Welcome Teachers, Counselors, Advisers, & Community Organizations!

This page is intended for Washington State teachers, high school counselors, community college advisers, and community organizations with an interest in connecting their K-12 and community college students with the Allen School and learning more about the Allen School admissions process. We are excited that you are here!


On this page

The Allen School is excited to offer multiple ways for your school to engage with us! In the School Visit Opportunities section of this page, you can learn all about inviting us to your school or program or bringing students to campus! We also want to make sure that you can provide accurate and up-to-date advising to your students who may be applying to our program. The best way to learn more about the admissions pathways is by visiting our Direct-to-Major (High School Student) or Transfer Student pages. On this site, you can learn about the differences between application pathways and any recent changes to our admissions processes.


A costumed mascot of a Husky sits next to a student at a table in a brick walled room, behind them are students at 2 other tables, as another student writes on a whiteboard on the right side of the background

School Visit Opportunities

We are so glad that you are interested in scheduling a school visit with us! This section outlines the types of opportunities that we are currently able to offer but if you have an idea for something that is not listed, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate it if we have the capacity to do so. School visits are hosted by the Undergraduate Diversity & Access team and our mission is to attract and educate the next generation of outstanding computer scientists and computer engineers who reflect the many dimensions of diversity in Washington State. While we will accommodate as many visit requests as we can, our priority is for schools and groups that serve students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in computing. Please reach out to outreach@cs.washington.edu with any questions!


Request a Visit


Visit Option Description
Invite our recruiter to a college/career fair This opportunity is for schools and programs that are already hosting a college or career fair. We are happy to travel to your location in Washington State or attend virtually if we are available. We have standard tabling materials but please let us know if there is any specific information you would like presented. Please note that we are unable to help with the planning of these events.
Invite our recruiter to give a direct-to-major (high school) information session The Allen School hosts a virtual information session for prospective high school students on the first Friday of each month. In addition, we are able to travel to your location or present virtual information sessions for your students. Our community partner information sessions typically have a greater emphasis on why students might be interested in studying in a computing major and the college application process more broadly but if you have specific information requests we would be pleased to accommodate them..
Invite our recruiter to give a transfer information session The Allen School hosts a virtual information session for prospective transfer school students on the second Thursday of each month. In addition, we are able to travel to community colleges within Washington State or present virtual information sessions for your students. The information presented in our community college visits is quite similar to our standard information sessions so students may not need to attend both. If you have specific information requests we would be pleased to accommodate them.
Request to a group field trip to the Allen School There are five standard options to choose from when you bring your students to the Allen School for a field trip. These include a building tour, an information session, a research lab tour, or educational activity, and Q&A with current Allen School students. You can choose multiple of these options. We work with middle, high school, and community college students. Unfortunately, we do not have activities for elementary-age students. Please note that we do not offer field trips in the Summer quarter
Invite the Allen School Ambassadors to Lead an Activity at your School Our student ambassadors are available to present one of four activities for your students. Our “Day in the Life” Presentation or Student Panels will give your students a glimpse into what it is like to study at the Allen School and the University more broadly. Classroom assistance is an opportunity to have Allen School students provide curricular support for teachers and Tech Talks are designed to help students see the applications of computing in everyday life. Please note that student ambassador led activities are only available during the academic year and are suspended for summers and school breaks.

A photograph of a sign that reads Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering

Application at a Glance

High School Students
Running Start Students
Transfer Students
  • Apply through the Transfer Admission pathway
  • Submit two applications: the UW Transfer Application (reviewed by the Office of Admissions) and the departmental supplemental application (reviewed by a committee of Allen School faculty and staff)
  • Prerequisite coursework must be completed by the departmental supplemental application deadline
  • All courses that are listed in the UW Equivalency Guide will transfer
  • Courses from 4-year and out-of-state institutions may transfer if the school was regionally accredited but we are unable to evaluate transfer credit from these schools until a student is admitted. Students should compare descriptions in our course catalog with those at their previous institution
  • Transfer applicants from Washington State Community or Technical colleges receive priority in admissions
  • Admissions cycles available to begin in Autumn or Spring quarters
Current UW Students
  • Students can enter our majors after they have already enrolled at the University of Washington, however this pathway is especially competitive so we do not recommend it for students who already know that they would like to study computer science or computer engineering before coming to UW
  • Learn more about the Current UW Student pathway

Allen School Admissions News

Spring Quarter 2022: A Change in the Prerequisite Deadline

New this year, all transfer students to the Allen School are required to have their prerequisite coursework completed by the departmental supplemental application deadline. This policy went into effect for Spring 2022 admissions. For the first two admissions cycles, we considered prerequisite exemption requests on a case-by-case basis. We will continue to have an exemption request process, however the criteria needed to gain an exemption will increase and students are strongly encouraged to wait until they are academically prepared to apply.


Autumn Quarter 2021: Computer Engineering Joins the Direct-to-Major Pathway

Effective for the freshmen class of 2021, applicants who select Computer Engineering as their first-choice major on their UW freshman application are considered for Direct to Major (DTM) admission into the Allen School instead of Direct to College (DTC) admission in the College of Engineering. Although computer engineering is an engineering degree, it is housed in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Aligning admissions for the computer engineering and computer science majors provides greater transparency to applicants who intend to pursue either or these majors.

All freshman applicants who meet UW admissions criteria and who select Computer Science or Computer Engineering as their first-choice major on their application will be considered for DTM admission in the Allen School. The UW Office of Admissions will offer Direct to Major admission based on a holistic review that includes established criteria and selection guidelines developed in partnership with the Allen School.