What is WashU trying to accomplish by adding EA?

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting hypothesis and at first read sounds counter-intuitive, but looking at our own school (a top feeder private), something has changed with HYP admitted kids in the past 2-3 cycles.

The solid smartest kids applied ED to Penn, JHU, Duke, NU, Cornell...schools they feel would be more predictable and they want to be done by Dec. HYP admits have been mostly legacies, URM/first gens with slightly lower stats (you can tell from Naviance), and kids who went for the lottery (mostly boys). It's a weird mix whereas the Penn/JHU/Duke/NU/Cornell ED admits are more well-rounded strong kids who have been known to be top of class since middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are only so many great students. Every highly selective college wants them, regardless of their family income. So there's this arms race going on in the early rounds to get them and lock them in.

My personal theory is that the SCEA schools - HYPSM - are mostly filled with students that didn't get into a school in the ED round. I'd be curious if there's any data to support it. But Duke, Penn, Vanderbilt, Rice, Brown, Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and WashU are really keen to get the best students early so they don't even need to apply anywhere else.

Harvard and Princeton and Yale are for those who didn't get in elsewhere. MIT and Stanford have different things going on and unique admissions. But I think overall, a lot of the very finite number of great students get picked up in the early rounds, which begets this arms race among colleges to get them to apply early to their school.

I think it’s a great option when schools offer EA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

Only Emory Mom can link a poorly written article with a negative assumption about WashU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

Only Emory Mom can link a poorly written article with a negative assumption about WashU

So every negative comment about washu is from Emory mom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting hypothesis and at first read sounds counter-intuitive, but looking at our own school (a top feeder private), something has changed with HYP admitted kids in the past 2-3 cycles.

The solid smartest kids applied ED to Penn, JHU, Duke, NU, Cornell...schools they feel would be more predictable and they want to be done by Dec. HYP admits have been mostly legacies, URM/first gens with slightly lower stats (you can tell from Naviance), and kids who went for the lottery (mostly boys). It's a weird mix whereas the Penn/JHU/Duke/NU/Cornell ED admits are more well-rounded strong kids who have been known to be top of class since middle school.

Very true at our private as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting hypothesis and at first read sounds counter-intuitive, but looking at our own school (a top feeder private), something has changed with HYP admitted kids in the past 2-3 cycles.

The solid smartest kids applied ED to Penn, JHU, Duke, NU, Cornell...schools they feel would be more predictable and they want to be done by Dec. HYP admits have been mostly legacies, URM/first gens with slightly lower stats (you can tell from Naviance), and kids who went for the lottery (mostly boys). It's a weird mix whereas the Penn/JHU/Duke/NU/Cornell ED admits are more well-rounded strong kids who have been known to be top of class since middle school.

Interesting how the legacy students are somehow never the kids with slightly lower stats, but any chance dcum can find to disparage first gen low income students!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting hypothesis and at first read sounds counter-intuitive, but looking at our own school (a top feeder private), something has changed with HYP admitted kids in the past 2-3 cycles.

The solid smartest kids applied ED to Penn, JHU, Duke, NU, Cornell...schools they feel would be more predictable and they want to be done by Dec. HYP admits have been mostly legacies, URM/first gens with slightly lower stats (you can tell from Naviance), and kids who went for the lottery (mostly boys). It's a weird mix whereas the Penn/JHU/Duke/NU/Cornell ED admits are more well-rounded strong kids who have been known to be top of class since middle school.

Interesting how the legacy students are somehow never the kids with slightly lower stats, but any chance dcum can find to disparage first gen low income students!

Neither legacy nor FGLI students have lower stats at our school. While others are solid smart, the HYP admits tend to have a unique talent or something different to bring to the table (not legacy or FGLI and if they are legacy/FGLI, they have the X factor too).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

Only Emory Mom can link a poorly written article with a negative assumption about WashU

So every negative comment about washu is from Emory mom?

It is what is said. Preposterous and stupid statements. The above one is an example. Another one was something like the students are all wealthy because a fountain on campus has the name of the donor on it. When pressed, she doubled down and said and also the students take ubers to go to brunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So next year's strategy for highest stat STEM applicants:

EA to MIT, Wash U., Georgia Tech

Can you do this and also SCEA to HYP or ED a T20?

If you SCEA/REA to an HYP, you could still EA to Michigan and Georgia Tech since they are public, but not MIT, WashU, USC, and Case. If you ED to a t20, then you could EA to anything as long as it's not an SCEA/REA school.

You can also skip ED/SCEA entirely and apply EA to: MIT, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Wash U, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UVA, UNC, USC, Wisconsin, Georgia, Case, and Tulane. Yes?

Yes, you can do this, but EA does not give your child any real advantage since it's non-binding and a fair number of these schools care about yield and may defer your kid.

EA is non-binding, but an EA acceptance gives the kid a nice floor. EA acceptance means kid can whittle down RD list to only reaches. For a place like Wash U, that could increase early interest.

People who might have applied RD to Emory or Vanderbilt might decide to forego those apps if they have an acceptance to Wash U in their pocket, and only apply to high reaches. If rejected from high reaches, kids are not deciding btw Wash U and Emory/Vanderbilt/NW. They just go to Wash U.

Definitely not true. Nobody is picking WashU over Vandy/NU/other higher-ranked schools.

You’re wrong.

This. My kid’s friend turned Harvard down for WashU.

That's the merit doing its job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

Only Emory Mom can link a poorly written article with a negative assumption about WashU

So every negative comment about washu is from Emory mom?

It is what is said. Preposterous and stupid statements. The above one is an example. Another one was something like the students are all wealthy because a fountain on campus has the name of the donor on it. When pressed, she doubled down and said and also the students take ubers to go to brunch.

Np. Well that is not entirely true because I made the second comment on that thread in defence of WashU kids. I am not Emory mom. My point was they are very well off at washu for the most part. But it’s not the flashy private jets, trips and yacht parties like you see at UMiami for example. I lived in St Louis. They are just very comfortable. They get extremely nice dorm and dinning accommodations at WashU. And they love eating out at the really good food scene in St Louis. What seemed to me a lot. I personally knew students who regularly are out with a large group of friends. It was obvious they didn’t have any concern for money. I wasn’t disparaging them or the school. Quite the opposite. They otherwise seemed like delightful, down to earth, students.

I loved St Louis by the way. I would raise a family there. Lots to do and low col. nice Midwestern people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

Only Emory Mom can link a poorly written article with a negative assumption about WashU

So every negative comment about washu is from Emory mom?

... My point was they are very well off at washu for the most part. But it’s not the flashy private jets, trips and yacht parties like you see at UMiami for example. I lived in St Louis. They are just very comfortable. They get extremely nice dorm and dinning accommodations at WashU. And they love eating out at the really good food scene in St Louis. What seemed to me a lot. I personally knew students who regularly are out with a large group of friends. It was obvious they didn’t have any concern for money. I wasn’t disparaging them or the school. Quite the opposite. They otherwise seemed like delightful, down to earth, students.

+1. Dorms at WashU are unbelievably nice, and no, it's not just the show room. The entire area surrounding the dorms, called South 40, feels like an upscale neighborhood and oozes money. I was like, college dorms shouldn't be like that -- just google "WashU South 40" and click images and you'll see it. We also toured Northwestern, Penn, Duke, Vandy, and Rice, and only Rice came close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forbes has an article out on this that I don't believe has been linked (might be pay walled):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizdoestone/2026/05/27/applications-to-washington-university-in-st-louis-are-about-to-surge/

This article is hilariously bad, maybe it was written by ChatGPT? Woohoo one less essay, get ready for the floodgates! It reads like a paid promotion.

Right…it sounds like Forbes took some WashU $$$ in exchange for a boosting article.

Only Emory Mom can link a poorly written article with a negative assumption about WashU

So every negative comment about washu is from Emory mom?

It is what is said. Preposterous and stupid statements. The above one is an example. Another one was something like the students are all wealthy because a fountain on campus has the name of the donor on it. When pressed, she doubled down and said and also the students take ubers to go to brunch.

Np. Well that is not entirely true because I made the second comment on that thread in defence of WashU kids. I am not Emory mom. My point was they are very well off at washu for the most part. But it’s not the flashy private jets, trips and yacht parties like you see at UMiami for example. I lived in St Louis. They are just very comfortable. They get extremely nice dorm and dinning accommodations at WashU. And they love eating out at the really good food scene in St Louis. What seemed to me a lot. I personally knew students who regularly are out with a large group of friends. It was obvious they didn’t have any concern for money. I wasn’t disparaging them or the school. Quite the opposite. They otherwise seemed like delightful, down to earth, students.

I loved St Louis by the way. I would raise a family there. Lots to do and low col. nice Midwestern people.

My guess is you don’t have a student there. A massive number are on financial aid. I go and visit and drive a group to the Aldi where they spend 30 min debating value and need. They share clothes needed for events bc they aren’t buying new. They share Ubers or pay $5 to rent a car as a group. One friend’s summer wardrobe for an office job she got is completely free from the professional closet they have there. This is not a handful like this…most that I meet are like this. In fact, I didn’t even know intl students could be on aid…but I haven’t met one who isn’t based on income level.

The fact that it’s beautiful and well maintained does NOT mean these kids are all wealthy. Some? Sure.

[Anonymous]

They really ought to think about using something like a modified residency matching program for a first round and then a RD round.