What do your parents have against UW Seattle if you get direct admission to CS? If it is both the best and cheapest option, what’s not to like (from their point of view)?
Of course, it does not matter if you do not get admitted. Or if you get admitted but not to the CS major, you need to determine whether you are willing to risk the highly competitive admission process to get into the CS major later.
I truly believe that I could get into CS for UW-Seattle. Why they do not want me to go is beyond me: its cheaper, they know that I will get in, it’s very close to home, yet I cannot go. It is beyond frustrating. My friends have a strong application going to Stanford and Harvard (only one applied to Yale) and yet another applied and got accepted to Notre Dame. They have acknowledged this trend, yet I am not allowed to apply to UW-Seattle…
They did not give you any reason for their refusal?
No reason. So I have to improvise.
Well if you haven’t already applied it’s a moot point as it is past the deadline. I am sure they have their reasons but am sorry they will not share them with you.
If you did apply and are accepted perhaps it can be revisited.
You have solid other options, I would encourage you to focus on those versus what cannot be as it will only keep you from moving forward. It sounds as if there is nothing specific that you like or dislike about any of the schools you have applied to but more about feeling they all fall short of UW. Try to let that go so that you can really compare the schools you can consider. You’ll get a good education at all but the experiences will be wildly different.
Don’t compare yourself to friends applying to x y or z. Worry about you.
What about Reed? If you’re sure you can get into UW CS (though I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you), then you can get into Reed. Reed is more known for other programs than CS, but it has a good CS program that is strongly math-oriented, but that’s actually very useful especially these days with the trend towards AI, data mining, biometrics, bioinformatics, deep learning algorithms, etc. But if hardcore math-based programming is not your thing, then look elsewhere.
I will look into Reed! Math-oreinted programming is something I have not tried, however, I am double/triple advanced in math (depending on how next semester goes). Thank you for your input! Additionally, eandesmom, I have applied to all of the schools discussed about here. I submitted applications around December 1 - the due date. Thank you for your wise input on not formulating a hierarchy by comparing my friends’ universities. And if many are still confused on why no UW-Seattle, I have honestly not been given a reason on why I cannot attend. I have been placed in an awkward situation in high school where I have not been allowed to play sports, so I accelerated quickly in school and volunteering. I feel like this “non-athletic” lifestyle has taxes my parents as I used to be heavily involved in swimming, soccer, and basketball, but can not longer participate. As a result, I believe that they may want me to “get a life” (so to say) in college instead of just shooting into an opportunity (UW-Seattle CS) that will consume most of my time - depriving me of the experiences of college. I find this counter productive, but alas, I need their financial assistance so I am at the whim of the sponsor.
Upon further investigation into Reed College, one must complete three years of an arts degree and then two years for CS at UW-Seattle if you have a high enough GPA and qualifying letter of rec. Though sneaky, this only guarantees that I could get two years at UW-Seattle (already loop holing my parents - something I probably do not want to do) and paying for three years for an arts degree. Though a sneaky plan, it is inefficient as my first three years would be pursuing an arts degree.
35-40% of University of Washington students are able to transfer into CS. On the site it says the average GPA for their students transferring into this program is a 3.7 GPA, so if you truly believe that you can put in the work and dedication then I wouldn’t cross off University of Washington - just make sure there would be a back up plan though.
Whitman has had a CS minor for a while but is just now starting up a major, and they also have a 3-2 program with UW, so you could potentially go either way to finish the degree. And it’s a great “well rounded quality of life” type college that is strong academically as well. And their deadline is 1/15 so you have a few days left to get the application in if it looks like a possibility.
@Ouvyous Reed’s own CS program is part of their Math department. http://www.reed.edu/math/index.html. So it’s a math degree with a concentration in Computer Science. (Here’s a comment on Quora from someone who took it: https://www.quora.com/Should-someone-wanting-to-major-in-Computer-Science-apply-to-Reed-College/answer/Josh-Hoak). As I mentioned, it would be very math focused, but that can actually be an advantage these days over other CS graduates depending on what you want for your future.
According to this article: Reed was supposed to start issuing its own full CS degrees in 2016, but I didn’t see it on their website. You could write and ask them. http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/techflash/2015/04/to-a-chorus-of-questions-reed-college-creating-a.html
The 3+2 program with UW-Seattle is something else entirely (and I wouldn’t recommend a program like that in general).