<p>Hi,</p>
<p>My son has applied to UW and listed computer science and computer engineering on his application. His essays were strong. He spent weeks on them and I reviewed them. He got into WSU honors.</p>
<p>2 years of running start gpa - 3.8
SAT of 1780
Is taking Calculus 1 this quarter
Could not get into Physics due to class fill up, but will have 3 rs lab sciences 2 bio & 1 chemistry
Computer Science AP test - 3</p>
<p>(He doesn't seem to be a good standardized tester, but does great on class tests.)</p>
<p>Activities: Boy Scouts 9, 10, 11, 12; High School Soccer Team 10; Captain of YMCA Soccer Team 9, 10; Youth Group Leader 11, 12; Baseball Assistant Coach 10, 11; Thurston County Food Bank Volunteer 9, 10, 11, AP Computer Class Representative 10, 11, </p>
<p>Awards: Presidents Academic Excellence Award, Vice-Presidents List, Eagle Scout, Elected Order of Arrow, Most Employable Student at New Market High School Computer Science, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society</p>
<p>He has worked 20-25 hours a week since he turned 16 and has been a crew trainer. He is now in training to be a crew leader at his current job. </p>
<p>Let me know if you need any more information. He is a great writer and speaker. I'm trying to keep him away from this board so he doesn't fret. UW is his first choice.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>For clarification, is the GPA listed weighted or unweighted? UW only looks at the unweighted gpa</p>
<p>It is unweighted. Running start does not give weighted gpas.</p>
<p>Your son almost perfectly matches up with the average stats for the Freshman Class of Autumn 2011 – roughly a 3.78 GPA, 1790/1800 SAT
‘<a href=“http://admit.washington.edu/QuickFacts#achievement”>http://admit.washington.edu/QuickFacts#achievement</a>’</p>
<p>Your son has a good chance, I don’t think he will be offered direct admission into CSE though.</p>
<p>Congratulations on his other acceptances, and good luck to him.</p>
<p>Thanks embracetherain,</p>
<p>What do you think would hold him back from direct entry to cse?</p>
<p>His running start community college credits are heavy in math & lab sciences, plus he has taken multiple computer programming courses and scored As.</p>
<p>Is it specifically his SAT holding him back from direct entry? I’m concerned. I don’t want him to attend UW and not get into his desired major. He is definite that he is attending UW if accepted. </p>
<p>Do you know the stats for freshman direct entry cse? Thanks. :)</p>
<p>I’m a direct admit CSE student. I actually think your son will be considered “competitive” for direct admission because of his calc/physics background. They are looking for potential for the student to grow and love the field. </p>
<p>Here’s a blurb from the CSE admissions site:
Direct Admission (Autumn Quarter only)
The UW Department of Computer Science & Engineering enrolls up to 25% of its incoming class directly out of high school. Freshmen applicants to the University of Washington listing Computer Science or Computer Engineering as their intended major will automatically be considered. Competitive applicants will have taken or be taking calculus. Physics is the preferred high school laboratory science course.
Source: [CSE</a> Admission Requirements](<a href=“http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/admit/programapply.html]CSE”>http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/admit/programapply.html)</p>
<p>However, the truth is that a lot of incoming freshman apply to UW with an intended major of CS or CE. The department generally takes 30 or so freshmen as direct admit (total for each graduating year is 160 students). For the class of 2014 (Fall 2010 admit), the advisers said that almost 1000 freshmen applied with intention to join the CSE department, and every year, the number is growing. That’s about 3% acceptance into the direct admit program.</p>
<p>On CS backgrounds: Programming classes are recommended but several direct admit students every year have never touched any programming before. Some students have also interned at Microsoft through their high school program and not been accepted as a direct admit.</p>
<p>On what is holding back your son: I don’t know. Only the admissions committee (advisers and some professors, I believe?) will be able to tell. They make admissions decisions that sometimes baffle students, although we are only told stats like GPA and we haven’t seen applicants’ personal statements to fully make some sort of a judgement ourselves.</p>
<p>Thanks, speedsolver. Only 3% get in direct entry. Yikes. That is good to know I guess. </p>
<p>What kind of stats did you have? What do you think you did to get direct entry?</p>
<p>No problem. </p>
<p>I had a 33 ACT score, about 2100 SAT. 3.94ish(?) unweighted GPA. No running start, but 8 honors/7 AP courses, concentrated on Sciences/Math, as well as AP CS A (AB was discontinued). </p>
<p>In state; went to a school in Seattle. Extra curricular activities included sports, church, volunteer work, and lots of involvement with 2 clubs - a cultural club and a chess team. My essays were on how my parents’ backgrounds inspired me to pursue a field (I was originally planning on a pre-med track while majoring in CS) where I can directly positively impact the lives of people, either in person or through developing software or something like that …</p>
<p>I was actually surprised I got direct admit; my parents also thought I was joking (at the time, we assumed that industry experience, personal projects would give you an edge). Since I have no idea what the other people wrote about in their essays/extra currics, I can’t say how the narrowed down list of people (including wait listed direct admits) were ranked. However, I think I showed a lot of passion and commitment as well as interest in the field through my application, which probably helped as a unique identifier past just my test scores and grades.</p>
<p>All the best to your son!</p>
<p>Thanks! Did you receive notification of direct entry at the same time you received your acceptance letter?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>I was accepted mid-December into UW, Honors program mid-January, and then CSE in March or April. This was back before the “Everybody gets letters March 15-30” system.</p>
<p>That made sense to me since the CSE department will consider all the students who will be accepted as potential direct admit candidates. The CSE department can really get rolling on looking through the very competitive applicants depending on when the UW general admissions department finishes up all of the intended CS/CE students’ applications.</p>
<p>Thanks. I really dislike this late notice admissions process. Waiting until the end of March seems like a bit much.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree. I would have probably gone crazy if my year had this process. :</p>
<p>My daughter is also a running start student who is hoping for direct admission to the computer science department at UW. I think the waiting is harder for me than for her.
I guess we will all know the answers by the end of the month.</p>
<p>Same here, emmapet. I’m glad my son is keeping busy with school and work. I have a countdown on my iphone for March 15, although it looks like it may take til March 16 for mail to get to people.</p>
<p>Hugs for everyone! <3</p>
<p>Good luck to your son! I am waiting to hear back as well (and 4 other schools!) so I share the anxiety!</p>
<p>Thank you! Good luck to you, too!</p>
<p>"I have a countdown on my iphone for March 15, although it looks like it may take til March 16 for mail to get to people. "</p>
<p>Remember March 15-30, so if it doesn’t come on the 15/16 there will be more waiting but it will come one way or another</p>
<p>Do you think I have a chance for admission at UW?
I am out-of-state applying for Mechanical Engineering.
I have a 3.6 GPA with a 31 composite ACT/ 34 Math score.
I was a leader on my water polo team. We won our section championship and were the number 1 team in norcal. I am an academic all-american and did that NHS stuff at my school. Ive had a job for 3 years. Im dyslexic and have gotten C’s in spanish for 3 years and struggled in english as well. I talked about this in my essay. I got accepted to UMichigan and UT-Austin but im anxious to hear from UW. What do you think my chances are?</p>
<p>just a few more days. 3% admit rate :-(</p>