Most competitive/overenrolled majors?

<p>What are the majors at the UW that stick out as overpopulated and/or competitive?</p>

<p>computer science, business, and neurobiology are the toughest</p>

<p>there’s more info here:</p>

<p>[UW</a> Advising - List of Majors](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/majors/majoff.php]UW”>http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/majors/majoff.php)</p>

<p>Yikes, was hoping computer science wouldn’t be overly competitive :/</p>

<p>CS is probably the hardest major to get into</p>

<p>Well that doesn’t make me feel any better :(</p>

<p>What would you say the upper-division acceptance rate is? Is that information available?</p>

<p>CS is competitive only because it is one of the top 10 in the nations.</p>

<p>I don’t know the exact figures, but admit rate is less at 50%.</p>

<p>How about the other engineering majors? Does any one of them stick out as being as competitive as CSE?</p>

<p>Sorry for all the questions, heh. Just want an idea of what I’m up against.</p>

<p>This definitely just ruined my day. I want to major in CS at UW (currently a junior in HS). Is it really that hard to get in? How many people get jobs at Microsoft after graduation?</p>

<p>Neuroscience is pretty tough.</p>

<p>

Apparently, yes.</p>

<p>

It’s way too early for you to be thinking about that.</p>

<p>@ns9908: How competitive is the neuroscience major?
How about biology?</p>

<p>Which is easier to get in as a freshmen?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Not a UW student nor a neuroscientist; I just know that it’s a competitive program.</p>

<p>@Friedrice</p>

<p>Business? You have to be kidding me. Getting into any of the engineering departments at UW is harder than getting into business.</p>

<p>Found the admissions statistics for engineering majors. Right off the bat, aerospace, materials, and civil/environmental seem rather uncompetitive/self-selecting, while computer science/engineering is by far the hardest.</p>

<p><a href=“http://data.engr.washington.edu/pls/portal30/STUDENT_APPL.RPT_APPLICANT_STATISTICS_YEAR.SHOW_PARMS[/url]”>http://data.engr.washington.edu/pls/portal30/STUDENT_APPL.RPT_APPLICANT_STATISTICS_YEAR.SHOW_PARMS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@yuckybear
I bet a business major could have told you that there is a difference between “hardest” and “most competitive”.</p>

<p>Computer Science and Business are the two most competitive majors here. Which is more competitive is hard to say. They both have similar competitive GPAs and similar acceptance rates.</p>

<p>However it is worth noting that the acceptance percentage that both the Computer Science and Business departments give is overstated. The truly gifted people never have to apply. Instead, they are plucked up straight from high school. So, when they give admission statistics like this, they are really giving admission statistics for those who aren’t in their first tier. Additionally, a CS or business premajor will apply at least three times before giving up. Once at the end of Spring quarter their first year, once after fall quarter of their Sophomore year, and once after their Spring quarter their Sophomore year.</p>

<p>So a person who isn’t quite there will count in the admission statistics at least three times and someone who are first tier choices for CSE or business will count 0 times in the admissions.</p>

<p>When you add these 2 factors together, I’d say well above half of those who put CS or Business as their desired major when they apply will end up getting into the program at some point. The ultimate acceptance rate ends up being closer to 75% than 35%</p>

<p>How about the Economics department? The average GPA in prerequisite classes for pre-econ (BA) was a 3.57 while the cumulative GPA was 3.45. The acceptance rate was 81%. Is it hard to get in? I’ll be applying each quarter next year (sophomore year).</p>

<p>Also, do they weigh pre-req classes more? My cumulative GPA is lower because I tried Pre-Engineering and my grades for Chem 142 and Math 126 are no where close to 3.45.</p>