<p>Washington is a perfectly fine school, and its in state price is much lower than Berkeley or UCLA at out of state price, but there is something you may want to ask on the Washington forum before deciding (other than this issue as described below, the clear choice is Washington for cost reasons).</p>
<p>It has been claimed that getting into the computer science major if not directly admitted as a freshman is extremely difficult. Computer science and computer engineering are both listed as “competitive admission” majors here:</p>
<p>[UW</a> Advising - List of Majors](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/majors/majoff.php]UW”>http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/majors/majoff.php)</p>
<p>Note that biochemistry is also listed as a “competitive admission” major, so you may want to ask about that. However, other biology majors are listed with “minimum admission requirements”.</p>
<p>In contrast, the computer science, molecular and cell biology (including biochemistry), and integrative biology majors at Berkeley are not currently capped, so students who pass the prerequisites can declare the major:</p>
<p>[Office</a> of Undergraduate Advising: List of Majors](<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/majorlist.html]Office”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/majorlist.html)</p>
<p>Regardless of what university you attend, the computer science/engineering and biology/biochemistry major requirements diverge fairly quickly, so you need to decide early on which you will pursue. Computer science/engineering tends to have better job and career prospects than biology/biochemistry at the bachelor’s degree level, although that can be highly dependent on economic and industry cycles.</p>