My UW CS Application

When I first got into UW, I applied to and was rejected from the computer engineering major. Looking back, I had pretty terrible reasoning for picking that major: my parents were both computer science/engineering majors at UW and advised me to pick it because it was the "hardest one to get into," so I could transfer out easily if I got in. To be honest, I wasn't even particularly interested in computer engineering, so it makes sense that I was rejected.

Then, in Winter 2022, my second quarter at UW, I applied to the computer science major and got in. What changed? In many ways, my personal statement for the CS major tells this exact story.

My sudden interest in studying computer science was sparked by an internship that I did with a legal technology company the summer before my freshman year. I had connected with Greg Siskind, the head of a large immigration law firm in Tennessee, through Michelle Bomberger, my mentor and boss at my first internship with a local business law firm. I learned from Greg that his law firm was starting a spin-off company focused on legal technology, and after I expressed my interest in their work, he offered me an internship. At this time, of course, ChatGPT had yet to be released, so the actual work I did was relatively uninteresting and involved working mostly with no-code interfaces. However, I became interested in the larger potential for technology to be combined with fields like law. I had always known that I wanted to study philosophy and another technical field, so I though applying to the computer science major would provide me the perfect background in conjunction with a philosophy major to explore this new field. I believe that this newfound personal interest in computer science shone through in my application and was the biggest reason that I was then accepted into the program.

Looking back now, I can't be happier that I chose to major in philosophy and computer science. ChatGPT was released the same year that I got into the CS major, sparking entirely new conversations about AI ethics and AI policy that I've had the luck to be able to explore with my interdisciplinary coursework. Though I am no longer as interested in legal technology as I was before, I've discovered a whole new world of possibilities of what I can pursue after college that I could have never predicted when I first applied to the CS major.

I can't conclude this reflection without also mentioning my mentor, Tara Saleh, who I met during my freshman year and generously contributed so much of her time to help me revise my personal statement. If you want to read my personal statement, I've attached it here:

UW CSE Personal Statement [Share].docx

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