<p>I have poured over the last year+ worth of contributions on this forum and have gained a solid understanding of the U's process for evaluating and accepting/denying students for admission. I still have some remaining questions. Hopefully some of you can shed some light on these for me (and others).</p>
<p>First - some about me and my qualifiers for success in being admitted to either Bothell or Seattle.</p>
<p>AA-DTA in Business from Bellevue College
Bellevue Cumulative GPA = 3.98
Pre-App GPA for Foster = 3.96
WSA Score: TBD, scheduled for the 3/28 session @ UWB. (Not really concerned about this)
Work Experience / Resume Quality = 12 years of progressive growth at Microsoft (IC, to Manager, to Senior Manager) currently working as a W-2 consultant @MS. (Higher pay).</p>
<p>Now to my questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What drives the common opinion that UW Bothell is somehow inferior in terms of academic quality than UW Seattle? Note: In roles I have had, not once have we asked a UW graduate which campus they attended. To me, that just seems silly.</p></li>
<li><p>I am on the fence as to whether or not I would want to deal with the commute to Seattle (I live about 15 minutes from UWB, work in Redmond) without a tangible benefit from doing so. Any of you commuting students have perspective on how that has worked out for you?</p></li>
<li><p>The smaller class size in Bothell, on the surface, appears to be more conducive to actually learning the content you are working on in classes, rather than just gleaning enough to do well on exams and post good grades. Is there some benefit to the masses in Seattle? I do not really need to build a networking base from ground zero - I have that covered already.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I have already submitted my application to UW Bothell, and I am unsure if I would even want to consider Foster for their undergraduate program, given that it seems more geared toward younger students that live on the campus or otherwise do not have careers already in motion. I would love to hear some perspectives from folks though, as there could be something I am overlooking.</p>
<p>I would say that UW Seattle is simply in higher demand because of its long-standing reputation and its more conventional major offerings. Also, the fact that the better students will generally choose the Seattle campus if given the option may mean that you are working with a slightly higher quality student body. But I have no reason to suspect that the instructors or the education you would get from UW Seattle would be any better than at UW Bothell.</p>
<p>I am curious about the fact you called out about better students choosing Seattle if given the choice - does this come from a report of some sort, or is it some general theory people have? I would be interested in reading a report about the number of students accepted into both programs and their end decisions; more so if it included the “why”. I have a feeling that this is purely speculation though. </p>
<p>I have been looking for a clear way to evaluate the quality of education and whether or not any tangible differences exist, and I cannot find any yet. One very interesting find, was that the professors that teach courses at Bothell and Seattle are often times identical. That would lend itself to the theory that the curriculum is shared (likely shared for the purposes of ongoing innovation between the two locales) and your educational takeaway would be the same.</p>
<p>Thus Seattle == Bothell, in terms of academic quality alone.</p>
<p>Well I was quite active on the 2014 Winter Transfer thread this year, and basically everyone who was admitted to both UW Seattle and another campus chose to attend Seattle. Whether that is because of Seattle’s reputation or because of its major offerings I couldn’t say. But I know that for myself, if the location of the campus was not a factor, I would still go with Seattle, both for its reputation and for the fact that is has the major I want.</p>
<p>FTR I only applied to UW Seattle and I was rejected, most likely due to not having completed the foreign language CADR and due to having less than 90 credits.</p>
<p>On your application, did you show your plan for meeting the Foreign Language portion of the CADR? Also, were you applying to start AFTER you finished the AA and its 90 credits? I assume you were obtaining a DTA from a CC?</p>
<p>I can certainly see people choosing to go to Seattle if their major was not available at Bothell. That makes perfect sense to me. I may end up applying to Seattle after all, and making the decision between the two if it presents itself. </p>
<p>The idea of commuting still kills me though. :)</p>
<p>I showed a plan for completing it, yes, but I would not have met it before being admitted into the UW (I would have done the second quarter of foreign language in Winter 2014, the quarter I applied for admission). </p>
<p>I am enrolled in a CC now, but at the time, I was not. I am a new immigrant so I had credits from an overseas university, not from a Washington State CC. Luckily by Fall 2014 I will have completed the language CADR and the 90 credits at the Community College so I should be a much better applicant then. </p>
<p>And yeah, if I lived very close to UW Bothell and my major was offered at both campuses, I would probably choose to go to Bothell. In that case, the reasons UW Seattle might be a superior choice don’t seem strong enough to justify a significantly longer daily commute. </p>
<p>I guess all that depends on a lot of factors. In your particular situation, I don’t see how the choice would harm your career prospectives.</p>
<p>Now, if you were a regular student just fresh out of a CC w/o much background then it might be different for you. The thing is that besides education, many other factors influence your chances of getting a job or what kind of a person you become after you finish college.</p>
<p>Let’s take Accounting department @ the UW Seattle:</p>
<p>1) Professors (not lecturers…) generally don’t teach anywhere but in Seattle. And our professors are awesome. They manage to keep our Accounting department among the top in the country and are very knowledgeable and approachable people. They know what to teach and how to teach it well given their experience.
2) Beta Alpha Psi accounting fraternity at UW Seattle is big and offers a lot of opportunities to network with people, participate in different projects, and do other stuff that can improve one’s resume.
3) Some positions on Husky Jobs are available only for Seattle students.
4) Some positions and internships in particular can be found through a departmental mailing list, and many employers contact the department to advertise there.</p>
<p>Please note that what’s above are my observations, they aren’t made relative to Bothell. Never been there, can’t compare. Also, my observations are biased.</p>
<p>Agree with a number of your points here. I would like to add, that WHO YOU KNOW matters more in the business world than anything else. That networking is not campus specific (i.e. I could join a frat in Seattle if I was at UW Bothell) but the availability of it can be (I cannot speak to people face to face in Seattle while in Bothell). No one should use this as a deciding factor, unless they would just prefer to be in Seattle all the time. ;)</p>
<p>Accounting is one area that I have found specifics that show differences between Seattle and Bothell. Bothell (or Tacoma for that matter) does not have the AACSB Accreditation for Accounting. They only have it for Business. Thus, you would be better served attending UW Seattle (or WSU/Gonzaga; they have it too) if you want an Accounting degree. That is possibly tied to the experience you have with the professors; pure speculation on my part though. </p>
<p>Husky jobs should not care which campus you are enrolled at. I will take your word on this (as I have not looked at them) but if they are - that is absurd unless there is a very good reason for it - and even then, you wouldn’t WANT that job if you were in Bothell anyhow and vice-versa.</p>
<p>Internships, job-fairs, and other assorted career oriented services are available to all students in the UW system, regardless of which branch you attend. Also, my expertise is in email and I can assure you that someone from Bothell can join a listserv in Seattle with no problem. In fact - you both get a @uw.edu email address, so your accounts even exist in the same organization. Likewise, Business Competitions are open to all university students in the state (EWU, CWU, WWU, WSU, UW, etc…) </p>
<p>So again - I am not convinced that UW Seattle is any better than Bothell, unless you are an Accounting student.</p>