<p>Still here wonder123! I'm very satisfied with WUSTL and happy that it gave my two children the opportunity to be part of such good university, but I didn't realized that it was so important that no one that wasn't accepted can let it go and being happy in other places.
Seriously, it is a most competitive institution; you shouldn't give for granted that your child would be accepted, if the others accepted your child, be happy with that, not every kid is that lucky to have so many wonderful choices.</p>
<p>wonder's back? Both of the lurking bitter parents of the washu board!</p>
<p>I come from a community where almost everyone goes to community college or local state schools, and only around 40-50 percent even go to college. I'm the first to go even get into a school like washu or have big plans like this, save for a couple kids interested in Northwestern. </p>
<p>It always sickens me to see parents like you who think your children are so much better than everyone else and "deserved" this spot at WashU, even when we know they weren't going to take it because they'll be attending Harvard and the like, mainly because of the name. I know I'm right. You're just upset because you have to say to all your friends, "My son/daughter got into *name, *name, *name, *name, etc....BUT WAS WAITLISTED AT WASHU! OH MY! HOW DARE THEY!!?!?!? You should be privileged to have children that have these opportunities. Sure you helped to provide them, but what if you had a child that was born with something that prevented them from even attending college? It is NOT their God-given right to get into wherever they please just because they scored well and did whatever else amazing things. Everyone is amazing in their own right. How dare you think otherwise. Let other kids who actually would use that spot on WashU's acceptance list as an honor and a privilege to them that they'll cherish take it, instead of you who would just have it as your trophy.</p>
<p>And please, get off this board and stop harrassing everyone. Let people make decisions that are not completely biased by blinded eyes.</p>
<p>WOW! I had no idea that I said or thought all of those things. Just one question. How are people going to make decisions that are not completely biased by blinded eyes if all they get are opinions that are approved by you? Silly me, I thought this was a forum for discussion.</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch for the help. My dad went to WashU and my English teacher/AcaDeca coach got a full ride there and absolutely loves me, so I think that would help out my recommendations. Just one more question though, where can I get more information about the Danforth scholarship?</p>
<p>The best way to do it is have your GC contact the WashU admissions office. They will send out a nomination form. Each freshman class usually has 16 - 20 Danforth Scholars. Some are awarded full tuition, others half tuition. The Danforth award can be combined with other merit awards. In our case the combo resulted in full tuition plus a considerable additional sum to cover room & board. </p>
<p>In addition to the money there are many other benefits to the Scholars programs at WashU. Once again apply for as many as possible (any that you feel you might have any chance of qualifying for). Good luck.</p>
<p>cressmom, you have every reason to be happy for your kids to be in washu. Nobody is trying to say that wash u is not a good school. Yes, our kids have good places to go. However, they are unfairly treated by wash u. Wash u has gone too far in playing the admission rate and yield trick. If one is wronged, one has the right to speak out, I guess. One added note, the admission office never said that my child does not qualify for wash u. You have right to be happy. I guess I have right to speak out on the unfairness.</p>
<p>Actually, sorry to sound clueless, but when do I apply for these scholarships?</p>
<p>Have your GC get the Danforth nomination form as soon as possible. From what I remember Danforth nominations are due in the early fall of your senior year in HS. The application deadlines for the other scholarships are on the WashU website.</p>
<p>I don't understand you, Wonder 123, are you implying that a university has to admit your child and in the case he is not admitted that university is unfair to him? There are no rights to be accepted, any university can accept the students they want, I've never seeing a law that says that if a university has said the average SAT is 2000-2200 has to admit every student in that range.
Wonder123 you have to realize that there are many brilliant students, but the universities can't give all of them a place, somebody has to be left out. When you apply for a position at any company, you are not the only one who does that, no one is entitled to it, just the recruiter can said who is in.
You really like Wash U, do you? Your kid could apply for a transfer next year or maybe next semester, not everything is lost.</p>
<p>cressmom, many people on this board have emphersized how special wash u is. However, there got to be some standard that everybody can follow and understand. Wash u sends out lots of mails to get students to apply and then just humiliate them by waitlisting them, this is false advertisement. You have mentioned that people seeking employment, if an employer rejects many highly qualified applicants, it is likely to get suited. My D applied to wash u because she was applying for the merit scholaships, without scholarship, she was not going to consider wash u. I guess many good students applied for the scholarships were waitlisted. Wash u admission figured that these students are unlikely attend wash u and waitlist them. Worst of all, wash u sent out a congratulation card with the scholarship rejection letter, I was told by the admission, that the waitlist letter were also prepared at the time of scholarship rejection. You know you are going to reject them for scholarship and going to waitlist them, no sensible person would send a congratulation card with it. (Note that the scholarship applicants were waitlisted before other applicants, they use scholarship to lower its admission rate, waitlist them to raise its yield).</p>
<p>To begin with admissions and scholarships are decided be different committees. That is done for a reason - so one does not have any effect on the other. Second, I would be very interested what you base statements like "Note that the scholarship applicants were waitlisted before other applicants, they use scholarship to lower its admission rate, waitlist them to raise its yield". Since the WashU established separate committees is to keep the processes separate, I seriously doubt that anyone would give out info like this that was not valid.</p>
<p>As for the active promo via mail etc. - I guess all advertisers, who's ads fill our mailboxes every day should be accused of "false advertisement". I think part of the problem is that you don't realize or possibly are not willing to accept how competetive the scholarships programs and admissions are. Having direct involvement with the scholarship programs and having met the students in the programs - these are amazing kids. I am sure your child is a great student and will end up in a situation where they will be very happy. Just realize that there are many great students out there - some of whom obviously were a better fit for WashU. </p>
<p>Wishing you and your student a great four year college experience.</p>
<p>...so please just take this for what it's worth.</p>
<p>D was accepted into Visual Design/Arts, but received a letter saying she did not qualify for any of the 'biggy' scholarships. We thought, OK, WUSTL made THAT decision easy as the expenses were prohibitive. Not knowing the in's and out's of WUSTL scholarships, I called the admissions office to verify if, indeed, the letter we received meant that all the "free"/non-loan money was essentiallygone; I was told (erroneously, it turns out) yes....gone. He encouraged me to call financial svcs anyway and they'd "work with us";</p>
<p>EDIT: Sorry....kinda new to this -- hit the Post Reply before I was done...more coming. :/</p>
<p>SallyK - you are absolutely right. Major merit scholarships, the ones that have separate applications, are handled by separate committees. Once those have been awarded, all other financial aid is handled by financial services. From what I know there is a combo of merit/need based money available from financial services. They try their best to work with students to make WashU as afordable as possible. Do they always succeed? Pobably not - but they will "go the extra mile" whenever possible.</p>
<p>Ugh!!! I am having such newbie problems posting....I just spent 10 minutes fashioning a Part 2, hit the "Post Reply", had to log back in, and the message is gone!!! :P</p>
<p>...Part 2 (!): We plopped the WUSTL paperwork into the "no thanks" pile. Days later, we receive the official financial award: to our surprise, D received an academic/institutional scholarship! She is excited to be attending this fall.</p>
<p>Wonder, I would agree it's false advertising if the literature promised to admit everyone who applied, but that's not the case. There's no denying that applicants feel the utter humiliation that comes from the rejection of non-admittance (or being waitlisted), but I don't think we should blame the schools for that. D certainly never felt that receiving literature from an institution had any bearing on whether or not she'd be admitted. I counseled D to set her sites high, but lower her expectations (or at least ground them), given the incredibly competitive environment that is college admissions. When she received the intial letter indicating no scholarships, she simply said, "Mom, I guess there are a lot more high caliber students out there than we expected." Utterly disappointed, but we knew we had to move on. A good friend of hers got waitlisted, but said friend took the hint and simply moved on to her next choice.</p>
<p>We actually appreciated receiving all the literature, as we otherwise would never even have heard of WUSTL! I do think we were inundated with more paper from Univ of Evansville....not to mention the incessant e-mail solicitations from various schools (Switzerland was starting to sound awfully cool!!!!).</p>
<p>Finally, regarding a "standard that everybody can follow and understand": it does not appear that WUSTL is unique in its less-than-transparent admissions policies. I'm relatively new to the boards, but have read time and again of many admissions decisions that leave posters scratching their heads. We're still wondering how D was rejected by UCLA, but offered admission to Cal, Duke, Carnegie-Mellon (arguably, more difficult schools to get into...but please let's not argue....). Go figure.....</p>
<p>Wonder, I do admit that when we received the "no scholarship" letter immediately followed by the "come spend a free weekend on us" notice, I had the knee-jerk reaction of "you have GOT to be kidding me."</p>
<p>Ditto.....Same experience here</p>
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<p>Received rejection letter for the big named scholarship prior to admittance.....Received early notification on 3/9 for her admittance....Invited to the Multicultural and Art weekends (not able to attend the Art weekend because of band conflict)........Received a sizable University Scholarship in her financial package.....Heading to St. Louis today to attend Multicultural weekend.</p>
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<p>After D was admitted, we were very thrilled but holding our breath until the financial letter arrived. There was no way we could afford WashU (her ultimate dream school) without any scholarship/aid money. Now she is a very happy student attending WashU in fall. She has also signed up for the Pre-freshman summer program and cannot wait to start school there. My D has found a perfect fit for herself and I hope all graduating seniors will too. For her, it's the fit and quality of life that matter the most (of course, academic is important too:). </p>
<p>I just want to relate our experience and echo what SallyK has said in her post. People can judge for themselves and make the best decision according to their own unique situation. I guess the moral of my story is to reach high and never give up. </p>
<p>Congratulations to all seniors and parents!!! Give yourself a pat on your back. Best of luck to everyone in your new schools.</p>
<p>Hey, WashMomG! So your D is an art major? Mine, too, though with primary emphasis on graphic design, not studio. And yours? Coincidence....</p>
<p>P.S. Have a good time this weekend! By the time we got all the financial aid details resolved, D had missed the deadline. No biggy: she already visited in the fall. AND this means she still has exemption days left and won't need to take final exams.....yes! :)</p>
<p>wash u is a selective school and nobody expects it will accept all applicants. The POINT is they it should not have waitlisted applicants because it thinks the applicant is likely to attend a better school, such as Harvard or Stanford.</p>
<p>I know, I know, some wash u lovers will say that wash u is THE best school. If you think that way, I have no arguement with you.</p>