, Ellen Koselka, Heidi Longwell, Lauren McClintock, Sarah Newman, Tam Nguyen, Vee Nguyen, Moniva Pal, Tate Parker, Amber Pilgreen, Dakota Riley, Laurel Rovetta, Samuel Shepard, Harjot Singh, and  Maia Sullivan

James Bicknell Fund for Academic Travel

Established by Professor Emeritus Daniel C. Waugh in memory of his maternal great-grandfather, this fund provides travel aid for students studying the languages and cultures of Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Near and Middle East, and North Africa. Isaac Bronfine (Germany), Eleanor Hoffman (Poland), Olivia Tinettie (Slovenia)

Burke-Erickson Fund for Foreign Language Study

This award supports students in their study of the languages and cultures of the Middle East. Zinnia Hansen

Dale Roger Corkery Scholarship in History

Established in memory of UW alum Dale Roger Corkery, this fund honors his love of history by offering support to undergraduate history majors studying ancient history. Zinnia Hansen

Denison-Kernaghan Scholarship

Established in recognition of a friendship spanning over twenty years, it is the hope of this donor that the support provided by this fund will help students as they gain rich experiences through their education. 

Lauren McClintock

Faye Wilson Scholarship

This scholarship is made possible through the generosity of Faye Wilson, who directed that a portion of her estate be used by the UW Department of History to assist outstanding undergraduates with tuition costs. Tessa Chittendon , Selma Sukkary , and Katarina Vena

Freedman Remak Family Scholarship in History

Nancy (Freedman) and Ben Remak began this scholarship to assist history majors who face the high cost of non-resident tuition. Nancy herself had come to the UW from out of state and recognizes the financial burden such students face.   Emma Inwalson

Meder-Montgomery Family Student Support Fund in History

UW History alumna Marilyn Montgomery began this award to support undergraduate history majors in their studies.

Harjot Singh

Otis Pease Scholarship

Otis Pease was a professor and department chair of UW History. This scholarship honors his memory and provides tuition support to undergraduates pursing a major in history. Jacob Krell

Larry Lee Sleizer Scholarship

Herman and Rose Sleizer endowed this scholarship in memory of their son, Larry Lee Sleizer, with the hope that supporting many future generations of students would serve as a fitting memorial in his name.

Charlotte Bergevin, Brionna Dulay, Saul Gonzalez, Eleanor Hoffman, Cheyenne Jenkins, Jacob Krell, Heidi Longwell, Lauren McClintock, Natalie McLaughlin, Elliot Miller, Vee Nguyen, Moniva Pal, Tate Parker, Laurel Rovetta, and Harjot Singh

History Scholarship Fund Award

These funds are made possible through generous donations from our alumni and friends.

Maia Sullivan

John and Linda Ravage Prize 

This prize is given for an outstanding paper or project written on the history of African Americans, with a preference for African Americans in the American West. Nolan DeGarlais “Multiracial Labor Organizing and Community Building in Roslyn, Washington, 1888-1907” In this extensively researched, well-written, and tightly argued essay, DeGarlais presents a comparative study of two strikes in the coal-mining town of Roslyn, Washington: a failed 1888 strike by the Knights of Labor, a union comprising immigrant white workers, and a successful one by the United Mine Workers in 1904. As DeGarlais shows, the mine workers by 1904 were an integrated union, and in significant ways Roslyn had become culturally integrated as well. While Black miners were brought to Roslyn as strike breakers in 1888, they remained to guide the newly arrived Americans into the institutions of American life. Thus, in a period that saw the entrenchment of Jim Crow laws and the renewed rise of the Klan, Roslyn saw a diverse community make common cause. When better prospects led most Black workers to leave Roslyn, they were for the most part remembered by history only as strike breakers. DeGarlais has done the crucial work of history in uncovering and explaining a more complicated story. His work represents the best of our undergraduates’ scholarship, and the Department’s commitment to the careful study of race and labor in historical contexts. 

Thomas M. Power Prize for Excellence in History - Undergraduate Paper Prize

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This award acknowledges undergraduates who have produced outstanding research papers within a UW history course. Nicole Grabiel “’Nadie Ganaba’/ ‘Nobody Won’: El Salvador, Argentina, and the Transnational Roots of State Terror” Using primary and secondary sources in both Spanish and English, in this essay Grabiel argues for the influence of Argentina on El Salvador in the embrace of a policy of violent repression of political dissent in the late 1970s. Pointing to a moment of contingency when it was still possible for El Salvador’s ruling powers to engage with their left-wing opponents, the essay shows how a panoply of influences, from the advice of Argentine military attaches, offers of financial and technical support, and the promotion of Argentine policy as exemplary of political stability tipped the balance towards state terror and ultimately the deaths of more than 40,000 of El Salvador’s population of about four and a half million people. The essay draws extensively on newly-declassified Argentine chancery records as well as a mastery of primary and secondary sources. It draws on, and contributes to, a new Cold War historiography of Latin America, one which decenters the influence and demands of the United States to look for continental contributors. The paper exemplifies excellence in historical research and writing.  Selma Sukkary   honorable mention “One Strange Brew: a Look Back on San Francisco’s Psychedelic Art Movement” This essay exemplifies one of the most important attributes of good history: the ability to rediscover and explain the network of mutually-defining elements that constituted a relevant context at some time and place in the past. Here, the time is the mid-1960s and the place is San Francisco, home to a graphic tradition of posters celebrating the contemporary music scene. Sukkary appeals to histories of psychedelic substances, counterculture politics, art history, and abstract impressionism, literature, computing history and the San Francisco cultural scene, all flourishing briefly before the construction of a counter-counter-culture in the name of Cold War efficacy and conventional economic progress. Nicely balancing the cold rationality of historical argument and the evocation of alternate realities, this essay is fully deserving of recognition.

Thomas M. Power Prize for Excellence in History - Outstanding Graduating Senior

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This award acknowledges the superb work of graduating seniors within the history major. Nicole Grabiel   Nicole is an exceptional student, graduating with a 3.99 history GPA, 4.00 global and regional studies GPA, and 3.92 UW cumulative GPA.  Along with her sophisticated research abilities, Nicole has exhibited remarkable leadership, commitment to social justice, and language fluency in her extracurricular activities. Specifically, her advanced Spanish skills that led to her position at the UW’s Center for Human Rights. Nicole’s thesis adviser, Dr. Ileana Rodríguez-Silva, states, “The center regularly assists civil groups in Central America, especially El Salvador, in their judicial claims against state terror. Nicole is the only one at the center exclusively dedicated to Central American research tasks, labor central to rural communities’ claims for reparations and restitutions from the government.” 

History Department lecturer, Dr. Kyle Haddad-Fonda, has provided this stunning assessment of Nicole’s academic skills and achievements: “Nicole is the best student I’ve ever taught, at the UW or anywhere else. She is a force both inside the classroom and beyond it—a person who combines an impressive intellect with a remarkable ability to communicate and a sincere desire for her scholarship to promote justice, dignity, and respect. She’s also a kind and caring person who exemplifies the best of what this university has to offer.” Nicole has a grant to conduct research this year through the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.

Thomas M. Power Prize for Excellence in History - Outstanding Student Leader

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This award acknowledges a graduating history major or a history graduate student, for integrating the study of history with community and public engagement. It builds on the sense that many of our students are drawing on their studies to do important work beyond the classroom. Makenna Page Makenna serves as editor-in-chief of UW’s The Historical Review , our student-run undergraduate journal featuring writing and research in history. This journal was started several years ago, and Makenna has helped introduce new elements to The Historical Review . As Dr. Ileana Rodriguez- Silva wrote, “I have been impressed with their work with the history journal and the ways in which they are ushering in some changes and collaborating with students outside the department to bring other dimensions to historical thinking.” Some examples of these collaborations and changes include hosting writing workshops that encouraged students to hone their writing through feedback on pieces they were writing for submission to the journal; holding social events; pairing with UW Poetry Club to incorporate poetry into the journal; and this year’s Historical Review board is largest since its founding. Beyond Makenna’s work with The Historical Review , as an honors in history student, Makenna completed a thesis entitled, “Scotland’s Outer Hebrides: A Colonial Oxymoron.” As part of their research, Makenna was able to visit the archives in Scotland. During this archival visit, they found an incredible primary source, a letter, in an unexpected book while visiting the archives.

Dean’s Medalist Nominee

Each year, the College of Arts & Sciences chooses Dean’s Medalists to represent the College. These students are the top graduating seniors in each division and are nominated by their departments. Nicole Grabiel

Graduate Awards

Thomas m. power prize for excellence in history - graduate paper prize.

Established in memory of UW alumnus Thomas M. Power, the Excellence in History awards recognize exemplary scholarship in history and encourage study in the discipline. This prize is given to a graduate student who had produced a masterful research paper in a University of Washington history course.

Sierra Mondragón  “Belonging Possibilities: Santa Clara Pueblo Women Confronting Colonialism and Rethinking Sovereignty” This ambitious essay looks at the tensions between tribal sovereignty and Native identity among the Santa Clara Pueblo. Part of the essay studies the policy, established in 1939, by which tribal membership could descend through the patriarchal line but not through the matriarchal line, if only one parent was a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo. When this policy was challenged in federal court in 1978 on the grounds that it discriminated against women, it was upheld by the Supreme Court on the grounds of tribal sovereignty. The second part of the essay draws on a program of oral history interviews to establish what Mondragón refers to as “Belonging Possibilities,” that is, strategies for female empowerment and identity worked out within the community in order to make places for women within the community. This essay works on every level, thoroughly and creatively researched, imaginatively interpreted, sensitive to place and space, and respectfully engaged with the informants who emerge as partners in the process of collecting oral histories. Mondragón represents the best of what we hope for our graduate students in the Department of History. Ari Forsyth honorable mention “Problem Students at the New York School of Social Work” In this paper, Forsyth shows how various categories of “problem students” came to be defined at the beginning of the 1920s, and to be applied to trainee social workers who operated in the field as student-workers. Engaged in the business of establishing social work as a middle-class profession predominately for white women, setting those manifesting what were regarded as problems, such as other racial identities, physical characteristics and capabilities, language facility, or relative intelligence, outside the professional boundary undergoing construction. The essay cannily makes use of administrative records, rather than students’ personal files, and pays close attention to the minutiae of such office work. Here the differences between annotated drafts and final copies, and between handwritten and typed reports, or the peculiar status of informal minutes of informal conferences all bear weight in the argument. 

Thomas M. Power Prize for Excellence in History - Outstanding Teaching Assistant

Anandi Bandyopadhyay

Anandi Bandyopadhyay is a veteran teaching assistant in the department with experience teaching a variety of courses both in South Asian history (her own area of specialization) as well as U.S. and European history. One of Anandi’s recent faculty supervisors considered it her “good fortune” to have had Anandi as a TA and noted that she “greatly contributed much to the overall success of the course….I could not have asked for a better teaching partner.”  The faculty praised Anandi’s “superior skills” as a discussion leader, classroom manager and teacher, “Anandi does a fantastic job! She’s excellent at interacting with the undergrads. She works super hard. I am very grateful to have had her working with me!” 

Burke Prize in History

Named for former University of Washington Department of History faculty member and Pacific Northwest historian, Robert Burke, this prize is given to the graduate student deemed to have amassed the most meritorious record during the year in which they complete their MA in U.S. history.  Sierra Mondragón Sierra completed her MA in 2023 under the supervision of Professor Josh Reid. Sierra’s research focuses on the Pueblos and other Southwest peoples. Sierra’s MA seminar paper, “Indigenous Women and Everyday Negotiation and Resistance at Carlisle Indian School,” examined the experiences of Pueblo girls in the Indian boarding school system and how the schools impacted the students and their communities, as well as how these students were able to develop strategies to challenge and succeed within the boarding school system. For her PhD program, Sierra will continue to explore the themes of race and gender in Indigenous history, the legacy of colonial violence, Indigenous resistance and feminist activism, in particular Pueblo women’s efforts to shape, theorize, and historicize what it means to be a Pueblo woman within the overarching theme of Indigenous Belonging.

Department Awards

Thomas and cameron pressly prize for excellence in secondary education.

Named for UW History emeritus professor Thomas Pressly and his wife Cameron, this prize recognizes remarkable teaching of history and social studies at the high school level in the state of Washington. Nominations are made each year from undergraduate and graduate students through short essays describing the talents of their favorite high school history teacher. Mark Tomasetti, Camas High School Mr. Tomasetti has been teaching history at Camas High School for 24 years, even doing his student teaching there, as well. He has been named Camas Teacher of the Year twice and has frequently been chosen by the graduating seniors to speak at their ceremony. He established AP courses in both world and U.S. history, and he serves as the social sciences department chair as well. Mr. Tomasetti’s nomination for this award received enthusiastic endorsement from former students and from the leadership at Camas High School. 

William J. Rorabaugh Departmental Service Award

This award is named in memory of UW professor of history, William J. Rorabaugh, and it honors Bill’s incredible legacy and loyalty to the department. It is given each year to a student along with a staff or faculty member.

Oya Aktas Oya has been a leader since coming to the University in 2018. To name just a few of her accomplishments, she has served on the department’s Graduate Liaison Committee as well as the Diversity Committee, fulfilled the role of lead teaching assistant, and worked as a union representative. Oya is an advocate for fellow students, calling for health insurance and financial support for all. In her role as lead TA, her teaching and professional mentorship have been instrumental in the successful development of other graduate students’ pedagogical skills, and she has contributed to creating a culture of excitement and collaboration surrounding teaching and learning. Beyond her departmental service work, Oya has been a reliable source for institutional knowledge, as well as intellectual and emotional support, all of which has been indispensable to community building among graduate students. She has often attends and leads online meetings when away on research travel.  Bianca Dang Bianca is an amazing faculty member who has quickly made herself an integral part of the department since arriving in 2021. Bianca has served on a wide range of committees, including Diversity, Chair’s Advisory, Undergraduate Studies, and Digital History. Her dedicated and comprehensive labor on behalf of the community as an academic mentor and as a faculty member on the Diversity Committee has made a palpable impression on graduate students, faculty members, and staff. As an academic advisor, she displays excellence that exceeds expectations for faculty-student mentorship and demonstrates her commitment to service. Because of her obvious expertise as a researcher and instructor, her efforts to curate expertise to serve the needs of her students, and her refusal to turn down a student in need of academic mentorship, Bianca currently serves on multiple graduate students’ exam and dissertation committees and on many undergraduates’ thesis project committees. In this role, she goes out of her way to support the unique research interests of graduate and undergraduate students and to provide advice, resources, and encouragement at every stage of her students’ academic careers. Her concern for students goes beyond the formal academic world and demonstrates a commitment to shaping future academics, not only as competent scholars, but as capable community leaders and contributors to positive local change.  In the course of only three years, Bianca has established a unique reputation as an academic advisor who supports her students holistically, cultivating and guiding student research and professional career development while also prioritizing students' mental, emotional, and physical health and well-being. She does critical work to facilitate a collaborative and supportive culture within the History Department. Bianca is a wise and compassionate advocate, using her position to connect people with resources and to facilitate department-wide policies and conversations to make the History Department a safe community for all students, faculty, and staff. Bianca’s commitment to service, equity, and inclusion spans goes far beyond the campus and is evident in her volunteer and community-building work in the broader Seattle community. Her efforts make our department an inclusive space that promotes community well-being. Mark Weitzenkamp Not only is Mark an incredible undergraduate advisor, but he has dedicated tremendous amounts of time to the careful watch of Smith Hall. In his role as building coordinator (a volunteer position) Mark served as guardian to Smith Hall during the pandemic, and he continues to watch over the building. He is thoughtful, patient, and incredibly detail-oriented in his understanding of what should and shouldn’t be happening in the building. He attends to countless requests, opens doors, meets people, answers emails and phone calls, handling with grace the many interruptions to his regular workflow. History is so grateful for all his behind-the-scenes work to keep the building safe and functioning. Mark is also a gifted adviser, who guides students through our large university. He is a tireless advocate for students and uses his deep knowledge of university systems to help connect students with resources and solve any logistical problems. His love of learning and discussing history and student interests is evident. Beyond this, Mark is an amazing and helpful team player in all aspects of his work. We are so fortunate to have Mark on our advising and history team! Kum Cha (Tina) Vicente Tina has been Smith Hall’s marvelous custodian, who is retiring this year. She has served us all incredibly well without much recognition. With great pride, she goes the extra mile to ensure our spaces are clean, and she has done an incredible job. We all wish her the very best in her well-earned retirement—she will be missed.

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Getting Personal About Wilderness

Tisbe Rinehart is at home in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. At the UW, she has shared her love of the Northwest landscape as an outdoor educator and guide with UWild , including trips for first-year students starting their UW experience.

“At first, the students are so nervous about going to the UW,” says Rinehart, who will receive her BA with departmental honors in comparative history of ideas (CHID) this June. “By the end of a multi-day adventure trip, they have a friend group and feel more comfortable.”

Rinehart’s own introduction to the outdoors was less idyllic. As a high school sophomore, Rinehart was sent to a Wilderness Therapy program that was, ostensibly, a treatment for troubled teens. The experience was fraught for Rinehart, but it did wake in her an appreciation for the natural world.

It also inspired her senior thesis as a CHID major in the UW College of Arts & Sciences . Combining her Wilderness Therapy experience with extensive research on the Troubled Teen Industry , Rinehart wrote a novel — yes, a novel — about that industry for her thesis. She says the project, which brought together her past and present, has also helped prepare her for the future.

Adventures in the Woods of Washington

Raised in Los Gatos, California, near San Jose, Rinehart chose the UW in part because of its location. “I really liked how it is a beautiful campus that feels like its own city, but it’s in a major metropolitan area,” Rinehart says. “At the same time, national parks are super accessible.”

Rinehart signed up for a UWild trip for first-year students when she arrived on campus and quickly fell in love with the backcountry. She later became a UWild guide, leading one-day adventure trips during the academic year and multi-day trips for incoming first-year students during the summer. She also found time to serve as a UW tour guide with UW Admissions , leading campus tours for prospective students and their families.

Leading outdoor trips for new students has been her favorite role, with one caveat. “There are students five years younger than me now on those trips, and I don’t get any of their references,” Rinehart says, laughing. “It’s interesting how quickly you can feel socially irrelevant. It’s a very humbling experience.”

For the past year, Rinehart has served as student lead for UWild, handling permitting and training other UWild guides. In that role, she has prioritized introducing conversations about equity into the training, particularly related to the lands on which the UW groups hike and camp.

“I’ve focused a lot on the history and futurity of the Indigenous peoples of the Coast Salish Nations, she says. “I wanted to give context to what it means to be a mostly white staff, making money leading other students through Indigenous lands. We’ve discussed our responsibility as educators to address the settler colonial dynamics of being guides.”

No One Right Answer

Those sorts of conversations about identity and responsibility are familiar for Rinehart as a CHID major. The major prioritizes looking at intellectual problems from many perspectives.

“CHID is all about asking questions, encouraging curiosity, and community building,” says Rinehart. “There’s no one right answer, no one right way to get to a conclusion. That’s what I like about the humanities in general.”

There’s no one right answer, no one right way to get to a conclusion. That’s what I like about the humanities in general. Tisbe Rinehart BA, Comparative History of Ideas, 2024

All CHID majors complete a senior thesis, with guidance from a faculty mentor. Selecting a thesis topic was the hardest part for Rinehart.  “I remember being in my apartment with a giant concept map, and it just had two words — mental illness — at the center,” Rinehart says. “And from that, everything sprouted. I decided to focus on Wilderness Therapy because it was incredibly influential in my development in both positive and negative ways. It is a core part of my identity that I hadn’t explored. There was a lot of shame around it. It was something I wanted to claim and intellectually explore and make sense of.”

The book Rinehart wrote for her thesis, "Desert(ed) Destinies: Wilderness Therapy as Settler Colonial Violence,” is told through journal entries written by a fictional teen in wilderness therapy, interwoven with a bibliographic essay providing information about the Troubled Teen Industry and its connections to settler colonial violence. The project has helped Rinehart grapple with questions that have troubled her for years. More generally, it has helped her develop research skills that will last a lifetime.

“There’s so much research to be done in the humanities,” she says. “Being at an R-1 research university and partnering with a faculty member one-on-one for this research opportunity has been huge. The best part is that it gives you the tools to be a lifelong learner. I feel like the biggest gain from my thesis is knowing how to pursue what I’m interested in on my own.”

Starting New Traditions

With support from a Mary Gates Research Scholarship , copies of Rinehart’s book have been printed and shared with the UW community, including at the CHID Research Symposium. Now in its second year, the symposium was created — by Rinehart — as an opportunity for CHID students to present their theses to their peers. When Rinehart pitched the idea of a symposium to CHID faculty, they were immediately on board.

“We have CHID students who are just so brilliant and are exploring all these amazing topics,” Rinehart says. “It’s been exciting to have a place to share their research. My hope is the symposium will be a tradition now.” (Rinehart also presented her research at the University-wide Undergraduate Research Symposium .)

Rinehart’s leadership in establishing a symposium is just the latest project she’s taken on. She also started a UW chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy , a national student organization that works to end the war on drugs, with an emphasis on decriminalization and harm reduction. Among the UW group’s recent projects is a Narcan and Fentanyl test-strip program they started at Hall Health Center on the UW campus.

Looking back on her time at the UW, Rinehart appreciates the opportunities she’s had to pursue her passions, in and out of the classroom.

“The UW doesn’t hold your hand, but if you seek out opportunities, people will bend over backward to help you,” she says. “They want you to achieve your goals. That’s been my experience.”

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In a House Race in N.H., a Famous Spouse, and a Traumatic Pregnancy

Maggie Tamposi Goodlander, the wife of the national security adviser, is navigating a personal landscape with little precedent in her run for Congress in New Hampshire.

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By Lisa Lerer

Maggie Tamposi Goodlander gave birth to her stillborn son in a hotel bathtub on Easter.

Her fetus had been diagnosed with a fatal condition and had died in her womb. Doctors recommended a two-day procedure to remove him, with an overnight stay at a hotel near the hospital. If she went into labor, they feared, she could hemorrhage.

But getting an appointment took weeks. The procedure that Ms. Goodlander needed is also commonly used for abortions later in pregnancy. Doctors across the northeast were flooded with patients traveling north from states where abortion had been banned after the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Her surgery came just a day too late: Ms. Goodlander, 37, delivered the baby in 2023 at a hotel near the hospital, relying on her experience taking a hypnobirthing course on YouTube. The harrowing experience, she said, exposed her in a deeply personal way to the new reality of a post-Roe America and inspired her politically, helping fuel a desire to run for a House seat in her native New Hampshire to help fight for abortion rights.

But there was another remarkable element to her experience. The national security adviser to the president, Jake Sullivan, was there, too — in his unofficial capacity, as her husband.

As she enters the race for New Hampshire’s second district, Ms. Goodlander comes armed with a powerful story, an impeccable résumé and deep connections in Washington and New Hampshire. Yet as she campaigns across western New Hampshire, she will have to navigate a personal landscape with little precedent.

There are only a handful of examples of the spouse of a high-ranking official running for federal office, and none when that official has been at the center of one of the most divisive issues in global and domestic politics — the war in Gaza.

Ms. Goodlander, who is a decade younger than her husband, says the couple is used to navigating dueling professional obligations. The two met at a security conference in Munich during the Obama administration, when she was working for then-Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and he was working for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department.

More than a dozen years later, they are one of the most well-connected Democratic couples in government. While Mr. Sullivan served as a foreign policy adviser in two administrations, Ms. Goodlander worked as a White House adviser, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, a foreign policy adviser in the Senate and an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve.

Former President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton attended their 2015 wedding in New Haven, Conn., where Mrs. Clinton delivered a reading. (Mrs. Clinton fit the appearance in between East Coast fund-raisers for her presidential campaign.) Mr. Sullivan’s sister, brother and sister-in-law all work for the Biden administration.

More recently, Ms. Goodlander talked about running for office with several prominent Democratic lawmakers and with former President Barack Obama. Some of those private discussions were initiated by Mr. Sullivan, who asked the officials if they would be willing to offer advice to his wife, according to three people familiar with the conversations.

Those kinds of interactions are legal, experts said, as long as they are happening in Mr. Sullivan’s personal capacity, to avoid violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities while they are working.

“Nothing changes because his spouse happens to be running for federal office,” said Donald Sherman, the chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non- profit watchdog group. “His wife running for office is the kind of thing that makes the news but doesn’t change the legal obligations.”

Ms. Goodlander says her campaign will operate with the “highest ethical standards consistent with the law.” The couple met repeatedly with lawyers at the White House and the National Security Council to get detailed guidance on the Hatch Act before Ms. Goodlander began her campaign. She flatly rejected the suggestion that a donor to her campaign could be seeking to influence her husband — and the foreign policy of the administration.

“I’ve had my own career and I will continue to have my own career,” she said. “I can’t be bought and neither can Jake.”

But the optics of those lines can be tricky: Mr. Sullivan can, for example, attend a fund-raiser for his wife but is barred from asking for donations. He can wear a T-shirt supporting her campaign but not at the White House, his workplace. He can put a bumper sticker on his car — as long as the vehicle isn’t used for his official duties.

Mr. Sullivan is also immersed in an issue that has inflamed the Democratic base and taken over the campaign trail, as candidates across the country find themselves disrupted by protesters objecting to the administration’s support for Israel . When asked, Ms. Goodlander declined to offer any criticism of the Biden administration’s response to the war, saying she was “really proud” of her husband.

So far, Mr. Sullivan has remained a nearly invisible presence in Ms. Goodlander’s nascent campaign, only briefly appearing, smiling broadly at his wife, in a still shot included in her kickoff video. Last weekend, as Mr. Sullivan flew to the Middle East for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Ms. Goodlander mingled with voters at the St. Philip Greek Food Festival in Nashua and addressed an awards dinner hosted by the New Hampshire Young Democrats.

But their life in Washington has raised other questions, as well. In 2018, the couple bought a house in Portsmouth, N.H., a scenic seaside town located in the state’s other congressional district, and Ms. Goodlander began teaching law at the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College. After Mr. Biden won the White House, she returned to Washington to work in the Justice Department as a top official in the antitrust division.

Shortly before announcing her bid earlier this month, Ms. Goodlander rented a house in Nashua, N.H., the biggest city in the district she hopes to represent in Congress and where she was raised. Voting records show that she last cast a ballot in the district in 2008, when she was an undergraduate at Yale University and voted absentee.

Ms. Goodlander dismisses concerns about her residency by citing her deep family roots in the state. Her grandfather Samuel A. Tamposi was the state’s largest commercial real estate developer , a limited partner in the Boston Red Sox and a major Republican donor. Her mother, Betty Tamposi, served as a Republican legislator in the New Hampshire statehouse and ran for the same seat that Ms. Goodlander is trying to win. During that race, in 1988, Ms. Tamposi was criticized by Senator Gordon Humphrey , a New Hampshire Republican, for placing “political ambition ahead of the welfare of an infant,” a comment that referenced a young Ms. Goodlander.

“From my living room you can see the hospital where I was born and the shoe factory where my great-grandfather worked,” Ms. Goodlander said. “My family’s been here for over a hundred years, so this has always been our home. I left home to serve my country and I’m coming back home to do the same.”

But Ms. Goodlander will face two Democratic opponents in the Sept. 10 primary with far more recent involvement in New Hampshire politics — both of whom are running, like she is, with a heavy focus on fighting for abortion rights. One of them, State Senator Becky Whitley, a two-term legislator, was born in the district and returned to the state after law school to work as an environmental and disability rights lawyer.

Her other opponent, Colin Van Ostern, is a well-established political operator in the state who served two terms on the New Hampshire Executive Council and mounted a losing bid for governor in 2016. A California native, Mr. Van Ostern moved to New Hampshire in 2001 to work on Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s first Senate campaign and stayed. He’s been endorsed by Representative Ann McLane Kuster, the retiring Democratic lawmaker who holds the seat, as well as more than 300 other local officials and activists.

“Let me say it this way,” Mr. Van Ostern said, when asked about Ms. Goodlander’s residency. “I would not trade my grass roots support and a track record of real results for the people of this district over 20 years for anything. Not for any amount of money, for any amount of powerful connections.”

Some longtime New Hampshire political organizers doubt that Ms. Goodlander’s time in Washington will be a major issue for voters in the state.

“Her grandfather just about built Nashua — even though he’s a Republican, he did a lot of good things for New Hampshire,” said William Shaheen, a longtime New Hampshire Democratic activist who is married to the state’s senior senator, Ms. Shaheen. “She’s a New Hampshire girl.”

Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades. More about Lisa Lerer

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race: News and Analysis

President Biden’s campaign released a new advertisement aimed at Black voters . It comes as Donald Trump railed against Biden and the migrant crisis at a rally in the Bronx , the latest in a series of stops campaigning in New York City  in a push to win his home state.

Trump has baselessly and publicly cast doubt about the fairness  of the 2024 election about once a day, on average, a significant escalation since he announced his candidacy for president.

A state dinner held in honor of Kenya, with Barack Obama as a surprise guest , was more about keeping Democratic allies close as campaign season intensifies. Here is the full guest list .

Trump praised Nikki Haley , once his bitter rival for the Republican nomination, a day after she said that she would vote for him , opening the door to bringing Haley into his circle.

Special Legislative Session:  Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio has called a special session to resolve an issue  that would prevent Biden from being placed on the November ballot there.

Protest Zone Clash:  The Republican National Committee, alarmed by what it sees as a significantly worsening security threat, asked that the director of the Secret Service intervene  and move a designated protest zone farther away at an upcoming convention.

A.I.’s Role:  The era of A.I. has officially arrived on the campaign trail. But so far, the political uses of the much-anticipated, and feared, technology are more theoretical than transformational .

Admitted? Confirm Your Enrollment by June 1

Let us know you’re #WWUBound by accepting your offer of admission for fall 2024 by the June 1 confirmation deadline. Have Questions? We’re here to help!

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There's a lot going on. Let us help.

We're here for you, first-year applicants must meet the state of washington’s minimum college admission standards:.

• A cumulative GPA of 2.00
• Completion of courses that meet the College Academic Distribution Requirements ( CADRs )

Recommended High School Curriculum 

* During the senior year of high school, students must earn a credit in a math-based quantitative course. Completion of higher-level math (e.g., pre-calculus, math analysis or calculus) prior to the senior year exempts students from the senior year quantitative course requirement.

Advanced Coursework and College Credit

Applicants are encouraged to pursue academic coursework and advanced study beyond the minimum course requirements. Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge International, Running Start or other College in the High School, honors courses, and even a full load of standard academic courses can provide an excellent foundation for a successful college experience.

Coursework beyond the minimum requirements is encouraged. The following can provide an excellent foundation for a successful college experience:

• Running Start or other College in the High School
• Advanced Placement (AP)
• International Baccalaureate (IB)
• Cambridge International
• Honors courses