<p>My son was admitted to UW but was not admitted directly into the CS department. He is from NJ and applied to UW because of its CS department. What are the chances of being admitted to the CS department later? If he decides to go to UW and then doesn't later get admitted to the CS department, it would be disappointing since that is the reason he would go to UW.</p>
<p>Thank you for any advice you can provide.</p>
<p>The admissions rate to the CS department is about 25 to 40%. These numbers don’t seem as bad as like look because you can apply multiple times a year and you have people with low GPAs spamming the application. If your son has a good GPA in CS courses then he should get in without a problem but it will be a lot of hard work and there is a chance for horrible failure.</p>
<p>“Horrible failure” sounds extremely harsh …</p>
<p>OP, does your son have any back up majors? Is he set at being specifically a CS/CE major, or is he okay with doing another major while aiming for a software engineering position after graduation? We have plenty of ACMS, EE, Informatics, and HCDE students who are recruited by major companies for software engineering positions. However, many of these students have a lot of drive to also succeed, network, and interview.</p>
<p>What other schools is your son considering? I always hesitate to tell people to come to UW if they ONLY want to do CS, especially when they are OOS. The overall acceptance rate is about 40% (25% for a single application season…) People with low GPAs and almost no chance of getting into the department have applied 5, 6 times, which messes up the numbers a bit.</p>
<p>He is set at being specifically a CS major and that is why he even considered UW. He is also considering Northeastern, where he was admitted, and is also on “priority waitlist” at Carnegie Mellon. Also, what is “OOS”? Thank you for any additional thoughts you can provide.</p>
<p>OOS == Out Of State</p>
<p>I’d love to know other people’s opinions on this as well, as the upper division admissions is the main drawback for me going to UW. I’m currently deciding between Northeastern, UCLA, UNC Chapel Hill, and UW for Computer Science. (got 20k at NEU, 7.5k OOS at UW). I know UW is a top top program in a great tech city, but I’m hesitant about spending so much time at UW with the possibility of not ending up a CS Major 
What do you guys think I should do? (I’m definitely going to study CS). Also I have taken 11 APs in HS with all 5s so the only prerequisites I have left are 1 quarter of calculus, 1 quarter of Programming II and 1 quarter of Eng. Comp before admission process.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to transfer or go for another major if things don’t work out, then go for UW and take your shots at getting admitted into the department. If you’re not willing to take the risk or make any compromises when the time comes, then it may be better to attend a different school where you’ll have a higher chance of acceptance.</p>