I’m an in-state high school senior and I was wondering what were the chances that I could get direct admit into CS.
By the end of senior year, I would have taken 13 AP classes: AP World History, AP Chemistry, Calculus AB, AP US History, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP English Language and Composition, AP Computer Science A, Calculus BC, AP Biology, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Statistics, AP Japanese, and AP American Government.
My AP scores aren’t the best, but I’m hoping the rigor of the classes will make up for it. My only 5 is for English Language, and most are 4s.
I am a first generation college student.
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Asian
Unweighted GPA: 3.95
SAT Score: 1520 (770 Reading 750 Math)
ACT: Composite:34 Superscore: 35
I think my academic rigor is good but my extracurricular activities are very weak and I’ve only ever been part of two clubs - Girls Who Code (in junior year) and a college preparation program (junior and senior year). I like to draw, but I’m not part of any clubs and its just really doodling for fun, so I’m pretty sure it won’t count for extracurricular.
Also, I have a twin sister (who has slightly better scores in pretty much everything). Does being a twin play any role in the admission process? Are they likely to choose only one of them or accept both or none?
Are there any other good schools for CS that I might be able to get into?
UW does not give special preference to twins. (Many other schools will avoid family drama by either accepting you both or rejecting you both.)
There is a new admissions system for UW CS starting this fall, which makes it really hard to chance anyone. No existing data.
That being said, with the new admissions system, if you do not get direct – do NOT go to UW. Under the new system, your chances of being a direct admit are much much higher than your chances of getting in later. (They will leave fewer spots for the later admissions, and most will go to in-state community college transfers.)
If you are local to the Seattle area – try Bellevue College. You’ll get another shot at a transfer admit, and if you don’t get that you can actually stay at BC and finish a BS in Computer Science. Cascadia and UW-Bothell have a combined CS program as well.
If you are not in the Seattle area, Western is very popular as a backup school for Computer Science. They are much harder to get in for CS as a transfer these days. They shut down the pathway where people who didn’t get CS at UW would transfer in and it was taking away opportunities for students who had started at Western. However, it is still easier to get into CS if you start as a freshman at Western than at UW.
You can download a guide to all the colleges in the state here – https://www.washingtoncouncil.org/2018%20HE%20Book_WCHSCR_Website.pdf Most have listed all the majors available.