Washington University St Louis
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Anonymous
Don't know what happened, if anything, but those who game it get the spoils. |
Anonymous
No one's saying it's a bad school, but do you really think it's has a comparable national reputation to Cornell, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame or Berkeley, all of which are similarly ranked? |
Anonymous
*it has* |
Anonymous
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I am a Wash U alum and some of the information posted above is factually inaccurate. First of all, you don't have to be invited to apply ED. All schools with ED programs prefer ES applicants for two reasons: primarily because of the yield increase, as mentioned, but also because you and up with a campus of kids who REALLY want to be there. This just creates a happy, positive group of kids. Wash U cracked into the top 10 at #9 in fall 2003 (I know because it was my freshman year!) and this was a huge deal for the community. Since then it has hovered between 12-15, which is right around where it was before the 2003 aberration.
I had the best experience at Wash U. The dorms were amazing, the people were great, my professors were fantastic. I was encouraged to succeed and I always felt supported every step of the way. I actually graduated in only three years, and I did not enter with an unusual amount of AP credit. Everyone made it easy for me and helped me plan out how I could do it. I had great internships too, etc. Overall I look back and those were the happiest years of my life! If I have one negative thing to say, it would be the financial aspect of the student population that a few people mentioned. It was definitely a given that we all had money. A bunch of my friends (myself included) worked part time jobs and no one looked down on us for that- but at the end of the day we all came from families with money, had our own cars, ate out all the time, and so on. Definitely not the real world, but I didn't realize that until I entered the real world! |
Anonymous
My situation is similar as I had never heard of Rice until 2012 but that didn't mean it wasn't nationally known or unheard of by others. I can name 20 schools that I am now very familiar with that but were alresdy well known to others outside of my limited realm. |
Anonymous
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There's an increasing nationalization of college reputations as major corporate players organized at that level find ways to profit from the college search process. The question I wonder about is the extent to which the reputations this system creates/alters are deserved. On the one hand, it's certainly the case that more visibility will elevate the mainstream status of schools that have been (somewhat) hidden gems all along. On the other hand, there's the prospect that gaming the system and/or herd mentality will elevate the stature of schools that really don't seem exceptional in any meaningful way. Somewhere in the middle, there's a potential transformative effect -- a school that becomes highly-rated at a point where it's really nothing special might become a significantly better school if its increasing salience were to attract a more diverse and talented student body or better faculty or more recruiters.
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Anonymous
That part is true. At least for a while they were absolutely shameless about trying to encourage students they did not want to admit to apply for the sole purpose of appearing more selective. Chicago does the same thing. It actually backfires on the schools and makes them seem a little crass. But Washington U does have a nice country-club feel and some beautiful buildings, if you want an Ivy-like experience and can't get into one or don't want to be in Upstate NY or New Hampshire in the middle of winter. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Good Lord! Once again I am perplexed by the absolute vitriol over colleges displayed on this forum. Look at the Wash U statistics and see the kinds of kids that go there; figure out what happens to them when they leave. It is clearly an excellent school. It has been for some time. What is the point of saying (about any school) that it doesn't have a 'national reputation,' or it isn't as good as an Ivy. BS. The only reputation these schools need is with future grad schools and employers and most of the schools discussed on this forum have that whether some of you ridiculous posters believe it or not. I always wonder who the hell is posting these things? Where did you go to college? Where did your kids go? |
Anonymous
Why do you recharacterize fact-sharing and opinions as vitriol? Most of what I've read here seems on the mark. Are you that insecure about going or sending a kid there? |
Anonymous
| My AA son got offered a big merit scholarship, but turned it down. Its a great school, but no black kids wants to go anywhere near Missouri right now. I would rule it our because of thsi issue for any kid. |
Anonymous
| I got my BA from WUSTL in 2001. I am a Virginia native, but I was looking for something different for college. Applied to Georgetown, W&M, Middlebury and Oberlin ( a real mixed bag, I know). The weekend I visited Wash U I knew it was the place for me. The people were genuinely nice, engaging, and uniformly bright and interesting. Mostly kids from the Midwest and east coast. I think at the time a third of the students were Jewish. I was on pell grants as were many friends, but I've read how that has changed. I loved my time there. The campus was beautiful, the people were great, the professors nearly all top notch. I was (and still am) in a humanities field. The only negative was that the campus was isolated from the larger city and that they spent so much $$$ on building so many new facilities on campus. Seemed like a lot of "keeping up with the Joneses" to create all these new dorms and activity facilities to match the amenities at richer schools. Which we all thought at the time was a huge joke. But, that is a very small negative. I would choose Wash U again in a heartbeat. |
Anonymous
+1 PP needs to grow thicker skin. The biggest issue with WU-STL is STL. I lived there for a year for an internship and found the whole atmosphere to be stifling/conservative. I met a few people from WU who thought very highly of themselves - almost comically. Anyway, the only good things about STL are toasted ravioli and St. Patrick's Day. |
Anonymous
Well said. |
Anonymous
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Another Wash U alum here (mid-2000s).
Grew up in NC, but deep down wanted to get out of the Duke/UNC tradition, so I looked far and wide and came across Wash U. I was interested in its variety of undergrad specialty programs like architecture, art, engineering, and business combined with a solid liberal arts college. I was at the top of my competitive public HS class (not like TJ, but on par with Woodson or Langley from what I understand about schools here), had a full load of AP classes, near-perfect SATs, a solid art portfolio and some exhibited pieces, community involvement, yadda yadda. Rather embarrassing to share all that, but just wanted to note that I was a pretty competitive applicant other than being an upper middle class white girl. My other top choices were Duke, Cornell, and UVA (admitted to all, with at least partial scholarships...didn't get into Yale). Wash U won me over when I visited. I loved the campus, the academic vibe and the possibilities of what I could study. The residential life seemed very welcoming, even for a prepped out southern girl who was clearly NOT from Chicago or NJ or Jewish. (Yes, the student body draws heavily from urban centers, mostly Chicagoland and NY/NJ/CT and to a lesser degree LA/SF. Also heavily Jewish, but by no means exclusively so.) To me, it was the quintessential college experience. Idyllic campus, top notch facilities and access to faculty. Small classes for the most part -- even things like Western Civ probably had no more than 100-200 people in the lecture. The only detractor (to some) is the lack of Div I athletics. Football games are played on a field that looks like it could be a high school stadium. People may deride St. Louis as a city, but the campus allows you to hide from it OR live in it as much as you want. I was fascinated by it, and loved living off campus for a couple years in urban neighborhoods (grew up in small city/suburbs, so it was a great intro for me!). Developed an affinity for baseball (Go Cards!) and historic architecture. My husband and I now discuss that we would move back to St Louis but probably nowhere else in the Midwest if the opportunity came up. I loved every minute of it, had so much flexibility and support in figuring out what I wanted to do -- met people who had completely different perspectives than myself. There's a Greek system on campus, which I was part of, but it's not the only social scene. I continue to have friends and connections all over the country and the world thanks to my time at Wash U. The population does slant towards very upper middle class, but in my experience, was not 'stuffy' or 'pretentious.' There's no denying the school is expensive, but they also have a huge endowment. I had very little idea what the financial situation of most of my peers were other than they weren't struggling to afford food, etc. Some worked on campus, some didn't. Some had cars, some didn't. Lots had aid or scholarships, plenty didn't. I had a merit scholarship (would not have qualified for need-based), my husband had loans and need-based grants. I could be naive as I was one of the many from UMC backgrounds at the school, but really -- it was not an issue that I noticed while in school. The politics of the school lean pretty liberal; definitely not the Republican country club crowd. I've usually found that most people I encounter in professional/academic settings now respond well to Wash U. Lots of classmates went though top tier law, med, and biz programs after graduation. Others got in with some of the notable companies/firms that are tied in or recruit at Wash U -- A-B, Enterprise, Boeing, 3M, Deloitte. Granted we graduated before the economy turned, but I didn't know of anyone struggling to find work. Many people moved back to East and West coasts; you're not 'stuck' in the Midwest because of the degree. Couple classmates on White House staff, working in finance, etc. Hope your family has a great visit. Highly recommend staying/eating in the Central West End and/or Clayton. They border the two ends of campus and show off the different types of neighborhood and resources you can find in St Louis. Happy to answer any questions if you have them, OP! |