UW Bothell is what happens when a major research university opens a branch campus and actually invests in it. You get University of Washington rigor and resources, but at a human scale. Classes stay small, faculty are accessible, and you're not competing with thousands of students for opportunities.
It's in the Seattle tech corridor, which means internship and job connections in software, tech startups, and established companies are immediate and real. You can build a network while you're still studying. The STEM programs especially benefit from proximity to actual industry.
The catch: you're still part of the UW system, which means some bureaucratic friction and less autonomy than a small school. And prestige-wise, a UW Bothell degree reads slightly different than a UW Seattle one in some hiring contexts, though that gap is closing fast.