The way the mop flops

clipped from seattletimes.nwsource.com University of Washington rejects a record number of applicants Any other year, Matt Sims probably would have been a shoo-in for the University of Washington. The 17-year-old is an Eagle Scout and has lettered three times for the Mercer Island High School swim team. This year, he received an "A" in his Advanced Placement physics class and reached the summit of Mount Rainier. He scored a combined 1,280 on the SAT critical reading and math, far above the national average. If there was a weak spot on his application, it was his 3.5 grade-point average. But with a record 20,000 freshman applications to the UW's Seattle campus, Sims was among the nearly 8,000 students who were not accepted. He was offered a spot on the wait list, but he has opted to attend Washington State University come fall.