University of Washington-Seattle Campus Top Questions

Diversity is a hot topic on campus, and the school tries to provide a safe and secure place for all people to be who they wanna be. No race, religion, gender, or sexuality preference is discriminated against, instead its almost celebrated to be different. I think thats probably the reason that people look at our student population as a bunch of liberal hipsters. It's just fine to go against the grain of society at UW. Another common UW stereotype is that its a foreigners school. Our school focuses on providing a high quality education, and in the rough times they have decided to take many more foreign born students in order to reap the benefits of their higher tuition rates. I can't argue with this stereotype, the UW has a noticeable foreign born population on campus, evidenced by the many cultural fraternities, organizations, class offerings and clubs on campus. I must however comment that the school remains a great place for anybody, and that the selection of food in the area is incredible!

Asian, green, liberal Starbucks-dwellers. These stereotypes also work for Seattleans. As all stereotypes are fundamentally based off of some amount of truth, these stereotypes do represent a number of people here, but are highly inaccurate for many others.

Students at the University of Washington are often labeled in the classic stereotype models: jocks and nerds. The ever present theme of school pride, publicized sports, and Greek Row (home to the university's fraternities and sororities) label UW students as preppy jocks. Students who are sports crazed, late night partiers, decked in school colors of purple & gold are countered with the alternative stereotype of preppy academics. Nerds who focus in fields of science and math, develop research, and are often from international backgrounds. Glasses, sweaters, and business casual wear are also included in the time old geek stereotype. These contrasting images, though classic in their representation of timeless high school archetypes, are not largely accurate about the University of Washington. Though there is a strong Frat foundation, a deep rooted passion for sports and a active nightlife. Alongside a dual community of top ranked academics, competitive research programs and high academic standards. That is not all that there is to the UW. It is a diverse student body with a broad range of academic and extracurricular programs. The students that attend this school are representative of it's multifaceted attributes. Never one thing and especially never at once, University of Washington students do not fit a specific mold because they encompass, break, and create new identities completely unique in themselves.

To be honest I'm not 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} percent sure of the stereotypes that people have of UW. I think the UW is awesome though! I was a little worried about the class size being large, but honestly the way the courses are structured and all the resources you have available to you makes you forget that you're in a class of 700 other students. The environment is great here, the opportunities are large and there is so much diversity that everyone is bound to find a group of people they get along with.

Before I went to my school, the stereotype I heard most often associated with it was "nerds." In my math class in high school, these two guys in my class were discussing possible colleges and one of them brought up my school and the other responded by saying that it was a school "full of nerds." While this isn't a bad stereotype by any means, I find this inaccurate. Since going there, I haven't came across anyone who seems more "nerdy" than someone in high school. I think the collection of students at my college doesn't really differ than the ones that I went to high school with. People are more serious and less joking takes place, but there are people from all walks of life that go to my school and everyone acts pretty average. Also, when you factor in the enormous amount of "school pride" that exists at things like football games, it is hard to try to fit the students in the nerd stereotype still since people are actively participating in the jock culture as well. Because my college has over 40,000 students, I think it is hard to try to label the students as a whole just because there are way to many to try to stereotype with only one word. Instead of labeling the majority of the students as nerdy, I would probably say that the stereotype is that the students are smart. I think this is very much true since my college is one that is serious about academics and a highly ranked school. The students here seem to take learning more seriously than other schools so I think we should pridefully accept the "nerdy" stereotype since it really just means that students are smart.

These stereotypes also work for Seattleans.

Honestly, the main stereotype that is readily heard and said by current and interested students at the University of Washington (Seattle campus) mostly concerns race. Asians, are readily seen "everywhere". This stereotype is true in my opinion, as I myself belong to that racial group. There are a lot of Asian-American's on campus. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing. Though there may be a lot of Asians, I'm positive that it doesn't have a negative impact on our diverse community and most will find that the Asian community is relatively "chill". Beside the Asian-domination, the recent all-campus ban on smoking has, I suppose, deterred people from saying that the UW is a smoking community, even though I didn't believe that to be true before the ban. There are also the usual stereotypes about frats and sororities, where you go, get drunk, and get "laid", but those are not true, as plenty of my friends are in those frats and they do plenty of fundraising, volunteering, and honestly, they seem to be doing very well in their academic life as well as their social life. You can't escape stereotypes at UW but they are no way going to be negative to your experience at the University of Washington.

Honestly, the main stereotype that is readily heard and said by current and interested students at the University of Washington (Seattle campus) mostly concerns race. Asians, are readily seen "everywhere". This stereotype is true in my opinion, as I myself belong to that racial group. There are a lot of Asian-American's on campus. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing. Though there may be a lot of Asians, I'm positive that it doesn't have a negative impact on our diverse community and most will find that the Asian community is relatively "chill". Beside the Asian-domination, the recent all-campus ban on smoking has, I suppose, deterred people from saying that the UW is a smoking community, even though I didn't believe that to be true before the ban. There are also the usual stereotypes about frats and sororities, where you go, get drunk, and get "laid", but those are not true, as plenty of my friends are in those frats and they do plenty of fundraising, volunteering, and honestly, they seem to be doing very well in their academic life as well as their social life. You can't escape stereotypes at UW but they are no way going to be negative to your experience at the University of Washington.

A stereotype at the University of Washington is that the school overflows with book-worm Asians who lack social skills. But clearly, this is not true at all. UW has an eclectic mix of students ranging from all different genders, races, and backgrounds. Through my experience at the school, I have met people from all over the world from Kenya to Russia right back to my home town of Seattle. Of course, there are Asians at UW just like there are other ethnicities, which creates an environment filled with diversity. It was not until I came to UW that I learned "Wow, there are so many different kinds of people!" Peeking from behind the doors of my small private school education, I came to the realization that I was clearly in a new world. But I loved it. I learned that inside of my big school lies a smaller community that is not phased by these stereotypes about people's skin color or cultural background but who they are as a person. For a person considering applying to UW I would say don't be worried about stereotypes, because this one likes many others is is based off of silly assumptions that do not apply to the school or the character of people that go here.

Everyone assumes that the students who attend the University of Washington in Seattle are the generic Pacific Northwest hipsters. While this may hold true, we have our fair share of other steroetypes: the ugg-clad lululemon wearing sorority girls, the socked and sandaled frat boy as well as the English-learning international student. That being said, it doesn't matter what you are, because Seattle-ites are crazy friendly, just don't poke anyone with your umbrella.

At the University of Washington, while we strive to be a diverse community, with the steadily growing number of international and out-of-state students, it's a common joke that the Asian population is the true majority, while everyone else, white people included, are a part of the minority. It's just as common to hear Korean or Chinese as it is English, and rice is a staple at every major food center on campus. Most of the international students want to become engineers or doctors, dominating organic chemistry and biology classes, thereby ruining the curve for everyone else! Asian students are also known for stinking up the dorm kitchenettes, frying up smelly fish and not wiping up the microwave after their kimchi noodle bowls explode in the microwave. Regardless, while some of their habits annoy the American students, we usually tend to agree that the money they bring in with their hiked up tuition payments is worth it. In addition to Asian students, UW has a large Greek community, and for those of us who are non-Greek members, stereotypes tend to run rampant: frat guys are grabby, drunk perverts who start pre-funking for a 7:30 PM football game at 8:00 AM. Sorority girls are no better; party girls who wear slutty outfits Thursday-Saturday nights and sleep with frat guys, intoxicated or not. Rush is rumored to be the most socially cutthroat and cruel experience a shy freshman can experience (a la the movie "Mean Girls"), with outrageous rules like no talking to boys AT ALL during rush, not even casually. At times, I tend to forget that the Greek community is a part of the UW community unless it's a football game because they tend to isolate themselves on Greek row so much. Also, on the UW campus, it's incredibly easy to spot a Greek member: for the boys, they wear crewneck sweatshirts, baseball caps, basketball shorts, and socks with Nike slippers. For the girls, it's a crewneck sweatshirt, with lululemon yoga pants tucked into uggs, and their hair is always pulled back with a headband. It's stereotypical, but sadly, kind of true.

It is a common mistake made by beginning University of Washington students to respond with smiles, compliments, and cries of 'good wishes!' to their classmates' declaration of 'I want to be a doctor/dentist.' Save your energy. There will be a never ending supply of such proclamations to give and one could be in danger of turning quite bitter after you hear your 19th 'well, you know, a doctor or something. I want to help people.'

It is a common mistake made by beginning University of Washington students to respond with smiles, compliments, and cries of 'good wishes!' to their classmates' declaration of 'I want to be a doctor/dentist.' Save your energy. There will be a never ending supply of such proclamations to give and one could be in danger of turning quite bitter after you hear your 19th 'well, you know, a doctor or something. I want to help people.'

is everyman or any woman! That seems like a cop-out as far as an answer, but any student at UW could tell you: the stereotype for a UW student is that they could be absolutely any one of a cliched category of person, or escape a label altogether. The University of Washington is like a small city, and you will meet as many types of people as you would in any city. There is a thriving Greek system, which supplies what some would call the "fratty boys" and "sorority sisters", pockets of intensely academic undergraduates in their varying fields, music enthusiasts, art kids, punks, new-age hippies, the fashion conscious, classic Seattlelites head to toe in rain gear and practical footwear, and regular kids looking to make friends of all types. The advantage of UW's large student body really shows when trying to find a dominant stereotype for it's students - you can't pick just one!

Because our school is so large, I can't say that one stereotype exists for the student body. However, people say that we are a party school.

This statement isn't true because the student body is made up of so many different races and ethnicity. At UW, I was able to become friends with people from small towns in Bellingham, exchange students from Russia and Europe, immigrants from Nigeria and Ghana, and wonderful people from all over the world. It's an amazing opportunity to be in such a diverse and culturally-rich place.

The UW is so big and well known for its programs and research in many different fields that there's just too many people to be able to classify any stereotypes.

Yep - there are a lot of international students that come to the UW's Seattle campus, especially from China, Korea, Japan, etc. There is a very large percentage of Asian students that study here.

Lots of Asians Commuters Lots of Frat kids Liberal

UW > WSU Seriously though, UW has a reputation for having smart students. This is true, many students are highly motivated and very smart. However, you'll always find people that slack off just enough to get by.