<p>^ Thank you <3</p>
<p>LOL, I thought WU has a separate science department....but hmm 'arts and letters'....haha</p>
<p>haha yeah it makes me think of the college of letters at Wesleyan. Anyways, I'd be happy to look over your essays or any of your app if you want. Good luck!</p>
<p>oh i am applying for 08 actually...</p>
<p>haha still a year to go :D</p>
<p>but if i don't get into stanford, haas, or georgetown....i'd be most likely going to go to olin...if i am accepted to it that is..</p>
<p>currently i am preparing for the sat again...cross your fingers for me :P....2300+ please!</p>
<p>oh sweet! well then you have plenty of time, so I would push to get Cal II finished in time to send them a grade as they prefer seeing your performance in a required class rather than the fact that you are simply taking the class. </p>
<p>By the way, I was surfing the school website (I am a little obsessive now) and came across this:</p>
<p>
[quote]
School of Business: Transfer applicants to the Olin School of Business must have completed Calculus II at the college level. If you have questions about applying to the business school, please contact Lanna Skadden, Director of Undergraduate Advising, by phone at (314) 935-4758 or <a href="mailto:skadden@wustl.edu">skadden@wustl.edu</a>.</p>
[/quote]
</a> </p>
<p>So there's the link for what I was talking about and you should contact that lady to see what she says.</p>
<p>oh woww. washu notifies EARLY!</p>
<p>and CONGRATS to you brand. i even remember when you first came to cc, hehe. you totally deserve it, with many more acceptances to come!</p>
<p>Brand, I'm still applying to UT. If I get into Plan II then I will TOTALLY consider going to Austin because I get CRAZY AP hours there and I cannot resist the opportunity to see a Longhorns football game.</p>
<p>My current rankings are: Cornell CALS> WashU >UT Plan II</p>
<p>ah brand, if you are a tootsie pop i'd lick you right now....heck, i'd lick you anyways....<em>don't run!</em></p>
<p>but congrats on your admission. where are you going if you are accepted to all of your choices?</p>
<p>forgiven - haha yeah, thanks! I'm only applying to several others and it's a strange feeling since I actually got into the most difficult college first...I'm just hoping I'll get into Wesleyan too since I'm kinda crazy about that place, but WashU is really growing on me. </p>
<p>dearsir - I'm seriously wondering why you're even concerned about Plan II. You should start trying to make your mind up now since it's very likely that you'll get into UT's Honors Program if you got into WashU. You underestimate how badass you are.</p>
<p>Trivia - lmao...like I said above, the only other school that's a real alternative to WashU for me is Wesleyan, and it remains my #1 choice. I haven't visited either of them yet though so I'll have to make a tough decision most likely, but I'm happy.</p>
<p>i dunno about Wesleyan Brand, but WashU's campus is arguably one of the best in the nation; the only campus which i thought was better (barely) was Yale haha. btw anyone know if there's some general transfer orientation there? we might all meet each other there 0.0</p>
<p>Are any of you guys going to visit (who haven't already)? I might be headed up there pretty soon.</p>
<p>I am going during the week of Mar 12 to 17. That's my spring break.</p>
<p>I think i'll be going to revisit w/ my dad, who hasn't been there yet sometime from Mar 23-Apr1, which is when my spring break is. i can't wait!</p>
<p>
[quote]
i dunno about Wesleyan Brand, but WashU's campus is arguably one of the best in the nation
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree. I wasn't amazed with Brookings Hall at first but after watching a couple videos I realized how beautiful the campus really is. Wesleyan is pretty too, just in a different way. Anyways, I am going to base my decision on a lot more than aesthetics, but I need to be accepted by Wes before I can make a choice, so I'm not thinking about it right now.</p>
<p>Some things to consider:</p>
<p>1) Do you want to live in Saint Louis?
2) Why is WashU so underrated in academia? The primary reason is that it is a pre-professional school, since many students are pre-med. How will this aspect reflect on your record if you want to apply to Ph.D programs? What is the caliber of the specific department of which you will be a part?
3) What is the grading system like? This might seem like a "dirty" question, but it's rather important if you are considering a graduate program whose admissions rubric is based heavily on GPA. Given the predominance of pre-meds, it wouldn't surprise me that the school is slightly grade deflated (the need to weed out pre-meds, and such), though you might obtain respite from upper-level humanities/social sciences courses.</p>
<p>Grade deflation is actually quite popular and science-based institutions: Caltech, MIT, Stanford, JHU, WUSTL, Chicago, Rice (though limited to sciences, and so forth. Few of the foregoing institutions actually offer protection for their harsh grading systems; for instance, one's first semester at MIT is Pass/Fail, and MIT also maintains two transcripts for each student: an internal one that indicates all courses taken and grades earned, and one that is sent to other schools, a transcript that indicates only those grades above a certain letter. Does WashU offer any protection?</p>
<p>While it is good to have a top 25 school under your belt, it is worthwhile to keep as many options open as you can so you can select a school that not only fits you, but also maximizes your chances at professional/grad school. Nowadays, having just an undergraduate degree from a top 25 seems to be becoming increasingly less valuable, so choosing a place that provides great post-graduate opportunities is extremely important.</p>
<p>hey thanks for the advice nspeds, I've been giving some thought myself to number 3 on your list. I'll be done w/ half my premed requirements by the time I even go into WashU, so I'm not too worried about hte weedout effect (tho of course there's O-Chem :( ). Also one reason i really wanted to go to washu was b/c of having a more rigorous science curriculum, so i guess im really asking for a tough courseload. Im coming from UCI right now- does anyone know how "grade deflated" it is in comparison to the ones nspeds mentioned?</p>
<p>Nspeds - your post puts my thoughts into words well. Each point you've raised indicates that I will most likely choose Wesleyan in the end.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nspeds - your post puts my thoughts into words well. Each point you've raised indicates that I will most likely choose Wesleyan in the end.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, keep in mind that there is a lot to consider with Wesleyan as well. Does its lack of graduate strength prevent it from becoming a reputable research institution, such that students really dedicated to their discipline can avail themselves of opportunities? Does the relative lack of support for professional programs and services hinder students' attempts to earn jobs or get into professional school upon graduation?</p>
<p>In my opinion, the only schools that manage to strike a great balance between professional and scholarly support, yet at the same time do not have harsh grading systems are as follows:
Amherst
Williams
Dartmouth
Columbia
Brown
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Wellesley
Stanford</p>
<p>Schools with an edge toward professionalism and a decent grading sytem, but still with tremendous support for scholarly pursuits:
Rice University
University of Virginia
Georgetown University
Berkeley (not sure)</p>
<p>Those are all I can think of, and of course, this is all my opinion.</p>
<p>Berkeley's grading system really depends on the professor (and major! I hear haas is intense), i would say its fair.</p>
<p>Nspeds, I appreciate your insight. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Does its lack of graduate strength prevent it from becoming a reputable research institution, such that students really dedicated to their discipline can avail themselves of opportunities?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I will not be pursuing my discipline beyond the undergraduate level, nor am I particularly dedicated to research, although I obviously do find my major(s) interesting enough.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does the relative lack of support for professional programs and services hinder students' attempts to earn jobs or get into professional school upon graduation?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've looked into Wesleyan's placement for law and it is very good. In fact, when one considers the records for HLS and YLS, Wesleyan sent 7 students to Yale and 5 to Harvard for 2006, compared to WashU which sent 3 to Yale and 10 to Harvard, despite it's larger graduating class size. This is not enough to conclude that one or the other is better at top law school placement, but it at least reinforces the idea that choosing one over the other should not limit my options later on. The more important issue seems to be grade deflation: I have also heard that WashU is tough but am unsure about Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Nspeds, your thoughts have been of tremendous help both in this thread and in the Georgetown questions thread.
Do you think that transferring to UChicago as a sophomore might put me in a better position for graduate school placement than if I were to transfer to Berkeley as a junior? I would bet money against me getting in this year, but if I get lucky enough, I would have to weigh out the grade deflation at Chicago to the negatives of entering a place like Berkeley, where the professors are reportedly very inaccessible, as a junior and having very little time to try to develop relationships with them.</p>