Essay Questions For Each Major
Provided below are the personal statement prompts used for each specific engineering major. Students are encouraged to use these prompts to begin drafting their personal statements.
Aeronautics & Astronautics
The information you provide in your personal statement will help the A&A Undergraduate Admissions Committee learn about you. We look forward to receiving your application.
Bioengineering
Bioresource Science And Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Write a brief personal statement (approx. 1 single-spaced page). Formatting will be removed, so do not use special characters, italics, or other formatting. Proofread. Be concise.
We suggest you respond to the first question in the list, regarding your interests and goals. You can choose to address any combination of, including none or all of the additional topics in your personal statement - the admission committee uses this statement to better understand you as a person, your academic record, and your interest in chemical engineering:
- Discuss your academic and personal interests and goals.
- Discuss how your personal experiences prepare you to solve problems in diverse teams, and for a diverse world.
- Discuss any activities/extracurriculars you are particularly committed to (ChemE-related or not), why you are involved in these activities, and the skills or insights you gained that you will bring into your future work.
- Describe any challenges or hardships you have overcome in pursuing your education. For example: serious illness; disability; first generation in your family to attend college; significant financial hardship or responsibilities associated with balancing work, family, and school. Include how you persevered, and how the experience(s) impacted yourself or your education.
Additionally, please address the following if they are applicable to you:
- If you have applied to ChemE before, please discuss what has changed or improved since your last application.
- If you plan to complete more than one major, please provide an intellectual or career justification for the double-degree.
- If you will take more than 4 years to graduate, please briefly explain why and discuss your plan for graduating efficiently.
Civil & Environmental Engineering
The purpose of the personal statement is to give the departmental admissions committee a better understanding of your interest in this program. Write a brief statement (approximately one page, single-spaced) telling us about your motivation for majoring in Civil Engineering, the experiences (e.g. work, research, leadership, or extracurricular) that are important to you, and your future goals.
If you have faced unusual or extenuating circumstances, you may wish to discuss this in your personal statement. For example, if you have had to overcome significant obstacles (medical, financial, cultural or personal) to reach where you are now, you could describe how these challenges affected your education and impacted your academic record.
If you are requesting to apply conditionally with a missing application or enrollment requirement, please review the process for a Conditional Application and complete the request form at your earliest convenience.
Applicants who are approved to apply conditionally must address it in their personal statement when and where the outstanding course(s) will be completed.
The purpose of the personal statement is to give the departmental admissions committee a better understanding of your interest in this program. Write a brief statement (approximately one page, single-spaced) telling us about your motivation for majoring in Environmental Engineering, the experiences (e.g. work, research, leadership, or extracurricular) that are important to you, and your future goals.
If you have faced unusual or extenuating circumstances, you may wish to discuss this in your personal statement. For example, if you have had to overcome significant obstacles (medical, financial, cultural or personal) to reach where you are now, you could describe how these challenges affected your education and impacted your academic record.
If you are requesting to apply conditionally with a missing application or enrollment requirement, please review the process for a Conditional Application and complete the request form at your earliest convenience.
Applicants who are approved to apply conditionally must address in the personal statement when and where the outstanding course(s) will be completed.
Computer Science & Engineering
Please address all the required topics below. Your responses must be formatted in sections with these exact headings. The response under each heading should be no more than 250 words.
1. Academic History & Major Choice (Required)
- Tell us about your college career to date, describing your performance, educational path, and academic choices.
- Share what led you to choose to study Computer Science or Computer Engineering.
- Explain any situations that may have had a significant positive or negative impact on your academic progress or curricular choices. What happened, and what was the impact for you?
- Transfer applicants only: What are the specific reasons you wish to leave your most recent college/university or program?
2. Future Academic & Career Goals (Required)
- Tell us about your future academic goals in college and your career and/or post-graduation plans.
- How will the Allen School help you achieve your goals?
- If you plan to pursue more than one major, tell us why both majors are important to you (if applicable).
- If you will take more than 4 years to graduate, please briefly explain why and discuss your plan for graduating efficiently (if applicable).
- Transfer applicants only: Why do you want to transfer to UW?
3. Commitment to Community (Required)
- Our communities (clubs, employment, hobbies, extracurricular activities, etc) often prepare us to solve problems in diverse teams and for a diverse world.
- Tell us about any significant communities that you are actively involved with or have recently been a part of within the past two years, and your role in them.
- Why are you involved in these communities?
- How did these communities benefit from your involvement?
- What perspectives, skills, or insights will you bring to the Allen School community or future work as a result of your participation in these communities?
4. Additional Elements (Optional)
- Tell us about how any of your identities, perspectives, or life experiences would help you contribute to the Allen School community and the computing field. This could include but is not limited to: race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, ability/disability, age, socioeconomic background, academic experience, and veteran status.
- Describe any significant responsibilities you may have in addition to being a student (e.g. parenting responsibilities, work, familial responsibilities). What impact has this had on your college experience? Provide any additional comments you would like to share with the committee.
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Discuss your academic and personal interests and goals.
- Discuss how your personal experiences prepare you to solve problems in diverse teams and for a diverse world.
- Discuss any activities/extracurriculars you are particularly committed to (EE-related or not), why you are involved in these activities, and the skills or insights you gained that you will bring into your future work.
- Describe any challenges or hardships you have overcome in pursuing your education, if applicable. For example: serious illness; disability; first generation in your family to attend college; significant financial hardship or responsibilities associated with balancing work, family, and school. Include how you persevered and how the experience(s) impacted yourself or your education.
- If you have applied to EE before, please discuss what has changed or improved since your last application.
- If you are currently in another major, and intend to switch to EE, please discuss in the essay.
- If you plan to complete more than one major, please provide an intellectual or career justification for the double-degree.
- If you will take more than 4 years to graduate, please briefly explain why and discuss your plan for graduating efficiently.
- If you are post-baccalaureate, why a second Bachelor’s degree is necessary to reach your goal.
- Discuss your academic and personal interests and goals.
- Discuss how your personal experiences prepare you to solve problems in diverse teams and for a diverse world.
- Discuss any activities/extracurriculars you are particularly committed to (ECE-related or not), why you are involved in these activities, and the skills or insights you gained that you will bring into your future work.
- If you have applied to ECE before, please discuss what has changed or improved since your last application.
- If you are currently in another major, and intend to switch to ECE, please discuss in the essay.
- If you plan to complete more than one major, please provide an intellectual or career justification for the double-degree.
- If you will take more than 4 years to graduate, please briefly explain why and discuss your plan for graduating efficiently.
- If you are post-baccalaureate, why a second Bachelor’s degree is necessary to reach your goal.
Human Centered Design & Engineering
Please provide a personal statement that will give the admissions committee an understanding of how you have explored HCDE and determined that majoring in HCDE will be the best fit for your goals. Your personal statement should address all 3 of the following:
1. Please describe the specific activities you have engaged in to learn more about HCDE, including, but not limited to: involvement in student organizations, research, internships, projects, volunteer work, courses, or personal experiences that have helped you identify HCDE as the best fit for your interests and goals for the future.
2. Share instances from your past academic experiences that best show your ability to learn and succeed. What about these experiences contributed to your success, and how will you build on those experiences in HCDE? Please do not share information of a sensitive, traumatic, or private nature.
3. You should also discuss how your personal experiences prepare you to work successfully in diverse and interdisciplinary teams, and toward a more human-centered world. How will your identities, perspectives, and life experiences help you contribute to the HCDE community and the field?
Juniors/seniors only: Please note that the HCDE curriculum takes a minimum of 2 years to complete. If you will be applying to the HCDE major at the end of your junior year or later, please use the “Additional Comments” box in the application to briefly share why you are deciding to change your major, add another degree, or do not yet have another major in progress. Describe the reasons why you will need to extend your graduation timeline beyond 4 years/12 quarters and why this is the best path for meeting your individual academic and career goals.
Your application will be read by the HCDE B.S. admissions committee, which is composed of HCDE faculty and staff members. We suggest using specific examples in your statement and limiting it to approximately one page, single-spaced; this comes out to be roughly 750 words.
Industrial & Systems Engineering
Materials Science & Engineering
- How you learned about the discipline
- Why you would like to study in the MSE program
- What you currently see as your future professional aspirations
In addition, briefly address any of the following ONLY if applicable to you:
- How any work, extra-curricular activities, or research-related experience has informed your decision to apply to MSE
- How you have worked to overcome personal hardship or barriers that impacted your educational pathway
- If you have encountered any unusual or extenuating circumstances that have affected your academic record
- If you are post-baccalaureate, why a second Bachelor's degree is necessary to reach your goal
- If your intent is to pursue more than one major, please provide an intellectual or career justification for the double-degree
- If you are currently in another major, and intend to switch to MSE if admitted, please let us know