I’m a Junior in high school and planning on going to University of Washington to get an engineering degree. I didn’t know this until a few weeks ago but once you go to UW pre-engineering for a year you apply for your major (and you can end up not getting your major). So what is the acceptance rate of each engineering major, I think I want pursue mechanical engineering. Also if I don’t get the major I want how easy is it to transfer your credits
Mechanical is probably the easiest engineering major to do/get into.
Any chance you know the percent that get accepted? I’m just afraid that Ill waste time and money at UW and not get accepted in the major I desire. Thanks for the input!!
Starting Fall 2018, half freshmen will be directly admitted to engineering. The other half will be admitted but will have to compete against each other as well as transfers.
As a result, do your utmost to qualify as a freshman.
Direct admit to School of Engineering isn’t going to be the same as direct admission to the major. You’ll be guaranteed AN engineering major, but not necessarily your first choice.
You should be able to transfer all your standard engineering prereqs to other schools as they’re pretty standard.
A number of WUE schools offer MechE if you’re looking for a safety.
Id most likely transfer to Oregon State if I wasn’t accepted into the major I want
What is your instate - Oregon or WA? Don’t pay OOS particularly if not direct admitted to your major, frankly, at any school. This has become a huge issue for UW, they are losing many top students in state and OOS, along with big OOS tuition because of their archaic method of not admitting to a major. Many of the best and brightest go elsewhere which isn’t good for the top kids that do go there. It sounds like this watering down may be a motivation for changes in 2018 mentioned above, hadn’t heard about those. While early, find another school you love incase you don’t get in engineering coming in the door. Not worth the stress and uncertainty of not studying what you want. You are the customer, get what you want out of college.
Never has been much of an issue for the “top students” or the “best and brightest,” but it has been an issue for rest of the entering class, which apparently is why the UW will now be giving the additional assurance of “direct to college” admission to over half of the entering class.
This is simply not true. Even MechE admits had an average 3.7gpa, and there are kids with 4.0s getting turned down for comp eng or comp sci. And as it’s a “holistic” process, just like HS, you have no guarantee. None. After possibly investing 2 or even 3 years at the school. UW proponents just say “pick another major” but that is BS. I personally know far too many parents whose kids got stuck with majors like physics or applied math, or getting forced to transfer because they couldn’t get their major. It’s why we were strongly advised not to risk it for our kid. I’m bitter that the school I support with my tax dollars is only fixing the problem next year. Anyway, it’s a moot point right now.
Yet, somehow they graduate around 1,000 engineers each year (including 138 mechanical engineering majors last year).
Still, as you noted, that dated information is moot for you and yours and next year’s entering class.
Hopefully, you feel less bitter now.
I doubt there were any 4.0’s denied admission to CS/CE when 43% of regular admission applicants were accepted last year according to the Seattle Times. (Note: 3.93 is summa cum laude, top 0.5%.)
Err…no. Even back in 2014, CS had only a 27% admit rate. Now its half that, thanks to record numbers of applicants.
http://cdn.rawgit.com/andytl/397b7b395f7c532ea234/raw/cdcd6b591de43a09c6644486d1f569fff6a9548b/admitstats.html
UW is a fine school, but it was a gamble for any prospective engineers this year who didn’t get direct admit. Next year, it looks like they may improve things…
^ Another post that could be featured in INFO 198 / BIOL 106B.
The Seattle Times recently reported:
"Although computer science and engineering is a tough program to get into, the picture is getting better. In 2016, 43 percent of bachelor’s applicants were admitted to the program. In previous years, the admission rate was lower.
“[The CSE Department] is now enrolling about 370 new undergraduate students each year, double the number it was able to accommodate in 2012… This year, it is asking for $6 million from the Legislature to increase the number of students it graduates by 120 degrees per year. Most of that increase would be in bachelors degrees, Lazowska said.”