Admissions

Biology admissions navigation

Click the links below to navigate:

  1. Application dates
  2. How to apply
  3. Program prerequisites
  4. Notes on transferring courses

Application dates and deadlines

Visit the University of Washington Bothell admissions site for application dates and deadlines.

How to apply

Internal Applications

If you are a pre-major student at the University of Washington Bothell, please submit an internal application online. Students from UW Seattle or Tacoma campus, please complete a transfer application, below. If you have questions about the internal application process, please contact premajor advising at uwbadvis@uw.edu, or visit our premajor advising website.

Transfer Applications

If you are a student from an institution other than the University of Washington Bothell, please submit a transfer application online. Students from UW Seattle or Tacoma campus, please use this application.

If you have questions about the transfer application process, please visit our transfer advising website.

Program prerequisites

The prerequisites for entry into the Biology program at the University of Washington, Bothell are:

  • A one-year Introductory Biology series intended for science majors. The series should be equivalent to the B BIO 180, 200, 220 series as offered at UW Bothell, and must include labs. Each course in the series must be completed with a grade of 2.0 or higher for an application to be considered.
  • A one-year General Chemistry series intended for science majors. The series should be equivalent to the B CHEM 143+144, 153+154, 163+164 series at UW Bothell, and must include labs. The average grade earned in the  General Chemistry series must be 2.0 or higher for an application to be considered.

The University of Washington operates on a quarter system. If you are transferring from an institution that operates on a semester system, then please note that a three-quarter series and a two-semester series are usually considered equivalent.

You may submit an application while you have your final Intro Biology and/or General Chemistry course in progress, but these courses must be completed before you begin your first quarter in the Biology major.

Notes on transferring courses

To determine how most courses from a 2-year institution in Washington state transfer to the University of Washington Bothell, visit our transfer equivalency guide.

Certain coursework from Washington colleges will not count for similarly named requirements of the UW Bothell Biology degree. These include:

Incomplete Biology, Chemistry, or Physics series

Sequences of coursework often differ between institutions in terms of exact content and what order key concepts are taught. Because of this, single courses from other institutions may not be directly equivalent to single courses in our series, even if the series is equivalent as a whole. We strongly recommend that you take all courses in these series before transferring to UW Bothell, or wait until after you transfer to start the first class in a series.

Microbiology

The Cell Biology and Biology Elective requirements of the degree must be fulfilled using upper level coursework. This coursework should itself require introductory-level biology as a prerequisite, and should be comprehensive in nature (not just pathology-specific). Because of this, the following courses are not accepted for the requirement:

  • MICROM 301, 302 (General Microbiology) at the UW Seattle Campus
  • BIOL& 260 (Microbiology) at Washington colleges
  • Other microbiology coursework without introductory biology as a prerequisite

Anatomy & Physiology

The Physiology and Biology Electives requirements of the degree must be fulfilled using upper level coursework. This coursework should itself require introductory-level biology as a prerequisite, and should be comprehensive in nature (not just human-specific). Because of this, the following courses are not accepted for the requirement:

  • B STR 301, 118, 119 (Human Anatomy, Survey of Physiology) at the UW Seattle Campus
  • BIOL& 231, 232 (Human Anatomy, Human Physiology) at Washington colleges
  • BIOL& 241, 242 (Human A&P I, II) at Washington colleges
  • BIOL& 251, 252, 253 (Human A&P I, II, III) at Washington colleges
  • Other physiology coursework without introductory biology as a prerequisite