UC Merced vs UW for comp sci ??

California resident Waitlisted at UCI .

Got a invitation from UC merced and extended the deadline today the may 8th 11;59pm.

Debating shud i accept or wait for UCI decision??. Not sure how the wait list at UCI works.Dont know wether they have kept waiting list for the major i have asked or for the admittance to UCI. When I call UCI they are telling till june 1st i need to wait.

Parents are ready to move to seattle for my acceptance at UW ( pre physica science) thinking next year it will be state fees. I need to maintain a GPA of 3.7 nd above to get computer science at UW…

Thinking wether to consider UC Merced or the effort for UW is worth i can get good job nd pay off money to parents later…

Thanks In advance…

Your odds of getting into CS at uwash Seattle are minuscule. Instead, look at the computational science major : does that appeal to you? As that’s what you MIGHT be able to do. Wash state u and western Washington receive the overflow from udubb cs: are those universities of interest?
You can accept ucm and remain on the waitlist at uci until they deliver their final decision.

Both UCM and UCI are much less difficult to get into the CS major than Washington. As a California resident, the choice is obvious since both price and the ability to get into your major favor UCM and UCI.

The minimum to apply to a CS major and what it actually takes are two different things at UW Seattle. In general, you need a 4.0 and it really helps to get research experience as well.

Other campuses have started putting limits on in-state students transferring when they don’t get CS. For example, Western Washington has a one-year moratorium on transfer students enrolling in CS classes so that the kids who started there from freshman year aren’t shut out of courses.

^ According to UW website, for regular admission to CSE, “Right now the average gpa is around a 3.7 with a range from 3.3 to 4.0. Approximately 30-40% of all students applying will get admitted, but again, keep in mind that if you have high grades, your chances would be much higher.”

@UWfromCA : Are you current senior or graduated from university of Washington seattle?. As your screen user name says UWfromCA. … Also any idea how easy working as teacher assistant at university washington ??
Does it help for anything ??

The OP was waitlisted at uci. The odds of his/her being competitive at uwashington in a major that is extremely competitive are remote. For a 4.0student with lots of programming experience and AP calculus + AP CS, yes the odds are higher than 30% but even those are far for a slam dunk. The number of students who thought they’d qualify and didn’t is so high that the directionals must try to take the 'overflow’and aren’t able to handle them even though they’ve hired new professors.
A minimum 3.7 GPA at a state flagship is very hard to get, especially in difficult classes.

Also, this statement by the OP is not a good sign:

It implies that cost should be a more important consideration than the OP and parents are considering it as.