Thoughts on Wash U in St. Louis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:30 years ago nobody outside the midwest had heard of Wash U. Since then, it has raised its profile, primarily by awarding merit money to coasties. Now it draws a ton of very strong applicants from this area, as well as other metro areas along the east coast.

Really, I think you're mistaken. I went to high school in Virginia over 30 years ago, and it has always had an excellent reputation.

I went to Sidwell 25 years ago and one of my classmates went there. No one had really heard of it then (that was before US News rankings of course). Now it's one of the most popular schools for Sidwell students to attend. Definitely changed.

I'm the first PP quoted and I'll stand by my original statement, though I do want to clarify that it wasn't in any way meant as a slam against Wash U. I went to a top public high school in California and came east to college as did many of my classmates. None of us would have even applied to Wash U back then, but the school has a very different image now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:30 years ago nobody outside the midwest had heard of Wash U. Since then, it has raised its profile, primarily by awarding merit money to coasties. Now it draws a ton of very strong applicants from this area, as well as other metro areas along the east coast.

Really, I think you're mistaken. I went to high school in Virginia over 30 years ago, and it has always had an excellent reputation.

I went to Sidwell 25 years ago and one of my classmates went there. No one had really heard of it then (that was before US News rankings of course). Now it's one of the most popular schools for Sidwell students to attend. Definitely changed.

Perhaps the Sidwell guidance counselors and students hadn't really heard of it, but the school was well known by the guidance counselors of many top notch southern private schools. We definitely recommended it to top tier students. I remember one year the cover showed a snow scene, and a future Duke student I knew well wasn't sure he wanted to go where it was so cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has a fairly good reputation, but it does engage in some quasi-sleazy tactics such as aggressively encouraging kids to apply whom it has no intent of admitting, for no other purposes than trying to make the school seem more selective.

This, in spades.

SO tired of the games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has a fairly good reputation, but it does engage in some quasi-sleazy tactics such as aggressively encouraging kids to apply whom it has no intent of admitting, for no other purposes than trying to make the school seem more selective.

This, in spades.

SO tired of the games.

And you and the PP have first-hand knowledge that this particular school engages in "some quasi-sleazy tactics?" Cite your sources, please.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be one person who has an axe to grind with WashU - posts on every possible thread that WASHU makes submitting applications easy to inflate the rankings. Dumbest thing ever for those who understand how the rankings are made.

[Anonymous]

Re quasi sleazy tactics. Here are some (Wash U is far from alone, and not as bad as some):

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/22/us/a-mighty-fund-raising-effort-helps-lift-a-college-s-ranking.html

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/02/which-schools-arent-lying-their-way-higher-us-news-ranking/61874/

[Anonymous]

I went to Sidwell 25 years ago and one of my classmates went there. No one had really heard of it then (that was before US News rankings of course). Now it's one of the most popular schools for Sidwell students to attend. Definitely changed.

There always have been and always will be people who think the only schools that are selective and worth attending are the ivies and whatever the most prestigious public school is nearby (in the DC area, UVA). I think this attitude has been decreasing somewhat due to the internet and the US News rankings, but it doesn't mean a school used to be bad or un-selective.

[Anonymous]

New poster here, not PP. I know from direct experience that Wash U offers kids a fee preliminary application when they tour the school, so its absolutely true that they are trying to game the rankings. This doesn't mean its necessarily a bad school but its certainly a strike against them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re quasi sleazy tactics. Here are some (Wash U is far from alone, and not as bad as some):

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/22/us/a-mighty-fund-raising-effort-helps-lift-a-college-s-ranking.html

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/02/which-schools-arent-lying-their-way-higher-us-news-ranking/61874/

The NY Times article linked above is TEN years old! The rankings methodology has changed since then and # of applications is just one small factor is one of many categories: selectivity. If you could influence rankings as much as some think by just increasing the # of applications, the California State schools would own the top ten - their check the box and apply to every school approach resulted in nearly 100,000 apps to UCLA this year. It's not that simple folks.

The other (main) factor the NY Times discussed a decade ago is a 3.5 billion fund raising push to increase endowment. Hard to imagine anything "sleazy" about increasing resources and improving facilities leading to improved rankings. One of the great thing about the US News rankings is that it identifies and rewards the schools making improvements so those looking to learn about colleges don't have to rely only on outdated stereotypes and what they thought they knew 20 years ago.

[Anonymous]

When schools move up, other move down and some resent changes to the status quo as they knew it.

[Anonymous]

The average ACT at WUSTL is 32-34. It doesn't matter how many kids apply. Their accepted students are outstanding. It's very selective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average ACT at WUSTL is 32-34. It doesn't matter how many kids apply. Their accepted students are outstanding. It's very selective.

And their math SAT scores are a little bit higher than Stanford or University of Chicago or any of the Ivy League schools. That makes sense to me because it's a heavily math/science/business oriented campus (biology and engineering and business). It's a great place for science majors who want a liberal arts experience.

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/sat-top-universities.htm

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/sat_side_x_side.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Seems to attract very bright kids from our HS. Never really heard of it until DC's college search. Does it have a midwestern vibe to it? Does is have enough brand name recognition outside of the midwest? What are your thoughts/experiences?

I have several very bright friends who have graduated from there in recent years. These people are from all over the country (East Coast, West Coast, and Chicago area), so it definitely has a national appeal. It is a very selective school and has some great programs. As far as the people who say it is on par with UVA or UMD College Park they are uninformed.

Are you being sarcastic? Wash U is one of the best private universities in the country - it's definitely on par with UVA or UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:30 years ago nobody outside the midwest had heard of Wash U. Since then, it has raised its profile, primarily by awarding merit money to coasties. Now it draws a ton of very strong applicants from this area, as well as other metro areas along the east coast.

Really, I think you're mistaken. I went to high school in Virginia over 30 years ago, and it has always had an excellent reputation.

I went to Sidwell 25 years ago and one of my classmates went there. No one had really heard of it then (that was before US News rankings of course). Now it's one of the most popular schools for Sidwell students to attend. Definitely changed.

I'm the first PP quoted and I'll stand by my original statement, though I do want to clarify that it wasn't in any way meant as a slam against Wash U. I went to a top public high school in California and came east to college as did many of my classmates. None of us would have even applied to Wash U back then, but the school has a very different image now.

I don't believe it ever had a bad image.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:30 years ago nobody outside the midwest had heard of Wash U. Since then, it has raised its profile, primarily by awarding merit money to coasties. Now it draws a ton of very strong applicants from this area, as well as other metro areas along the east coast.

Really, I think you're mistaken. I went to high school in Virginia over 30 years ago, and it has always had an excellent reputation.

I went to Sidwell 25 years ago and one of my classmates went there. No one had really heard of it then (that was before US News rankings of course). Now it's one of the most popular schools for Sidwell students to attend. Definitely changed.

I'm the first PP quoted and I'll stand by my original statement, though I do want to clarify that it wasn't in any way meant as a slam against Wash U. I went to a top public high school in California and came east to college as did many of my classmates. None of us would have even applied to Wash U back then, but the school has a very different image now.

I don't believe it ever had a bad image.

It wasn't a "bad" image, but it was either unknown or considered a B-list school. This is true of many schools that are now highly-regarded (examples: Chicago, Duke, Middlebury), so don't take it personally. As another PP noted, schools rise and fall in rankings, whether formal or informal ones. Here's another example: I went to law school at Stanford in the late '80s, when the school's rep was just taking off, but my parents were concerned because I turned down Yale to go there. I grew up in California, where, not so long ago Stanford had been considered a solid, but not outstanding, regional law school. I can remember showing my parents an article from the New York Times describing Stanford's rise in order to persuade them that I wasn't making a terrible mistake.