4 ms·

Hah! Fun story: I was rejected from University of Washington CS as well. Since then, here is a list of some projects I've made that are used by tens of thousand

Hah! Fun story: I was rejected from University of Washington CS as well. Since then, here is a list of some projects I've made that are used by tens of thousands of companies/orgs worldwide (including UW ;)): Vagrant, Packer, Serf. For more backstory: I applied direct to UW CS from high school, rather than waiting a year or two into undergrad to apply. I had a background in programming (not what I'd call "CS"), I had successfully run a software business for 4 years, I had a 4.0 high school GPA, had perfect 5 AP scores across the board in basically every subject imaginable, played varsity sports, was part of extracurriculars, etc etc. I thought it was a safe bet, an easy in. Surprise surprise: I was accepted to UW, but rejected to the CS college. Ego blow. At the same time, I was directly accepted to the Carnegie Mellon CS program, which is a pretty good school, if you don't know. My ego tempted me to accept this. After all, in much of the CS academic community (and to some regards industry as well), having a CMU degree is regarded VERY highly. But, I visited Seattle anyways since I had those tickets booked already and I ended up falling in love with the city and atmosphere. So I attended UW anyways. I failed my first quarter of college (whoops, was too cocky, never attended class), got a 4.0 in my 2nd quarter, and re-applied to UW CS. Miraculously, they accepted me. I graduated in 2011, and here I am. I'm a big Husky at heart and the UW CS program is amazing. I was bitter for a short while, but the things I'm working on today would simply be impossible without a strong academic background, so I'm thankful I pushed through and got my degree in CS rather than sitting on the sidelines. This has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but figured someone might find this anecdotal story interesting.

namelezz 13y ago
Thumb up for both you and OP. Glad things work out for both of you.
hga 13y ago
Wow, the acceptance into CMU's CS program is more meaningful than you may realize. Besides being one of the top 4 schools for CS in the world, Stanford, UC Berkeley and MIT are the others, unlike the 2 other private schools (don't know so much about Berkeley), they limit their class size to 135 students, and have a separate admissions program for that. That they would accept you and UW didn't suggests either UW screwed up, or just had too many qualified applicants and your luck initially wasn't good.
- mitchellh 13y ago
  I actually do realize that. They accepted 185 students that year to CS worldwide, and I was one of those 185. I just didn't mention it for whatever reason. But yes, I kept my acceptance letter as a point of pride, but I still went to UW. :)
- Dewie 13y ago
  > Wow, the acceptance into CMU's CS program is more meaningful than you may realize. Does mitchellh really seem like the type to downplay accomplishments?
  - hga 13y ago
    Errr, yeah. He even confirms he knew the class size limit but didn't flaunt it (my word choice there). I just wanted to make it crystal clear what it meant to achieve that, especially in contrast to the initial UW rejection and, as he says in response, he kept the acceptance letter "as a point of pride" ^_^.
- infinite8s 13y ago
  Did the CMU CS program have separate admissions 20 years ago? I applied to CMU for CS, got in (but don't remember if it was for CS or just CMU in general) and then couldn't afford to go even with the aid package (biggest mistake of my life!).
  - hga 13y ago
    Do not know, I've only been recently studying the top 4 after the dot.com crash, when CS enrollments also crashed. While not actually being an EECS major (science was my calling), I have close ties to the MIT EECS undergraduate program and wanted to see how the other schools were dealing with these problems. The department's enrollment crashed by more than half after decades of being 40% of the undergrads; they were panicked into developing a new curriculum, and a new meaning of what it meant to get a MIT EECS degree.

namelezz 13y ago

Thumb up for both you and OP. Glad things work out for both of you.

hga 13y ago

Wow, the acceptance into CMU's CS program is more meaningful than you may realize. Besides being one of the top 4 schools for CS in the world, Stanford, UC Berkeley and MIT are the others, unlike the 2 other private schools (don't know so much about Berkeley), they limit their class size to 135 students, and have a separate admissions program for that. That they would accept you and UW didn't suggests either UW screwed up, or just had too many qualified applicants and your luck initially wasn't good.

mitchellh 13y ago
I actually do realize that. They accepted 185 students that year to CS worldwide, and I was one of those 185. I just didn't mention it for whatever reason. But yes, I kept my acceptance letter as a point of pride, but I still went to UW. :)
Dewie 13y ago
> Wow, the acceptance into CMU's CS program is more meaningful than you may realize. Does mitchellh really seem like the type to downplay accomplishments?
- hga 13y ago
  Errr, yeah. He even confirms he knew the class size limit but didn't flaunt it (my word choice there). I just wanted to make it crystal clear what it meant to achieve that, especially in contrast to the initial UW rejection and, as he says in response, he kept the acceptance letter "as a point of pride" ^_^.
infinite8s 13y ago
Did the CMU CS program have separate admissions 20 years ago? I applied to CMU for CS, got in (but don't remember if it was for CS or just CMU in general) and then couldn't afford to go even with the aid package (biggest mistake of my life!).
- hga 13y ago
  Do not know, I've only been recently studying the top 4 after the dot.com crash, when CS enrollments also crashed. While not actually being an EECS major (science was my calling), I have close ties to the MIT EECS undergraduate program and wanted to see how the other schools were dealing with these problems. The department's enrollment crashed by more than half after decades of being 40% of the undergrads; they were panicked into developing a new curriculum, and a new meaning of what it meant to get a MIT EECS degree.