It depends.

WUSTL is probably better for pre-professional.

The posters who say "no one has ever heard of WUSTL" are correct if one is talking about the general population that recognizes college names based on college sports coverage. If your DC is interested in grad school, the people who matter most (those on the admissions committees) know WUSTL and think highly of it.

Research opportunities and mentoring by prominent faculty may also be easier to come by at a smaller school like WUSTL.

WUSTL's med school and law school are well respected.

WUSTL may be the highest ranked school that still gives merit aid rather than being totally need-based.

Anonymous wrote:Wisc in state for sure.

+1000. Not even close.

Wisc in state for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WUSTL is a very fine school. It just gets a lot of crap from people because it is full of ivy+ rejects. Emory and GU have a similar reputation, i.e. full of kids who are competitive and prestige-driven but not good enough to get into any of the top schools.

+10000 Being the place for kids rejected from ivies doesn't make them second tier though. The ivies reject tons of perfectly qualified kids every year.

Agree with this. I also think the nasty comments about St. Louis are bizarre. I don't think there are many urban/semi-urban universities with a more vibrant surrounding neighborhood. My kid gave WashU very serious consideration, and I think any bright and motivated kid can get an amazing education there. It's really not very economically diverse though.

Wisconsin in-state would be very tough to turn down. I've never met anyone who went there who didn't love it.

Feel better about yourself for saying that?

Please - Wisconsin kids are very bright, but their families aren't as wealthy or pretentious.

Wash U is the ultimate destination for the children of try-hard helicopter parents who couldn't manage to get them into a top school. The best they could do was send them to a school in a declining city that spams kids all over the country with marketing materials.

drastically different schools for different types of students. my daughter is a senior a WashU and loved it.

not sure many of the Wisconsin students could keep up with the academics as Wash U. Very challenging.

Anonymous wrote:WUSTL is a very fine school. It just gets a lot of crap from people because it is full of ivy+ rejects. Emory and GU have a similar reputation, i.e. full of kids who are competitive and prestige-driven but not good enough to get into any of the top schools.

+10000 Being the place for kids rejected from ivies doesn't make them second tier though. The ivies reject tons of perfectly qualified kids every year.

Unless I was rolling in money and the extra $180K wouldn't make a difference...Wisconsin. No brainer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If US News didn't exist few would know WashU existed.

LOL

You might not know, because you are barely in the ranks of the middle-class, but WUSTL has had an excellent reputation among academics and elites for over 100 years.

How many UMC families gunning for WashU want their kid to be a PhD? It's mostly helicopter parents striving for WashU solely because it's ranked in the teens after they shamelessly gamed the data. But tell your kids to have fun in a flyover in a dying city.

WUSTL is a very fine school. It just gets a lot of crap from people because it is full of ivy+ rejects. Emory and GU have a similar reputation, i.e. full of kids who are competitive and prestige-driven but not good enough to get into any of the top schools.

Anonymous wrote:If US News didn't exist few would know WashU existed.

I am sure Wash U is a perfectly fine school but we would all be better off if USNWR did not exist. Mortimer Zuckerman is making too much money off the frenzy he creates.

Not really.

Signed,

An academic and an “elite” (assuming by that you mean someone who is affluent and well-educated)

Anonymous wrote:If US News didn't exist few would know WashU existed.

LOL

You might not know, because you are barely in the ranks of the middle-class, but WUSTL has had an excellent reputation among academics and elites for over 100 years.

Anonymous wrote:If US News didn't exist few would know WashU existed.

You need to get out more.