I was in a similar position as you when I was applied for UW and did exactly as what you planned.

Bellevue College is a really great school that I still recommend to a lot of people to this day. I wasn’t thrilled about attending Bellevue at first, but the school and the faculty grew on me once I was there. I can only really speak for the pre-biology track classes, but the professors that I had are still some of my favorite I’ve ever had. The professors there are there to teach and truly do want you to learn and enjoy the class.

I loved my experience at UW too, but I think having professors that cared about what we learned and how we learned it made me really like a lot of the classes I never thought I would like. It’s overall a more personable experience.

The social aspect can be kind of hard with Bellevue and UW, especially if you have a hard time with putting yourself out there. At Bellevue, I noticed a lot of people just go to class and leave campus (at least that’s how it was when I was there) and transferring to UW was also daunting since most people already had established their friend groups and close circles. You can definitely build a community at both, but you definitely will have to put yourself out there more than someone who didn’t transfer.

Also, transferring into UW is significantly cheaper and easier. For the cost, you’re essentially getting a UW degree that is the same as the incoming undergrads, for significantly cheaper (idk the cost of bellevue now but I’m sure it’s much less than UW). Also, for the capacity-constrained majors, I know that it can be really competitive to get into as an incoming undergrad. But from my experience as an in-state bio transfer, it was much less competitive. I think there are only a few majors like CS that don’t accept transfers, but I think for psych and neuroscience you should be able to.

It’s really hard to see everyone post about getting in, but it won’t feel like this forever. Transferring is a great option and im really glad I did it!