<p>I am a Chinese student who is currently attending high school in America. I want to major in computer engineering in college. And I need a large amount of financial aid/scholarship to go to college in the States. I was told WUSL is a good school that offers all kinds of scholarships. But I also know that it is tough to get these scholarships. I am so hesitating whether I should apply to it. Since I have a pretty strong application, can this school be a back-up? How is WUSL compared to Ivy-tier schools? </p>
<p>Any insights on this school or my case are welcome!</p>
<p>I have read that Wash U is NOT good for financial aid.</p>
<p>That being said, my brother’s kid graduated from there, and got a great job right out of college.</p>
<p>It is highly ranked in the US News rankings, but probably somewhat easier to get into than an Ivy League school, because of its midwest location.</p>
<p>Wash U does offer a lot of scholarships, both need-based and merit scholarships. The merit scholarships are very tough to get, but if you have a very high GPA, test scores, and relevant extracurriculars to the program your chances would increase. I’ve had great experiences with Wash U’s need-based aid. I don’t know where some people have “read” that Wash U isn’t great with financial aid. Things may differ for you because you might be considered an international student (although you do go to HS in the US… so I don’t know how that works). Seems that a lot of Universities have different policies. Best to ask them directly. </p>
<p>In terms of academic prestige, Wash U has a reputation on par with a several of the ivies. Of course, the exact reputation will vary based on individual discipline… in your case, Wash U’s Engineering program stacks up pretty well (BME being the strongest sub-field), and with the new buildings that have recently opened and new faculty being hired, Wash U seems to be focusing on further enhancing the Engineering school. Wash U’s reputation does lag in lay prestige… and even though general name recognition is gradually improving, it is kind of nice to go to a school that not every person has heard of. I have friends that turned down Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, and Penn to go here. Many friends applied to Harvard and Yale and didn’t get in; perhaps Wash U was initially a back-up school, but I don’t know a single person that regrets coming here and isn’t loving their college experience. Purely based on my personal opinion and anecdotal experience, I’d say that Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Rice, Cornell, Brown, and Northwestern are the schools that Wash U overlaps the most with in terms of overall academic prestige and applications. Hope that answers the second part of your question.</p>
<p>Computer Engineering is probably among the weakest areas of Wash U. CS or EE are both excellent, but CE is kind of a leftover combination of the two.</p>
<p>Are you international student (not a green card holder)? In general, most colleges, WashU included, don’t offer much need based aid to international students. Merit aids at WashU, I’d imagine, are offered to the HYPSM caliber candidates, where WashU would like to entice them to attend. Also, WashU as a backup school is… just wrong idea, regardless of who you are. I am not saying you shouldn’t apply, just don’t think it as a backup for anything. Kids who got accepted to Stanford, Penn, Duke… (whom I know personally, not hearsay) were waistlisted at WashU.</p>