Hi-
I am trying to figure out if this is just a marketing ploy. Our daughter applied RD to WUSTL on October 31. On November 2 she received an email from a professor (not in her field of study, but certainly an area of interest to her), telling my daughter that a colleague of the professor had forwarded her application to him because the colleague thought the professor would be interested in seeing it. The professor urged my daughter to visit the campus, if she had not already done so, and email him with any questions. We had already visited the campus.
Is this just a marketing ploy? or do you think this tips in her favor re: admission? She ended up doing RD, so there was really no rush for the professor to reach out to her.
Thanks!
Ha when I read the title I thought this would be WUSTL. Maybe part marketing and part recruiting strong applicants and part building a relationship. They do weigh interest in their decisions so building that relationship will help with admissions I believe. If you are applying for merit it will possibly help there as well.
I’m not sure if it’s a marketing ploy or if it means she will be accepted. But, I can’t imagine they would waste time calling applicants who won’t be accepted. Overall, I think you can look at it as they saw something they liked on her app which is a good sign.
Yes I agree. They would definitely not waste a professors’ time on an applicant that they weren’t interested in.
Would you mind sharing what department this professor was in? What major did your daughter indicate on the application?
Sounds “very” encouraging, but never a sure thing till you get the acceptance.
My S received a nice email from a professor in his major at a very large state university. The next day he received his acceptance via the school’s portal. We figured admissions must have forwarded his app to the department when they admitted him.
OP, follow up with the professor. WUSTL definitely tracks demonstrated interest (as do a number of colleges). This is a good sign if your D continues to show interest.
It’s marketing in the sense that they really do want her to apply. Agree about not wasting professors’ time.
^But this is after she applied, so it doesn’t seem like marketing so much as wanting her to accept. Agree you can’t take it for granted, but I can’t imagine why they’d be reaching out to a student who already applied otherwise.
Ah, yes, “really do want her to attend” !
Thanks for your responses! It was a Literature professor, her intent on the app was pre-med. That said, she is an amazing writer, so essays are her favorite part of college apps. Before she submitted her app her counselor told her that her essay would have to be an “outside of the box” type essay. He said she nailed it. I have never even read the essay as I wanted the submission to be organic - meaning that I didn’t want my meddling to interfere with her creativity (if that makes any sense). She has responded to the professor.
I am cautiously optimistic, March seems like a long way off for an answer
@onlygirlsmom would this be the IPH program and Professor Loewenstein? Because my son (current WashU freshman) got something similar. He’s a Biology major thinking about pre-med as well but is also planning on a double major in History as well.
My son who recently applied RD got a letter in mail about IPH from Prof. Loewenstein – I encouraged him to respond – the program sounds very interesting. He has had 5 years of Latin and read lots of the classics.
@CA1543 by all means have your son respond. My son met with Professor Loewenstein on a visit to WashU and had an interesting discussion about Christopher Marlowe and Dr. Faustus (Professor Loewenstein is an expert on Elizabethan playwrights with a focus on Marlowe and Ben Johnson).
That is the professor! I am not sure that’s the program -I’d have to ask my daughter. Maybe they’re trying to build the program? She also received a letter in the mail, but I think it was more of a copy of the email.
@onlygirlsmom I can confirm it’s IPH (Interdisciplinary Program in the Humanities)-Professor Loewenstein is the director of the program and it’s a major/minor at WashU.
Thanks!
Pretty funny that’s it’s all done by one professor, and he can read all the applications within a couple of days of submission.
I don’t know if he reads all the applications, he just happened to be the one who read ours.
I wouldn’t doubt it. Most colleges, including elite ones like Wash U, have seen plummeting interest in the humanities. At Brown, for instance, the number of CS majors has more than quadrupled in the last decade as the number of art history majors has slumped to a mere 1/6 of a decade ago. Heck, 90% of the college search threads on CC lately have been prospective CS, engineering, business, and/or bio majors.