Is UCLA more selective than the University of Washington for undergraduate admissions?

Yes. UCLA is widely regarded as more selective for undergraduate admission than the University of Washington. It gets an enormous national and international applicant pool, has a reputation for turning away many highly qualified students, and admission is particularly tough in popular majors. By contrast, UW is still selective, but overall it is usually seen as a bit more attainable than UCLA.

One major reason is applicant demand and institutional positioning. UCLA sits in the UC system’s most high-profile group of campuses and attracts very large numbers of applicants who are also aiming at the most selective public and private universities in the country. That volume, combined with limited space, pushes the admissions bar very high across the board.

Another important difference is how major choice affects the process. At UW, some programs, especially computer science, engineering, and business-related pathways, can be extremely competitive, sometimes more competitive than the university overall. UCLA also has highly impacted majors, but even outside those areas, the campus itself is typically perceived as harder to enter than UW.

Residency also matters in a way that shapes the comparison. UW gives a notable advantage to Washington residents. So if the question is simply which school is harder to get into as an undergraduate in general, UCLA is the clearer answer.