<p>It may be very different depending on your major/background, but I personally didn’t find the workload a big adjustment. The material is (in certain classes) harder, but you have time to learn it.</p>
<p>The biggest adjustment for me personally was having so much freedom over my time, which seems sort of trite, but is very true. There are always friends around, and there are a million ways to waste your time, and it’s sometimes tricky to make sure you’re actually working and getting things done. If you haven’t worked in high school, this may be even a bit harder for you.</p>
<p>Another big adjustment is forcing yourself to be more open about things like alcohol, hookups, etc. At least in my high school, that kind of thing didn’t go on, at least not with people I remotely associated with, but here it’s fairly central. It’s hard to get used to at least 1 out of 3 conversations being about drunkenness (being hysterically cool, usually). </p>
<p>For me, it’s been tough losing thoughtful philosophical conversation with my friends, people at WashU are overall too down to earth to care. When people do fall into discussing philosophy, they’re usually just making random crap up, and it’s clear that they are just grasping for things to say.</p>
<p>Roommates are definitely an adjustment, but not really a hard one; it’s basically just something you have to deal with and that is that. Most people seem to get along very well with people they’re with, but even in exceptions where they don’t, it never (in my experience) causes an actual living problem, more of an annoyance.</p>
<p>Great idea nitwitoddment! I’m currently a sophomore premed biology major in the College of Arts and Sciences and would also be willing to answer any questions.</p>
<p>Not really. If you know what your major is, you take classes that you know that you’re going to need for your major. If you don’t, you take things that interest you, hoping to find something that you’re willing to spend the next 4+ years of your life studying. There aren’t any required “general studies” classes or anything. You don’t even have to decide which school you are going to be in (ArtSci, SEAS, B-School etc.); you are also allowed to change between these at anytime. </p>
<p>The only disadvantage I can think of is that, in effect, you would be taking all of your electives freshman year, so junior/senior year you are mostly going to be taking classes in your major.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I would go as far as to boast solutions for some of WashU’s shortcomings, but here are some weaknesses I think are good to know about:</p>
<p>1) Who you hang out with 97% of the time is determined by housing; socializing with people outside of your floor happens, but at a very small level. I love most of the people on my floor to death, but sometimes it’s hard sharing all of your friends with a group of 40-some people.</p>
<p>2) A huge number of people (ie lots of premeds) don’t care what they learn as long as they can get good grades. It bothers me.</p>
<p>3) Intellectualism is basically dead here. I love the down to earth vibe, but I think we take it a bit far.</p>
<p>4) I don’t care that you didn’t get into Brown, please stop talking about it.</p>
<p>And although I really don’t know enough to compare WashU to Duke, Brown, Emory and Tulane, this is what I would say based off of stereotypes:</p>
<p>Duke is more obsessed with sports
Emory is preppier
Brown tries harder to be different
Tulane is…a bit more chill?</p>
<p>(I never visited Tulane or Emory, but I have a friend who goes to Emory, and I did apply to Tulane)</p>
<p>I saw that questions were answered about frats, dorms, liberal vs conservative campus, etc. But, I have another question - I heard from several people that WashU has quite a bit of individuals who are rich, snobbish, and drive Mustangs, etc. that ruin the atmosphere in a way. I’m assuming this is over exaggerated or a myth as a whole, but have you guys encountered this problem at all? Please be honest…this is a very important factor and influences the environment on campus quite a bit.</p>
<p>^ You’ll find those types at any top school in the US.</p>
<p>Silly question: How annoying does it get when you tell people that you go to WashU and they think you go to some school in D.C. or Washington state? It was frustrating enough encountering that when I told people I visited the school. Do you just end up avoiding answering the “Where do you go to college?” question directly? </p>
<p>I’ve already applied, btw. I loved WashU when I visited during Discovery Weekend.</p>
<p>Not my experience whatsoever. Get involved, go out, do whatever you like to do, and you will meet people and make new friends. That is one of the things I absolutely love about WashU, things are what you make them. At the same time, my best friends do live on my floor, but I don’t see why that is a problem. But then again, I regularly hang out with people not from my floor so I’m definitely not being suffocated by the same 40 people. </p>
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<p>I don’t really find this true, but I may just have the good fortune to not be around these folks. Hopefully the wheat will be sorted from the chaff soon enough though.</p>
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<p>Agree and disagree. As an engineer who is always thinking about how things can be applied, this isn’t entirely a bad thing. But there is no denying that the “down to earth vibe” is quite prevalent on campus. </p>
<p>Things that I don’t particularly like about WashU
-The “bubble” that keeps most people from really venturing into St. Louis. StL isn’t an amazing city (its definitely no Chicago or NYC), but it does have plenty of fun things to check out. Too bad hardly anyone ever does.
-The stupid, overpriced food plans that you’re forced to buy freshman year. The food is great; it does get old sometimes, but visit almost any other school and you will realize that WashU actually has really good food. However, the fact that they decide that as a freshman you are incapable of ever cooking for yourself is irritating.
-The mentality that some students have that premed is somehow superior to any other path you can take. As a premed, I hate to see peers act this way.
-No chicken and waffles at sofoho. Seriously bon appetit, what the heck?!? :D</p>
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<p>Any top tier school you look at, there will the the “old money” types who look down their noses at everyone else. So yes, there are people like this at WashU. Do they dominate campus? No, not even close. The overwhelming majority of students here are kind, considerate and polite. As a matter of fact, I would only describe one or two people that I have met as “snobbish.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, a larger portion of kids were clearly spoiled at home, almost to the point of where I have pity on them lol. I could not believe the number of people who had no idea how to do laundry! For a school full of kids with astronomic test scores, something as simple as a load of laundry seemed like it was neurosurgery!</p>
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<p>Um…sweet?</p>
<p>At least you have until the 15th to get your ACT scores back to decide :)</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, how many of you (the current students) applied ED to WashU? I’ve heard that it’s much harder to be let in during the regular decision round, and although I’m very interested in WashU, I wasn’t prepared to apply Early Decision anywhere in November. Have you found that a lot of the students on campus applied ED? thanks!</p>
<p>oh, also, how is the international relations program? I know it’s not exactly what WashU is known for, but I feel like WashU is a strong school overall, so that shouldn’t really matter, right?</p>
<p>Most of the people I know here applied RD. Overall, I would say that WashU is typically a person’s 2nd choice, usually just behind one dream school (which for an oddly large number of people is Brown). That’s not to say that people aren’t very, very happy to be here.</p>
<p>International relations…the program’s definitely decent (I have a good friend who’s part of it, and she is definitely happy with it), but I don’t know too much about it. Unless you’re dead-set on a particular major, I wouldn’t choose a school for one program, and WashU is pretty strong overall.</p>
<p>If you’re starting to wonder whether WashU is a good place to apply, read the list of ~10 negatives here and then look at 101 reasons to attend WashU. The positives certainly overcome the negatives, but if intellectualism is what makes your life worth living, feel free to send your app to UChicago.</p>
<p>Yeah of the people I know, only like 5 or so applied ED. Early decision has a higher acceptance rate, but way less people apply for it. I’d hazard a guess at there being about 100 ED students per class at WashU.</p>
<p>@ NWrnnr5 - Thank you for your detailed response…really appreciated. </p>
<p>The only thing is, do those spoiled people come across as annoying people or are they nice and polite as your mentioned before? Since you said there are many spoiled people…this is kind of important. Thanks again for taking the time to do this!</p>
<p>Sorry, I thought I had made this clearer in my original post, but things are often not what they seem when its 4 in the morning haha.</p>
<p>I guess I shouldn’t use the term spoiled so liberally, since it carries many negative connotations. Its more that some people are just clearly used to having mommy and daddy do things for them. Whether its laundry, picking up after yourself, or just some things that seem to be common sense to me (one person probably spoiled $10 worth of milk by leaving it out constantly last semester), there are some people who just don’t quite have it figured out yet. There is one girl on my floor in particular who I am thinking of, who constantly leaves her dirty plates and containers in the common room after eating; it wasn’t a big deal, but rather more funny than anything. We had a good time with it, piling her dirty dishes outside of her door, and she’s been getting better with it.</p>
<p>To explicitly answer your question, no I don’t find these people annoying. Again, spoiled wasn’t the proper word to use. All of the people who I know well at WashU are people I find enjoyable to be around. Have I met people who act like entitled little brats? Yeah, unfortunately they exist everywhere, so of course you run into them at WashU as well. But they are certainly not the majority, so I would not withhold an application based on this reason. No matter what, you’ll find people here who you like to be around, and that will become your friend group.</p>
<p>Fantastic - Thank you VERY much for your detailed response, and no worries about posting at 4 AM haha…Happy New Year, and I have already apped to WashU and am eagerly awaiting my decision. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the comparison between schools nitwitoddment. Do you know the stereotype or vibe of Wake Forest, UNC-CH, Davidson and Washington & Lee? How do they compare to WUSTL?</p>
<p>“Intellectualism is basically dead here.” by nitwitoddment
I don’t really understand what this connotes. Does this just mean that people aren’t really interested in what they’re learning (not “passionate”), less likely to be having a heated political discussion at 3 in the morning, or that students care mostly about superficial things? or all of the above?</p>