It's funny, because it seems to me that a lot of the talent coming out of UW CSE isn't going to make it into the valley in any meaningful way.<p>UW CSE is still entirely focused on grades. There's literally no way to include anything but grades in your admission application -- not even recommendation letters. I've talked to some of the admissions faculty, and their argument is that it's unfair to people who are totally new to computer science to deny them on the basis of a lack of prior experience. I totally disagree with this, however -- you're not going to get into a music or acting program without any prior experience, why should you get into a CS program?<p>From what I've seen, a lot of UW graduates end up getting recruited into a big company (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, etc). It's by all means a great program, but it seems like they're never going to have someone they can point to as a success like, for example, Harvard, Stanford, or MIT. I think that's the reason why their reputation is a lot more quiet.<p>FWIW, my co-founder and I have both been rejected from UW CSE (me with an overall 3.8 GPA and several conference papers published as first author while I was still in high school).
This article focuses more on potential employees graduating from UW, but Seattle is a great place to found a startup. In the Valley, everything is pretty crowded, and if you can find real estate, it's not going to be cheap.<p>In Seattle, it's a buyers market and you can grab some office space or a hacker house for a lot less.<p>There are more startup resources in the Valley (accelerators/angels/VCs), but that doesn't mean there is a good amount in the Emerald City. One of them, Madrona Venture Group (<a href="http://www.madrona.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.madrona.com/</a>), just raised $300M to be invested in startups. There are also a few hacker spaces popping up, such as Surf Incubator (<a href="http://www.surfincubator.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.surfincubator.com</a>).<p>If you want a good place to start your company with less competition and more rain, move to Seattle.
> Although Stanford is considered the Hogwarts of techdom, U.W. has quietly established itself as the other West Coast nexus of the information economy.<p>Odd line given that Berkeley is also on the West Coast and is ranked as high as Stanford.
Is it still the case that you need straight As in math and physics to get into CS at UW? It's insane that they crank out psych and english majors by the thousands but keep a lid on CS.
Sorry Pacific Northwest: the NYT Technology section found you. Expect some really weird and disconnected articles about how you have pull in "the IT sector" or "big data" or whatever analysts from obscure hedge funds think is the next thing. Hopefully we can stem the damage before they notice Austin or Boston.
The article is timely. A couple of additional data points:<p>UW CS had a huge increase in admissions (and yield) for the Ph.D. program this year. IIRC they mentioned the incoming class size is almost twice what they had last year.<p>Aided by a recent budget increase, the department also hired a massive number of new faculty this year.
>even if mist and dark skies envelop the scenery for much of the year.<p>Obviously written by someone who doesn't live in Seattle. Seattle is a beautiful city in a very beautiful location. Today it's sunny, 70 degrees, with spectacular views of the lakes, trees, and snow-capped Olympic mountains.
Laying on a hammock across the Puget
Sound from Seattle typing this on an iPad. 75 degrees outside. Beautiful. It's not the norm, but it makes it that much more enjoyable when we get it. In fact, we get to experience all four seasons, and I tend to look forward to each as they arrive. I can't speak directly to the start-up environment, but it is a great place to live. The family manufacturing business I work at has been around for 30 years. As always, thre are things that could been done to improve the small-business climate.