UW-Seattle (Pre-Science) [$35k/y] vs UW-Madison (BS in CS) [$55k/y]

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Hello! I was recently admitted (as a Washington resident) to both The University of Washington as a pre-sciences major, and The University of Wisconsin-Madison for a BS in Computer Sciences.

As an overview, I graduated high school with a 3.78 GPA and took 13 AP tests (results from 7 so far), mostly 5’s with a few 4’s. I’ve done dual-enrollment in higher math (multivariable calc, differential equations, linear algebra) and computer science courses, with a 4.0 college GPA. I’ve been coding since elementary school in Python, Java, C#, and JavaScript, and won hackathons with an SAT gamification app and with an AI education tool using LLMs, winning more than $1k in award prizes. My goal out of college is to go for a post-grad in data science, quant, AI, or cyber. Computer science has long been my passion, but I’m unsure which college to pick.

The reason I’m leaning toward UW is: Seattle’s tech hub (Amazon, Microsoft) for internship/job opportunities; I have family, friends, and relationships close as a safety net; I’m familiar with the area; I like the weather here compared to Madison’s insane snow; I have credits that transfer from community college; and it’s in-state, saving me ~70k-80k over 4 years. Plus, I’m planning to take summer courses at UW, so hopefully I can get a head start on my coursework. According to CSRankings and TopUniversities, UW has a better program than Wisconsin.

What’s holding me back is that I didn’t get into CS at UW. Both UW and UW-M feels like a career risk since Seattle is such a big tech hub, but at the same time I didn’t get my desired major at UW. I’ve read CS transfer at UW is tough (30-40% acceptance), Stats is 50%, and Math is 75%, so I don’t have a guaranteed career track at UW. How hard is it really to transfer in? How much will my coding experience help me stand out? My risk plan for UW is to apply to other majors (if I get denied from Paul Allen) like Statistics (still competitive), Math, or Computational Math. Worst case, by my sophomore year, if I can’t secure any of these, I’d transfer to other schools; this would still be cheaper since my first two years would be at in-state rates.

Looking for any and as much advice as possible, even if it’s unrelated to any of the points I’ve mentioned.

Thanks!

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UW Madison is a very good CS school. I would go there rather than face the CS uncertainty. Sometimes a CS major isn’t needed if you are able to get into CS classes. Have you looked into the difficulty of enrolling in CS classes as a pre sciences major?

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No, I haven’t looked into the difficulty of getting the courses, but I know it is doable. They have non-major upper-division courses like Data Structures, Computer Systems, etc. that I was planning on taking my freshman year if I were to commit. And I do agree that UW-Madison mitigates the risk of not getting CS, but I’m conflicted since both seem like good choices to me, but I don’t have much information or experience to come to a final conclusion myself.

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Agree that Madison may be the way to go. And just a suggestion for your thread- might be helpful to say Washington and Madison rather than the letters as it can be confusing with UW and UW-M. I understand your abbreviations, but had to read twice initially when I first saw UW since that is used for both.

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It’s well known that transferring into CS at Washington is incredibly difficult. I would really research this before deciding. If CS is really what you know you will study, direct admit is the best option.

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Can you afford UWisc?

Going to a school where you can study what you want trumps the alternative but you also need to be able to afford it.

Alternatively, you can start at a JC or still apply to many of the great schools still accepting apps where you can study CS for less.

But going to school and not assuredly being able to study CS puts too much pressure on you and might make it so that you can’t study it at all.

Best of luck to you.

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One in the hand is better than two in the bush. You’re in the UWisc CS Department. Who knows if you will get into the CS Department at UW?

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Hasn’t it become almost impossible to do an internal transfer into CS at UWash since they decided to prioritize freshman admits?
The real question is
Would you rather major in a CS-adjacent at a lower price or in CS at a higher price?
With the subquestion: can your parents afford that choice or is UWash the only possibility?

Madison is considered one of the best towns for college students. It’s the state capital so there’s plenty to do and while it’s not a tech hub, students can easily get summer internships in Chicago or The Twins Cities.

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Thank you guys for the responses. After discussing it, I think UW-Madison would be the best choice, as an overwhelming amount of people have suggested it. Yes, it’s extremely expensive for a state school, but UW-Madison provides a safety that UW-Seattle does not have in the slightest. Thank you guys again for all the support.

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As long as you can afford it…

Best of luck to you and wishing you a wonderful four years !!

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UW Madison will set you up well for future jobs, or advanced studies. Companies recruit there from everywhere because it is a nationally and internationally recognized university with strong alumni networks on the West Coast if that is where you want to end up. Just make sure that you get involved in some things outside of academics while you are there to develop your people skills. Employers will look for candidates who have technical, academic and soft skills, because those people perform best in a collaborative work environment. People at UW Madison are insanely friendly and that makes up for the chilly weather. Good luck making your decision.

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