Washington: The Big Picture
The campus is absolutely gorgeous. Some people might think that this is a superficial quality that doesn't deserve much attention, but this seems to be said mainly by people who go to schools with heinously ugly campuses (like USC, for example). Some might say that the school is too large, but I've never had a problem with class sizes or advisors being unavailable. There are so many resources at the school and there aren't really too many people helping you out to find them, but if you sit down with an advisor, you'll probably be blown away by how much you didn't know was available to you.
One thing I would change is the requisites for some of the VLPA courses (specifically art and music). I used to be quite an avid drawer and am a self-taught musician, but since my major is neither Art nor Music the classes available to me are very, very limited. This is unfortunate, but I recognize that they have limited funding so they have to keep the classes open to students within those majors. Still, it's frustrating.
Washington Academic Life
Since I am an English major, my classes tend to be very small (my thesis class this quarter, although not typical at the university) has nine people in it. In my experience, English majors tend to be the most likely to love their major and therefore bring it home with them, so to speak. Not too many engineers or biochem majors read that stuff in their spare, whereas if you are an English major and not reading for pleasure, you are in the wrong department.
Washington's Student Body
UW is pretty diverse, although there really are few black or hispanic students. The biggest international student minority groups are Asian (Korean and Japanese for the most part), but they tend to keep to themselves. That being said, there are still a ton of really ignorant, uneducated people, but you would get that anywhere.
Washington Student Activities + Social Life
Social life is pretty great, although it can get dominated by the frat scene. There's a lot of drama, too, and in the U-District (where the school is located) you can always count on crime, mostly petty, and unsavory characters stirring up trouble. Honestly, if I wasn't graduating this quarter, I would move to another area of town because the U-District is being overrun by homeless people, Ave rats (kids who don't work and ask you for weed), and meth heads. Not my cup of tea. And the cops are usually dickheads.
Washington Naked Truth
The English department has this requirements list that you have to meet to graduate from that department. While this is fine (and necessary), it's so silly to force students to take so many credits outside their major (90 credits). Being well-rounded is one thing, but I would rather be really focused and educated in my chosen field than take random natural world credits that don't allow me to delve very deeply into anything. Also, you have to take so many non-literature classes (theories and methodologies, criticism, blah blah) and most teachers in the English department do not have the faintest clue how to teach these subjects. As a result, I've taken a lot of BS theory classes at the expense of literature classes. Getting through the English major without reading ANY Faulkner, Hemingway, Conrad, Austen, Camus, Hawthorne, Melville (and on and on) ought to be criminal! In their place, I've developed a strong distaste for Barthes, Miller, Bahktin, and other long-winded and esoteric theorists!
