Junior players who may be reading:
Here is a handy little site for comparing colleges, based on SAT scores of admitted students. The first chart is for the Ivies:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/sat_side_x_side.htm
Then they have a chart for "Top Universities", presumably as rigorous, or maybe a little less so than the Ivies
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/sat-top-universities.htm
They also have charts for Top Liberal Arts, Top Engineering, More Top Liberal Arts, and Top Public Universities. No mention of U Washington yet. You have to go to "More SAT Charts"> "22 More Public Universities" to see UW.
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/SAT-More-Public-Universities.htm
According to this site UW is in an academic league based on SAT scores with...maybe slightly lower than.... schools such as Clemson, Binghamton, Pitt, Ohio State, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas.
U Washington is a fine school.
Juniors who may be reading this can make their own judgments whether it is "prestigious"....within the Pac-12 and nationally. Within the Pac-12, seems Stanford, Berkeley, USC, and UCLA have higher SAT scores, and Washington is below that.