<p>Have any of you needed to use an iClicker for a class? I don’t know if I should sell mine or keep it just in case.</p>
<p>Bio 2960 is using them this year, so they are used in at least one class. I would hold on to it just in case you take a class that uses them.</p>
<p>Alright thanks. Some other schools I applied to use them too, so I’ll hold onto it.</p>
<p>So nothing can take the place of EFC at WashU? Merit scholarships cannot? And financial aid takes your EFC into account, but can’t cover it right?</p>
<p>So if a family has $20,000 EFC are they going have to pay/take out loans for that $20,000 regardless or are there any situations that would have the EFC covered?</p>
<p>(Asking this for WashU, but I don’t know if this may just be a general college since all colleges may handle EFC the same?)</p>
<p>Also, a housing question: Is housing totally random or is it grouped in certain way such as by majors, athletics, etc.?</p>
<p>EFC won’t be covered by need-based aid.
EFC can be covered by merit-based aid.</p>
<p>Also, housing is random unless you want to be in “substance free” housing.</p>
<p>Well it’s random per-say. There have been quite a substantial number of “coincidences” in which ED people got placed together, people in certain first-year programs got placed together, etc., and it was not due to the people having chosen their roommates.</p>
<p>That aside, you can choose your preference of modern/traditional and single/double/triple. You can also choose substance-free as the poster said so above. You also select preferences of what type of roommate you would want based on a few questions. You can even demand a certain roommate, if you know them of course and they select you as well (and the chances of this is pretty high). Of course, you are never guaranteed your choices (I have heard stories of people getting their last choice, but it is often quite rare), but you do get a say of what type of housing and roommate you want. Other than that, it will be mostly random.</p>
<p>There does not seem to be any preference of placement due to majors and athletics, since they can easily change over time.</p>
<p>
I see this “misconception” a lot too. No, merit scholarships don’t lower your EFC. When you think about it that doesn’t make sense. What WUSTL (or any other school that provides a merit scholarship) is giving you is an asset worth, going back to my example, $25,000. That is like they put $25,000 in your bank account, except that it is only “WUSTL bucks”. If you look at it that way, your EFC just went from $25,000 (again using my example) to $50,000 but half of that is money they just gave you. EFC is your ability to pay. That ability is now enhanced because they just awarded you an asset. Your ability to pay just went from $25,000 to $50,000.</p>
<p>The only time a merit scholarship would affect the EFC situation (it really cannot lower it because EFC is a calculation based on income and assets and that has not changed other than the asset of the merit scholarship) is in the last situation I give in my other post. If your EFC were greater than the remainder owed (COA less the merit scholarship) then you pay less than you would otherwise. In my example the EFC was $50,000 but the remainder was $25,000 (COA was $50,000 less the $25,000 merit scholarship) so instead of the family paying the whole $50,000 if there was no merit scholarship, they pay what’s left, the $25,000. If their EFC was $40,000, they would still pay $25,000. See it now?</p>
<p>What’s the typical or average GPA for someone in the sciences/engineering? The reason why I ask is for med school or getting a PhD. </p>
<p>Also, I have another random question. Are there a lot different libraries on campus for students to choose from to study? I went to visit, and I only saw Olin. I can imagine having only one main library to get crowded quickly.</p>
<p>Has any high income white male with a perfect ACT, good EC’s, the most challenging high school courses, but not in the top 10% ever gotten in? (14% 29 of 199- 4 B’s on transcript. Lost about 40 of kids from private school because of the economy (unfortunately all lower in rank) and gained about 20 of kids when a close by private closed and all the top kids came over. May or may not have made a difference, but might have moved up from 14%</p>
<p>Not making excuses…just wondering if there is a chance.</p>
<p>To GG123:
Yes there are different libraries - the East Asian library, Brown Building of Social Work library, the law school library, and the music library. There might be a couple of others but I haven’t been there or heard of them yet. Olin is just the biggest one and out in the open so everyone knows about it. The East Asian library is generally pretty quiet and also a good study place.</p>
<p>Average GPA I assume would be around 3.1~3.2, which is between a B and B+, since WashU’s average GPA hovers around 3.3~3.4, and the sciences and engineering are generally slightly lower. However, you’ll find this at all top-tier schools, maybe except for the higher ivies since they curve it to an A-, which makes sense since the student body itself is a lot stronger, both academically and otherwise.</p>
<p>To Kajon:
You don’t have to be in the top 10% of your class. It might hurt you, but it’s not going to break you. The college admission process is holistic, and if the other parts of your application are very strong, you still stand a good chance.</p>
<p>@ GG123:
There is also the Art & Architecture library, Physics Library, and Chemistry Library. There are also countless other places to study like the DUC, LabSci 400, Mallinckrodt basement and upper floor, Kayak’s, in addition to your room, common room, and study rooms in the dorms. </p>
<p>@ Can2010:
I really don’t know where you are drawing your conclusions from. All of the Ivy League’s average GPAs hover around 3.4-3.45 compared to WUSTL’s 3.41. An A- average GPA would be closer to 3.7 which no school, except maybe Brown U., is close to with an average GPA of 3.6. By what measure do you say that the student body at other colleges are better than student body at WUSTL?</p>
<p>Okay I should have actually searched up WashU’s average GPA before posting, though I knew it was around 3.3~3.4. I checked some facts and I am wrong about the curve to an A- (though I vaguely remembered this discussed in a college magazine a few years ago due to the grade inflation trends that are present in many ivies except for Princeton)
I could not find gpa for science and engineering, though I am pretty sure there is general agreement that for science and engineering, it is much more difficult to attain WashU’s average GPA of 3.41. Take for example Gen Chem. All the tests are curved close to a 65, which is a B, but because one midterm is dropped, it probably hovers closer to a B+ (which is around a 3.2) As well, all the classes you see people complaining on cc here are related to science and engineering.
And I’m pretty sure people would agree with me when I say that higher-ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) and schools like Stanford and MIT have stronger student bodies both academically and otherwise. It is just so much harder to get into those schools, and people who get accepted would almost always choose those schools over WashU, most likely due to the prestige. (unless there is a merit scholarships involved or they just fell in love with WashU) Look, I’m not bashing WashU or its student body. I love the students here, the environment, the teaching, and all the resources and facilities available. Those are the main reasons I chose this school in the first place.</p>
<p>I’m not completely sure that gradeinflation.com is the most reliable source (considering that nothing is really cited), but either way, I would say that we are somewhere around average as far as grading–I don’t really see grade inflation or deflation as much of an issue.</p>
<p>Can2010, I would agree with you for the five schools you listed; outside of that I would say it’s probably too close to really make any definitive statement.</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I am the VP of PR for the WashU students group Bear Buddies. We are a student group whose whole purpose is to reach out to prospective students. We aren’t connected to admissions and are here to field any type of question about WashU. We will connect you with some current WashU students who are experts in all parts of WashU life, school, housing, food, St. Louis, anything!! We will match you to someone who is a similar major or has similar interests. All want to help you out.</p>
<p>If you are interested, reply to this thread or better yet visit our current Fbook page, Bear Buddies 2010-2011!</p>
<p>Just fill in this Google form</p>
<p><a href=“https://spreadsheets.google.com/view...tKYWc6MQ#gid=0[/url]”>https://spreadsheets.google.com/view...tKYWc6MQ#gid=0</a></p>
<p>and we will start matching me up. If you have any questions or are having trouble getting matched up, feel free to contact me personally at dsguenth (at) wustl.edu.</p>
<p>I agree, GPA at WashU is pretty reasonable, and the average GPA of the students should be 3.3-3.4. I’m in engineering so I can tell you how difficult it is. Moreover, I’ve heard from many that engineering GPA is expected to be lower than others, because it’s so difficult. Just the amount of classes I have to take this year frightens a lot of my non-engineering friends, not just at WashU, but other schools too.</p>
<p>I would predict the average science GPA is around a 3.4. (I can calculate this for premeds…see below). </p>
<p>Average science GPA calculation for PreMeds:
- Go to <a href=“http://prehealth.wustl.edu/Documents/Handbook2010.pdf[/url]”>http://prehealth.wustl.edu/Documents/Handbook2010.pdf</a> and go to the second to last page (pg 55)
- Go to excel. In column a, put average gpa for each grouping. (so put 3.9 for 3.8-4.0 range). In column b put the number of applicants.
- Multiply number of applicants by average GPA for that group. So multiply 3.9*211. Do this for every range. Call this column c.
- Divide the sum of column c by total number of applicants (4127.2/1212= 3.41). So I essentially took a weighted average. </p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>Well for those people who have applied to medical school, I would agree with you and expect them to have a higher GPA than the average science/engineering student, since a signficant portion of applying to medical school is about GPA. Now, the prehealth book takes into account all the people who have applied to medical school, but does not acknowledge those who dropped out as premed either due to low GPA or other personal choices. The final premed population (those who actually applied to medical school), however, I would disagree to be a good indicator of average science GPA since it is only a small population of the WashU science community (I don’t know the exact percentage, but it is not close to breaking 50%), and is often made up of students who care a lot more about their GPA, and from what I can tell in freshman year, work a lot harder for it. Thank you very much for calculating that though jemarcus, as a 3.41 would be a good benchmark to break for premeds and those thinking of applying for PhDs.</p>
<p>Reasoning:
From the prehealth report from 2004-2008, there have been a total list of ~1200 applications. This includes any repeated applications from the same student, so that makes about ~200 students from each year. Now assuming the class size is around ~1400 (our year has been exceptionally big at 1600), that makes around 1/7 of the students from WashU. The students applying to medical school can come from a science, humanity, engineering, or occasionally business (very rare) major, though mostly from the sciences since it is the easiest route for a premed (in terms of having the same pre-req classes), especially if it is a biology major. That would probably make about then 1/4 of the science population, or optimistically 1/3.</p>
<p>
Somewhere else, someone noted that 9% of washu engineers go to med school, so exactly.</p>
<p>Also, to back up your statement, I (someone who has never been premed) and a ton of other non premeds I know quite frankly don’t stress about our gpa’s as much as premeds do… because there’s no reason to. At all. So yeah, the average pre-med gpa really can’t be compared to the average engineering gpa on a whole.</p>
<p>How’s the gay life at WashU? I’ve heard mixed reviews, to say the least.</p>
<p>Gay life is definitely there if you want it, they actually have different LGBTQ activities as part of orientation, and Pride Alliance definitely has some presence on campus (they had a celebration for national coming out day, and they have dances sometimes).</p>
<p>If you’re a super-flamboyantly gay male, there will certainly be a lot of girls loving to have you as their friend, but you won’t be in too much company from what I’ve seen. While I know that there’s an active gay population, it’s pretty low key, which I personally think is a good thing; I don’t think sexual orientation really should be in your face. It’s a very accepting environment, if that’s what you’re wondering. I cannot say I’ve never seen any type of anti-gay sentiment on campus, but that was just one excessively ignorant person, and it wasn’t a very big deal, just a comment he made without thinking.</p>