<p>Is it possible to double major in CS and BioE and graduate within four years or is it a logisitical nightmare? I was directly admitted into the CS program but I'm still really interested in some sort of engineering (BioE, maybe EE or ChemE) and I want to double major in those two.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know about the 5 year BS/MS program for CSE?</p>
<p>First, congrats on being a direct admit! Please join us in the direct admit welcome later this month (you’ll get info about that if not already). You can probably get a lot of questions answered by former direct admit students. :)</p>
<p>How many credits are you going in with? Would you consider CE + BioE as opposed to CS + BioE? CE/BioE are both in the College of Engineering, so you’ll have more overlapping credits for graduation requirements for both majors. </p>
<p>Also, there’s a difference between being a double major and double degree. Double major means both the majors are within the same “college” (ie. College of Arts and Sciences), whereas double degree means you’re in two colleges (ie. College of Engineering + College of Arts and Sciences). As a double degree, you automatically are assumed to graduate in 5 years rather than 4, though depending on your course choices, how many credits you come in with, etc, 4 years double degree is doable.</p>
<p>What do you want to know about (more specifically) about the BS/MS program? It’s catered towards students who were admitted to CSE late (junior, senior years), though direct admits (or people who were accepted early freshman year) have definitely joined the program.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely try to make DA Day!</p>
<p>And as of now I have 84 credits according to UW’s website. I have 6 other AP tests to take this year though. </p>
<p>And thank you for the clarification about the double degree/major thing :o I had no idea about the distinction. I guess I’ll have to revaluate my plans about CS/CE. Does the Direct Admit let me choose between the two? Because I think I put CS for my intended major on the application.</p>
<p>I’m also in the honors program, I’m not sure if that changes anything ?</p>
<p>I guess for the BS/MS program, is it useful/practical to get a MS right away rather than after working a few years? And if it’s geared towards people who got into the CSE program late, what is the common path taken by those who were direct/early admits?</p>
<p>Thank you for your help :)</p>
<p>>84 credits… 6 other AP tests to take this year
Okay, so basically this means you’ll be good to go in terms of general education (+maths/sciences depending on what you’re taking). I’d look carefully at the course load, but you can definitely finish both CS/CE and BioE in 4 years. Some people finish CS/CE within 2 years because they came in with so many AP/IB credits.</p>
<p>> Does the Direct Admit let me choose between the two? Because I think I put CS for my intended major on the application.
Feel free to tell the advisors that you want to switch between CS and CE - no need to rush on this. You should also talk to them about what would work best for you - CS or CE. I actually put down intended CE and switched to CS in the middle of my freshman year. 
</p>
<p>>I’m also in the honors program, I’m not sure if that changes anything?
Ooh. This is another thing you want to think about. Honors requires you to take their interdisciplinary courses instead of Areas of Knowledge, which basically renders most of your AP credits useless. I actually dropped Honors after two years because it was too much work to keep track of and in the long run … it won’t help me, personally. Depending on your future plans, you might want to stay in Honors.</p>
<p>>Is it useful/practical to get a MS right away rather than after working a few years?
This depends. You might not know now, but you’ll have to figure out what you want to do after you graduate. Work at a company? Start a company? Academia? Research? A MS degree (or PhD, if you’re thinking about it) can help you if you want to specialize in something. Students will choose their graduate school based on the specific professor they would be doing research with. </p>
<p>The cool thing about UW’s 5 year BS/MS program is that you don’t have to declare that you want to specialize in, say, distributed systems. At the same time, a year of working basically puts you at the same level/position as those who finish the BS/MS program in terms of ‘entry level’ … so it’s more like, do you want to work a year, or take more classes? Some people drop out of the BS/MS program to join a company that gives them an offer they just can’t refuse, so you’re not strictly tied to the school and UW CSE won’t hate you for changing your mind halfway through the year. However, spaces are very competitive in the 5 year BS/MS program, so some people might be miffed at it. Do whatever is best for you, though.</p>
<p>>What is the common path taken by those who were direct/early admits?
We don’t really have a common path. I’ll actually just answer this question as “the common path taken by those in the cse department,” since it’s pretty similar (BS/MS program only takes, what, 8-12 people a year?). UW’s CSE department is full of people with different interests and backgrounds. You’ll get a handful of people who go work at large companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. You’ll get a bunch who work at smaller companies, like Facebook. You’ll get people working at a 4 person start up… and we have a good number of entrepreneurs who are making it big with their own start ups (either acquired, making tons, etc - ie SiftScience!). This year’s graduating class has people who just accepted offers to either pursue a masters degree or join a masters/phd program. You have people who become computer science teachers at a high school level or even join the UW faculty. Some people want to do more research and either join a research lab or join a company that has a research department (ie. Microsoft Research).</p>
<p>We aren’t like some schools (coughstanfordcough) that has a very strict culture (Haven’t started a company and you’re a sophomore? Why are you interning at Microsoft? Don’t you have your own ideas?) and there are pretty much infinite possibilities for you here.</p>
<p>Also, we end up everywhere. Seattle. Bay Area. New York. Texas. Japan. Switzerland. Ireland. The possibilities are endless.</p>
<p>When you get here (or even for this summer), look for internships, do research, get to know people in the department, etc. It’s fantastic. Talk to the students in the computer labs (different from research labs - you’ll see this when you come for a tour). I haven’t met anyone who isn’t open to talking about their experiences with companies or research. People are very helpful; the environment is extremely collaborative.</p>
<p>Basically everyone in the tech field knows each other, or of each other. Some of my closest friends that I met through tech events, conferences, and internships are not UW students. And they all know each other. It’s pretty weird when I’m on Facebook, hover over someone’s name, and see I have 30 mutual friends with them… and those friends mostly aren’t friends with each other.</p>
<p>This became a lot longer than I intended, and if you hear some person talking like this with all these examples at the Direct Admit Welcome Day, that’s probably me. :P</p>
<p>Again, welcome to the department. You’re going to have a great time here. :)</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, thank you for such an amazingly detailed response! I’ve been trying to decide between UW and Berkeley and your answer has been incredibly helpful in giving me an idea of what things are like. I just need to head off to DA day before I’m ready to commit :)</p>
<p>:D Congrats on Berkeley as well! 
A friend of mine (whom I met through an internship!) goes there and has had a great experience as well. He’ll be graduating in a few months… then off to the ‘real world’! </p>
<p>If you’re interested in undergraduate research, go check out what UW/Cal has to offer in terms of subject matter. There are a lot of undergrads doing research, including freshmen! Don’t be shy in asking about those opportunities.</p>
<p>Also, regardless of where you end up - the whole networking part of my blurb above is crucial in this field, especially given today’s connections around the world with social media. Just ‘knowing’ people can nab you an interview at a company, which can lead to more opportunities! Also, you’ll get to know the recruiters this way… and you’ll find that they end up all knowing each other too, regardless of what company they work for!</p>
<p>I was at Berkeley yesterday and I really loved the environment and everything there. Would
you happen to know about how UW CSE and Berkeley EECS in the opportunities available to students? Like in terms of recruitment/jobs, class options, and things like that?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about Berkeley’s EE program, but I assume the opportunities are open like for their CS students. I have a few friends studying CS at Cal and they love it there. I can’t speak for class options, but they don’t have any trouble with recruitment/jobs.</p>
<p>I don’t know what specific companies recruit there, but of course the big companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) have presence, as well as some of the smaller companies (Facebook, Dropbox), and I’m sure some start ups have hired from there. Cal is a good school.</p>
<p>So in terms of industry opportunities, I’d want to say it’s pretty similar to UW CSE’s. However, if you’re interested in research or more specific courses (AI, Machine Learning, Graphics, etc) you might want to dig a bit deeper than just checking out the department websites. Shoot an email off to the advisors for both schools to see how they sell the department and what educational/research opportunities you have at each place.</p>