Planning Your Visit
International travelers can contact grad-advising@cs.washington.edu if they need a travel support letter for the visa process. Be sure to include travel dates and the faculty contact in the request, so the letter can be issued quickly.
Visit Logistics
Please RSVP to visit days using the individual link provided to you via email at the time of admission. We’re excited to welcome you!
Accessibility Requests
The University of Washington & the Paul G. Allen School is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, and activities. To make a request connected to a disability or health condition please use the accomodations section of the RSVP form or contact grad-advising@cs.washington.edu by February 21, 2024.
Transportation
- The Allen School will reimburse up to $500 for domestic travel and $750 for international travel.
You will be reimbursed after the conclusion of your trip. Ground transportation to and from the airport may be included in this reimbursement request. We are unable to reimburse premium seats or ground transportation upgrades (e.g., “Uber Comfort”). - Keep your receipts.
- Travel receipts must show vendor name, amount paid, transaction type, last four digits of the credit or debit card used and full itinerary. Airfare receipts need to include price, seat status (economy), and the departure/arrival date and time. A bank or credit card statement with this information is also acceptable.
- The UW requires that reimbursements are sent to the person whose name appears on the submitted receipt(s). UW can only reimburse for tickets purchased in economy class (no premium, business, or first class).
- Travel receipts must show vendor name, amount paid, transaction type, last four digits of the credit or debit card used and full itinerary. Airfare receipts need to include price, seat status (economy), and the departure/arrival date and time. A bank or credit card statement with this information is also acceptable.
- If your travel does not begin and end at the same location:
- Tell us your travel itinerary and other Visit Days trips!
Email grad-advising@cs and tell us about your travel plans. Please highlight other institutional visit days in the email, as we work to share costs. We’ll handle all of this on the backend. - Take a screenshot of a “comparable trip.”
Request the price of one flight on March 11th from your home location to Seattle and one flight on March 14th from Seattle to your home location. Take a screenshot of these prices and save them as a PDF for reimbursement later.
Include the entire website in your screenshot, avoid cropping, and sort “comparable trip” fares by price (lowest). However, make sure to “comparable” arrival and departure times rather than displaying the least expensive red-eyes. - We can only cover ground transportation for the UW leg of your trip.
- Tell us your travel itinerary and other Visit Days trips!
Lodging
The Allen School will provide up to 3 nights hotel accommodation in a nearby hotel, The Graduate (charged directly to the Allen School). Visitors may need to put a credit card down for incidentals at the time of check-in, but the nightly rate will be billed directly to the Allen School. We make reservations for you after you have RSVPed via the individual link that was provided via email.
The Graduate Hotel
4507 Brooklyn Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105
The Graduate Hotel is walking distance from the U-District Station of the light rail from SeaTac Airport. At the airport, follow signs for “Link light rail”. Tickets can be purchased at the station and trains depart every 8-10 minutes most of the day.
Homestay Option (Lodging)
Instead of a hotel, you can also indicate that you’d like a “homestay” in the home of a current UW Ph.D. Computer Science student. Sometimes this is a great way for getting a feel for what it’s like as a graduate student.
Finding the Allen School on the UW Campus
The Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering and the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering are located across from one another on E Stevens Way NE, the main UW campus loop road.
- Paul G. Allen Center location on the UW campus map here. 185 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195
- Bill & Melinda Gates Center location on the UW campus map here. 3800 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195
- Locate specific rooms in our public directory
The Graduate Hotel is a 16 minute walk to the Allen School buildings, much of which can be taken through campus. The Link Light Rail is another option: board at the U-District station near The Gradaute Hotel heaidng in the direction of the SeaTac Airport/Angle Lake. Get off at the University of Washington stop, from there it will be a 5 min walk to the Allen School buildings. Uber/Lyft is aslo fairly quick and easy to obtain, and would take about 5 minutes from The Graduate Hotel to the Allen School bulidings.
COVID-19
The UW posts all current updates regarding COVID-19 policies and procedures on their Novel Coronavirus facts & resources page. Masks are recommended but not required on campus. Please don’t attend if you’re ill!
Reimbursement Process
We are asked to provide the UW privacy policy with regard to the reimbursements.
To be reimbursed for the transportation costs, please submit your information (including detailed receipts) via this form. We offer direct deposit equivalents for domestic prospective students and wire transfers for foreign nationals. Processing takes at least a month. We can offer a paper check, but this may result in massive delays.