Admission to majors

If you selected a pre-major on your first-year application for admission, it will be your assigned major in your offer of admission.

If you requested an open major on your first-year application for admission, it will be your assigned major in your offer of admission.

Minimum requirement majors have a set of prerequisite courses and a minimum GPA that must be met once you are enrolled at the UW. Students who successfully complete the prerequisites will be admitted to their major. If you selected a minimum requirements major as your first choice on your first-year application for admission, you will have a pre-major as your assigned major in the offer of admission. You will also see a pre-major listed as your assigned major if you specifically requested a pre-major (pre-science, pre-humanities, etc.).

Capacity-constrained majors are selective and have extra requirements, which may include an additional application process. Completing the minimum admission requirements does not guarantee entry. You will apply to most of these majors once you are a UW student.

NOTE: Majors in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and the College of Engineering are capacity-constrained. The main pathway is direct first-year admission. Current UW students may apply to them after enrollment, but space is extremely limited. Please see the Direct to Major section for more detail on Allen School majors and the  Direct to College section for more information on majors in the College of Engineering.

While most students will enter their major through the standard admission process after they are enrolled at the UW, some students are admitted directly to a major as first-year students. If you selected one of these programs as your first choice on your first-year application for admission, you were automatically considered for direct-to-major admission. 

Don’t be discouraged if you were not admitted directly to one of these majors as a first-year student. The majority of students will enter these majors through the standard admission process after satisfying prerequisites and meeting departmental requirements.

*The only exceptions are computer science and computer engineering, where capacity is more limited. Therefore, if you are not admitted directly to computer science or computer engineering as a first-year student, we recommend considering alternate areas of study at the UW.

**For most music majors, an audition on your primary instrument is also required.

If you selected an engineering major or “engineering undeclared” as your first choice on your first-year application for admission, you were considered for Direct to College admission to the College of Engineering. Regardless of the engineering major you selected on the application, you will be assigned “Engineering undeclared” as your major if you are admitted Direct to College. As an engineering student, you will go through a process of exploration and selection into a specific engineering major. You will see “pre-major” as your assigned major if you are not admitted directly into the College of Engineering.

We are unable to guarantee admission to the College of Engineering or to a specific engineering major if you are not admitted as a first-year student. Therefore, we recommend considering alternate areas of study at the UW. However, the opportunity remains for students to apply to an engineering major through the capacity-constrained pathway once they are enrolled at the UW. Connect with a departmental adviser to explore your options.