Transfer Admissions
Our transfer pathway welcomes applicants from other colleges or universities who are interested in transferring into Computer Science or Computer Engineering at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus.
Am I a transfer applicant?
Transfer applicants are students who are currently or were previously enrolled at a college or university other than the University of Washington’s Seattle campus after graduating from high school. Typically, transfer applicants will have around two years of coursework completed prior to applying to the Allen School and will be prepared to graduate from the Allen School in around two years of full-time, in-person study.
Running Start students who are currently in high school and/or did not continue with college after high school graduation are not considered transfer students and should apply through our Direct to Major pathway. All other students should review our Undergraduate Admissions page to determine which pathway is appropriate for them! Unfortunately, we do not accept applications from students who already have a bachelor’s degree.
Preparing to Apply
Before applying for Allen School transfer admissions, applicants must complete a minimum of 30 graded credits & the Allen School prerequisite courses.
How to Apply
Key Dates & Deadlines
The Allen School accepts applications for students to start in either spring or autumn quarter, we do not accept applications for winter or summer quarters.
Spring Admissions
UW Transfer Application Opens:
November 1
UW Transfer Application Closes:
December 15
Allen School Departmental Application Opens:
Early January
Allen School Departmental Application Closes:
January 15 at 5:00 pm PT
Admissions Decisions Released:
Early February
Autumn Admissions
UW Transfer Application Opens:
December 15
UW Transfer Application Closes:
February 15
Allen School Departmental Application Opens:
Late March
Allen School Departmental Application Closes:
April 5 at 5:00 pm PT
Admissions Decisions Released:
Early May
Transfer Application Process
Step 1: UW Transfer Application
- Submit the UW transfer application by the appropriate deadline for either spring or autumn quarter.
- If you miss the UW application deadline, you will not be able to apply to the Allen School as a transfer applicant.
- The UW Office of Admissions – Transfer Students and Spring Quarter UW Applicants pages may help you with planning your UW transfer application. If you have questions about your UW application, please reach out to the UW Office of Admissions at askuwadm@uw.edu.
Step 2: Allen School Departmental Application
- After completing the minimum academic requirements, submit the Allen School departmental application by the appropriate deadline for the quarter you plan to apply.
- The Allen School departmental application is typically open for about two weeks before the application deadline. Interested in starting early? The departmental application essay prompt is available online at any time (look at the Computer Science & Engineering dropdown).
Minimum Academic Requirements
To be eligible to apply for direct transfer admissions into the Allen School, applicants must complete all academic requirements by the appropriate departmental application deadline. The minimum academic requirements for Allen School transfer applicants include:
- Completing a minimum of 30 graded credits prior to applying
- Credit by exam (such as AP or IB), while transferable, is not considered graded credit and cannot count toward this requirement.
- Completing the Allen School prerequisite requirements
- These courses must be completed and numerically graded (with a minimum grade of a 2.0, unless completed through credit by exam) prior to the departmental application deadline.
- Listed below using UW courses numbers, use the Determining Course Equivalency dropdown to learn how to find equivalent courses at your current institution.
| Subject Area | Prerequisites |
|---|---|
| Math | MATH 124, 125, & 126 |
| Computer Science | CSE 143 (or CSE 123) |
| English | Five credits of English composition |
| Natural Science | if Computer Engineering major: PHYS 121 if Computer Science major (choose one): PHYS 121, BIOL 180, or CHEM 142 (or a course from the CS Natural Science requirement list) |
- Math: Please note that taking two semesters of calculus is considered equivalent to taking three quarters of calculus. Additionally, some Washington State Community Colleges teach Calculus in a 4-part sequence – please be aware that you may need both Calculus III and Calculus IV to be eligible for Allen School transfer admissions.
- Computer Science: The Allen School’s introductory computing sequence is taught in Java and we strongly prefer that students have college level experience with Java before enrolling at the UW. If your introductory computing sequence is taught in a language other than Java and you are admitted but unable to take a course taught in Java prior to enrolling, you will need to take CSE 123 as a corequisite to CSE 311 during your first quarter.
- English: Any college level English or writing course, including courses in other subject areas with a writing designation printed on your transcript, can count toward the English Composition requirement for the purpose of admissions. However, credit by exam cannot substitute for English Composition.
- Natural Science: Only calculus-based physics mechanics courses are considered equivalent to PHYS 121. Science courses must have a lab component. Washington Community College students pursuing the Computer Science major should be aware that they may need three biology courses to meet the prerequisite requirement should they choose biology rather than chemistry or physics.
If you are attending a Washington State Community College, you can also use the UW Equivalency Guide to determine how your community college coursework might transfer to the UW. Some Washington Community Colleges do not offer all of the Allen School prerequisite courses. If this is the case at your school, we recommend enrolling in the remaining prerequisite courses at another Washington State Community College prior to applying.
If you have college coursework from a regionally accredited 4-year or out-of-state institution, you can use our online UW course catalog to determine which courses at your institution are most closely related to our prerequisite courses. Unfortunately, the UW is unable to evaluate equivalency for transfer credit until after an applicant has been admitted. For more information about UW’s transfer credit policies please refer to the Office of Admissions Transfer Credit Policies webpage.
If you have completed exams for credit such as Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or A Level & AS Level exams, please refer to the Office of Admissions – Exams for Credit website for information on how your credits would transfer to UW based on your exam score.
Please note that it is not possible to earn credit for the UW’s English Composition requirement through credit by exam at this time, even if your previous institution waived an English requirement based on your credit by exam. All applicants must have an English or writing course at a college or university to be eligible to apply.
All applicants to the Allen School are required to complete the Allen School prerequisite courses (shown above) by the departmental application deadline for the quarter that they are applying. The Allen School’s transfer pathway is designed to be completed within two years of full-time study. Prerequisite coursework is essential to ensure that applicants are prepared for upper division coursework upon entering our program so that they are able to graduate on time. Similarly, prerequisite coursework is necessary to ensure that our academic application review is fair to all applicants.
However, our admission process is not intended to cause large gaps in a student’s academic experience and we will consider requests to apply with one prerequisite in progress. Students can only be considered for a prerequisite exception if they:
- Will have 90 quarter credits completed by the time of enrollment at the University of Washington
- Meet all other academic requirements including a minimum of 30 graded credits
- Have the final prerequisite course in-progress at the departmental application deadline
Please note: if a prerequisite course is not offered at your current institution, you are still expected to have the course in-progress at the time of application. This does not apply to applicants studying at foreign universities in non-English speaking countries who do not have access to an English Composition course. For students studying in the US, many WA Community Colleges offer online equivalents to the prerequisite coursework.
The Prerequisite Exception Request Form for the spring and autumn 2027 admissions cycles will open in early November. To request a prerequisite exception, please ensure that you have submitted the Prerequisite Exception Request Form by 5:00 pm PT on the departmental application deadline date (January 15 for spring applicants; April 5 for autumn applicants). We recommend submitting the form early, as soon as you can provide proof of enrollment in your final prerequisite course!
You will not be able to submit your application without an approved substitution. If you are filling-out this form close to the departmental application deadline, please complete all other sections and questions in your application by the 5:00 pm PT application deadline. Someone from the Undergraduate Student Services Team will submit your application on your behalf if your request is approved.
Download a Transfer Planning Worksheet
Strengthen Your Application
The Allen School transfer admissions committee uses a holistic review process, which considers academic achievement, personal characteristics, socioeconomic disadvantage, higher education institution(s) attended, and residency. We recognize that transfer students often have complex academic histories. Our academic review will take into account a student’s entire academic record but will primarily focus on the most recent grades in each prerequisite subject area, including grades beyond the prerequisite courses. Applicants are encouraged to give context to any academic inconsistencies, including grading irregularities (e.g., repeats, drops, S/NS grades, etc.) on their transcript by explaining any circumstances that may have affected their academic performance in their application essay.
Most transfer students enter with around two years of coursework and a GPA of 3.8 or better in their most recent prerequisite subject area courses. Personal characteristics are evaluated through the personal statement and Work History/Activities sections of the departmental application. Transfer applicants are encouraged to fully answer all portions of the personal statement; the departmental application is reviewed separately from the UW transfer application, so applicants should feel free to repeat any relevant information in both personal statements. No computing experience beyond the minimum academic requirements is needed!
Decisions
Though transfer applicants submit their Allen School departmental application after their UW transfer application, they can expect to hear from the Allen School first. If a student has been offered direct transfer admission into an Allen School major, it is extremely likely that they will also be admitted to the UW.
Spring quarter transfer applicants can only be admitted to the UW if they are admitted directly into a major. Autumn quarter applicants may receive an offer of admission from the UW even if they were not admitted to the Allen School. In this case, we would only recommend enrolling at the UW if you are open to studying other majors on campus.
Transfer Admissions Statistics
The University of Washington is a public institution, which means that funding for the university comes partially from Washington state. For this reason, priority in admissions is offered to Washington state residents and Washington state community college students. In fact, over 90% of transfer applicants admitted to the Allen School in recent years have been transferring directly from a Washington state community college.
| Data from the Spring 2025 & Autumn 2025 Application Cycles | Eligible Applicants Considered for Allen School Transfer Admissions | Transfer Applicants Admitted into Computer Science or Computer Engineering | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA Residents from a WA Community College | 161 | 62 | 38.51% |
| Non-Residents from a WA Community College | 75 | 12 | 16.00% |
| WA Residents from 4-Year & Out-of-State Institutions | 33 | 2 | 6.06% |
| Non-Residents from 4-Year & Out-of-State Institutions | 114 | 0 | 0.00% |
Past Years’ Admissions Statistics
2024 Statistics
| Data from the Spring 2024 & Autumn 2024 Application Cycles | Eligible Applicants Considered for Allen School Transfer Admissions | Transfer Applicants Admitted into Computer Science or Computer Engineering | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA Residents from a WA Community College | 171 | 62 | 36.30% |
| Non-Residents from a WA Community College | 72 | 9 | 12.5% |
| WA Residents from 4-Year & Out-of-State Institutions | 40 | 4 | 10% |
| Non-Residents from 4-Year & Out-of-State Institutions | 110 | 2 | 1.80% |
Questions?
Our recruitment team is happy to help. You can reach out to us via email at outreach@cs.washington.edu!