Looks like the Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering is hosting a DA Day on April 13th. Is everyone (who’s CS DA) planning to attend?
Yes!
From the UW CS web site, it looks like they direct admitted 250 this year. Plus parents, there could be up to 500 who come to this event. I hope the auditorium is big enough to host all in one room. It should be, since all the intro classes are ~400 students per class.
Well, certainly not everyone, but most people at least. I know I am.
Well, my calculation on #2 is almost correct. There were about 350 students+parents and they had to move the event from the Allen Center to Kane Hall, where most huge freshmen classes are hosted.
They have definitely expanded the program this year. Our tour guide told us that in previous years, they only had about 80 DA students. This year they sent out 250 acceptance. Not sure about yield, but probably at least 150 will join. (We know several that definitely won’t come.) On the printed material, they said the cohort for class 2022 will be 350, so that leaves about 200 for regular admit. Not a bad odds for pre-science students who aspire to join the CS program.
This expansion is definitely related to the expected completion of the Gates Hall next winter. When touring Allen Center, we can see that the Gates Hall is taking shape, with only exterior and interior finishing works left. Gates Hall will be mostly for Undergraduate students, with auditoriums, labs, lounges, advising, TA offices, etc. This is very encouraging for undergrads and a sharp contrast against other research universities (such as the UCs) where graduate students are treated like kings and undergrads are treated like peasants.
The director of the CS program said something like this, “Everyone knows that in CS there’s big four – MIT, CMU, Stanford, Berkeley, but now there’s a notion of big five. The fifth one - you guessed it - is UW.” He went on to describe the expansion of the program, not only students but also faculty members. The school had only 35 faculty a few years ago, but now has 80 full time faculty and will be approaching 100 soon. I wanted to ask him what the “big five” notion is based on (e.g. industry reputation? academic reputation? US News? etc.) but the line was too long to get an audience with him. Probably bragging a little bit, but he’s close, and the aspiration to move up in the rankings is strong.
Other random notes: the undergrad lab in the basement of Allen center is pretty good; view on the 6th floor patio is fantastic; food in the atrium is great – according to the tour guide, the CS department always get the food right!