How hard is it to get into University of Washington computer science without Direct to Admissions?

I am dead set on doing a computer science major, CS is what I’m best at and CS is what I love. I have the grades and the SAT to get into the University of Washington Seattle, but not into their computer science direct to admission program. My GPA is 3.39, which is not the worst but about 5 points too low for UW CS (my sophomore year sucked but my GPA has improved each semester). My SAT is 1380, which is a good score and over the 75th percentile for UW in general, but too low for UW CS. Obviously, there’s no chance I get direct to admission when I apply, but I think there’s a good chance I get into UW as a pre-science major. There is another option, which is to apply to the program after my sophomore year, but the vast majority of students who go to the CS program do not do it this way, and the amount that do get in this way is dwindling. How hard will it be for me to get in this way? I believe that I can make the effort to get a 4.0 and a solid internship, but what else could I do to improve my odds? I’ve read that they give priority to students who list their major priority as something other than computer science and change their minds, would it be best if I list other majors as my first choice now (knowing that there is no chance I get direct to admissions)? I’m planning on double-majoring in math/statistics and going to graduate school for data science/AI, so I think it might be worth it to say Statistics and Math are my first choices.

Any thoughts?
Thanks!

Any reason to focus on UW? There are many good CS schools where you can get the guarantee of studying CS and avoid this whole headache.

I live in Washington state and UW is BY FAR the best option that we can afford. my other options are Washington State U and U of Utah, which are not as good schools. My goal is to go to the best college possible for CS so I can get the best job possible, not just to study CS.

Makes sense, gotcha.

The college you go to really doesn’t dictate your job prospects for CS that much, especially compared to other majors. Spend time getting a nice collection of solid CS schools if you haven’t already.

Utah actually has a pretty solid CS program, that’s a very nice match school for you I’d say. Def look closer there, I would take that over UW without direct entry every time. As much as affordability is important and valid here, there are many other ways to get affordable options and be able to study CS, which again is far more important than where you do it so long as the program has sufficient classes.

I was under the impression UW CS now only admits direct to major. S20 was able to begin transitioning in sophomore year. It took him two tries before finally getting accepted his junior year. Having an IB diploma, a near 4.0 unweighted (that darned TOK) and a 2100 on the old SAT didn’t seem to matter. He had to get special approval to take a couple of courses that were for CS majors only. In addition to doing well in these classes, he had to show that he was well rounded (he was both a CS teaching assistant- even though he wasn’t yet accepted- and a resident advisor.) He was persistent in working closely with his academic advisor on his CS app.

It seems UW has since changed its policy as now it’s nearly impossible to get in otherwise. In fact, he’s been advising his siblings to declare CS or engineering on their UW app even if they’re not sure about it. He insists that they won’t have the option to declare it later on. He does state that CS at Bothell or Tacoma campus would be easier to get into. In the end he felt Seattle campus was the best fit for him because his peers really forced him to push himself.

Good luck to you!

Its nearly impossible that is why you do not pick UW for CS unless you are a direct admit…like others have said, if you are dead set on going into CS then I would pick another college that will guarantee you will graduate with a CS degree assumming that you can pass all the CS classes

1 Like