Ahhh okay, I figured as much, thank you for this, I will share this with him! 
Agreeing with @Ae1231 that it is somewhere between āvery difficultā and āimpossibleā to get into the CS major if you were not admitted directly. Students should not enroll at UW in pre-sciences or another major with the expectation that they can switch to CS.
It bears repeating because this comes up every year ā¦ and Iām sure there are others in this thread wondering if itās a good idea to enroll and take their chances.
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Iām right there with you. My daughter had 4.0; ranked first in class; took science/math ap course and got waitlisted for engineering and we are in state.
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That admission decision stinks. However, UW does not really look at class rank rather where you are relative to other apps from the high school and the high school traditionally and the rigor to get the 4.0. Not admitting valedictorian or number 1 in class is something UW has been doing for a few years. They really focus on the rigor and sometimes seem to like to see a bit of grade adversity and working through it.
As for engineering they try to see if they believe the rigor and transcript would succeed within the engineering school based on their algorithm. It is not fair nor is it perfect. What they really donāt want is people struggling. Thatās bad for business. Why you do not get a shot is a real bummer. Hang in there maybe the waitlist will open up as more apps come in more people go elsewhere.
The holistic review sounds lovely in theory, but it certainly gives admission departments a ton of flexibility in how they choose to mold an incoming class.
Another competitive big state school, UT Austin, seems to take a different approach, and one that is interesting. They automatically accept in-state applicants who are in the top of their high school graduating class (top 6% I believe).
There are pros and cons to each approach no doubt, but applying some reasonable rules and constraints on admission departments at these highly sought after flagship universities may be a good middle ground.
Getting accepted to UW or other top universities at an in-state rate is similar to receiving a $75-100k academic scholarship. Thoughtful consideration really needs to be given to how those are distributed.
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My daughter applied for Public Health and was placed in Pre-Public Health. Looking at the list, it doesnāt look like there is an option for direct admit into Public Health? Does that mean that everyone who applied to Public Health is automatically placed in the Pre-Public Health major? Or that she wasnāt qualified enough to get direct admit into Public Health?
She called the admissions office and they made it seem like everyone is placed in the pre-major for Public Health and that itās not hard to apply into the major once sheās reached the requirements. But Iām a bit hesitant.
We are OOS and this is one of her top choices, but itās over triple the cost of in-state tuition and a huge investment. Trying to weigh ROI.
Has anyone heard back about honors?
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Does anyone on this thread have kids who have gone through fraternity rush at UW? I was surprised to learn that fraternity recruitment occurs during the summer, prior to freshman year, and those who accept bids are expected to move into the fraternity houses immediately upon arrival, rather than spending a year in the dorms! Not sure Iāve heard of any other school that does it this way. Is this driven by a housing shortage? Or is there some other motivation for it? Seems like a tough way to get settled into a brand new environment.
No word over here. Yet.
If you are in the top 6% of your high school class in Texas, you are an auto-admit for UT Austinā¦BUTā¦that does not guarantee certain majors. You can go to this yearās admission thread for UT Austin and see how many applicants had 4.0 UW GPAs and 1500+ SATs and were rejected for Engineering, Comp Sci and the Business School.
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Yep! The 6% does not really mean much. Majors are still insanely competitve, way more than UW.
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First, congrats on getting into UDub. My daughter had always seen Washington as a good out of state option, even though she really wanted to stay in CA. We visited the campus and Seattle area before she decided to attend. Two negatives stood out. The weather (being from southern CA, she loves the sun) and second, the pressure of getting into her desired major (got in on pre-science). That being said, the beautiful campus and areas surrounding were very appealing to somebody who wants to explore and try something different. She went into her freshman year a bit nervous on making friends, but quickly found a group. That lead her to joining a sorority during her 2nd half of the year. She loves the area because there are many places to eat off campus and the free light rail (included with tuition) makes it easy to get around the whole Seattle area (it has a stop right next to campus). The rain is never really too heavy, just sometimes constant and nagging. It is often cold and overcast from November through March, so if you are a real warm weather person, this can be challenging. They say if you are more of a introvert and stay inside type person, UDub may not be a good fit from a mental side. She also had Sophmore standing going into her first year. Accepted into Sociology this year and will try to add Psyc soon. Getting out in 4 years is much easier than the California colleges. If you are going to spend 60k per year, you want to get out in a timely manner. GPAās are weird at UDub. They have a grading system that is different from most colleges. Harder to get a higher GPA. Daughter complains about that a bit, but itās all good in the end. LOL. Most dorms are new (rebuilt in the last 5 years) and are really nice. Plenty of clubs and things to do on campus. Overall my daughter is happy with the choice. If there is anything more you want to know in details, just send another message.
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One consequence of UTās model is that it means that 90% of undergraduates are Texas residents. Also, the only OOS recruiting they do is for athletics. Itās unfortunate because I think they are depriving the state of lots of OOS talent. (I understand why they do this, but still.)
All fair points of course. But many students would just like a chance to be admitted (before worrying too much about a specific major).
Then they can make their own decision about rolling the dice on getting into a specific major later. Capacity-constrained majors are more of a system-wide issue at many of the competitive universities I believe. And not an issue that is likely to go away anytime soon.
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Both have their pros and cons. And thereās likely plenty of space for some middle ground in between.
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Not sure which colleges you are comparing to? My son at UCB is already worrying about replacing his apartment mates because half of them are on track to graduate early (a common enough path that some majors have a three year graduation plan on the department web site).
There are definitely reasons to pick UW over a UC for the right student, but Iām not sure thereās a significant difference in āgetting out in 4 years.ā
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You are right. There are students graduating in less than 4 years in the UC system. What I was trying to say is that getting classes at UDub is a little easier than whatās going on in the UCās and Cal State colleges. That being said, if you are super focused on getting out in 4 years, you can do it anywhere.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! I havenāt had the chance to visit UW yet since Iām waiting for the rest of my decisions to come out, so this is super helpful.
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Three year bachelors degrees sure are pretty common now at UW (and many other universities too). So many students come in w/ just a ton of college credit.
My kids and many of their friends will use that savings and extra time for a masters degree and/or travel. Not a bad path at all. Four years is great too. Heck, five can be a lot of fun! 
Got mine today.