<p>I have been getting a ton of stuff from WUSTL ever since I took my PSAT (which was only 1850, not great or anything like that). I have been getting emails and mailings from them for over half a year now. WUSTL is the only top 15 school I have received "stuff" from. Should I invest some time into exploring WUSTL and possibly apply to it??? (I want to major in int'l relations or politics). </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Sure, but don't feel too proud of yourself yet. They are known to be extremely aggressive marketers who mail people, encourage them to apply, and all to just reject them (or rather waitlist en masse).</p>
<p>Thanks...and I'm not "proud"...just flabbergasted!!</p>
<p>^I agree with the above poster. I now receive more mail from them than any other college. Rumors also suggest that there may be some motivation to decrease the admission rate and increase yield, even by encouraging very strong applicants to apply and then rejecting them because they don't think they'll accept.</p>
<p>I wasn't suggesting that you were conceited. I apologize if my wording suggested so. I was merely saying that glossy propaganda mailings from colleges do not equate with genuine interest in you and therefore, there should be no boost of self-pride from them.</p>
<p>lol, it seems like you haven't spent enough time on this forum
WUSTL is notorious for having many applications and waitlisting nearly as many students. Due to the way the US News rankings are calculated, WUSTL gets a high ranking because they accept relatively "few" students the first time around then take a bunch of people off of the waitlist. IMO, that's just really sneaky.</p>
<p>Everyone gets a lot of mail for WUSTL. You should apply if you want, it's a fine school. However, you might want to look more into it before deciding if it's right for you.</p>
<p>Yeah WUSTL sends everyone mail. They probably even sent you an application like they did to me =P</p>
<p>^^lol, they sure did!!</p>
<p>Yes, I received lots of mail from WashU last year too. It's definitely a good school. I applied and was accepted but ultimately chose not to attend.</p>
<p>Me too and application. Also got a "personal" letter from the head of Emory's Psych dept. The marketing aspect of all of this is amazing.</p>
<p>Can't blame WashU for having one of the best marketing departments. But....
1. Aggressive marketing (Spam for rejection fodder)
2. Yield protection (Tufts Syndrome)
3. Massive waitlist (Acceptance rate manipulation)
4. Data manipulation (Superscore ACT)</p>
<p>I got enough mail from WUSTL last year to fill a whole shelf</p>
<p>he, he After some time you knwo exactly how to rip it to take
out the personal information and put the rest in recycle.</p>
<p>if you thought the mail from WUSTL right now is bad wait till
your AP data gets to them and they realize you have taken an AP in
science/Math/ etc and each of the departments will start hitting you
with brochures and almsot weekly info!</p>
<p>noobcake: "Can't blame WashU for having one of the best marketing departments. But....
1. Aggressive marketing (Spam for rejection fodder)
2. Yield protection (Tufts Syndrome)
3. Massive waitlist (Acceptance rate manipulation)
4. Data manipulation (Superscore ACT)"</p>
<p>Yes, they are aggressive marketers, and they do have tufts syndrome, but almost all the elites superscore SATs, so why not give ACT's the same benefit, to me not superscoring ACT is just a time and resource concern on the part of other schools, I applaud WashU for being consistent.
Massive waitlists/deffering huge numbers of kids are problems at all top schools, not just WUSTL.
Also, acceptance rate counts for 1.5% of the USNews score, and, so far as I can tell, yield rate doesn't effect it at all, so "acceptence rate manipulation" is not really going to have much of an efffect on their ranking.</p>
<p>But the fact that they manipulate acceptance/yield rates through...iffy tactics isn't necessarily a good thing even if it doesn't affect their ranking.</p>
<p>I feel left out. I haven't got any mail from them I think... :(</p>
<p>Though I got enough brochures already.</p>
<p>Sure, WUSTL engages in aggressive marketing. Why is seeking to attract talented students a bad thing? You will learn as much from your peers as from the profs. Anyone who thinks that WUSTL is gaming the admission rate to improve its USNews ranking doesn't understand how the USNews ranking system works -- decreasing the admit rate by a few percentage points will not move the meter. There also seems to be some misunderstanding of basic facts. WUSTL admitted VERY few students from the waitlist this year -- dramatically less than Harvard and Yale, for example. As to the so-called "Tufts syndrome", if you follow CC posts you will note that those complaining about the "Tufts syndrome" at a particular school are almost universally disappointed applicants to that school. Go figure.</p>
<p>True, but it is about the general image of the school. A highly selective school with a respectable study body will gradually move up in rank.</p>
<p>Fyi, I did not apply to WashU.</p>
<p>"lol, it seems like you haven't spent enough time on this forum
WUSTL is notorious for having many applications and waitlisting nearly as many students. Due to the way the US News rankings are calculated, WUSTL gets a high ranking because they accept relatively "few" students the first time around then take a bunch of people off of the waitlist. IMO, that's just really sneaky.</p>
<p>Everyone gets a lot of mail for WUSTL. You should apply if you want, it's a fine school. However, you might want to look more into it before deciding if it's right for you."</p>
<p>I was also responding to this post by Hamman, who suggests that WashU only ranks highly because of their admissions practices. Their admissions practices may be sneaky, (I don't know, I don't work for them) but if anything their admissions rate lowers their ranking, seeing as it is higher than/equal to most of the schools around it on the list.</p>
<p>Regarding Post#13,
WUSTL is a terrifically attractive school but people above a
certain profile are told why they are probably headed to the
WL way before by their GC here. Tufts is quite similar.</p>
<p>I have seen three years of applicants from my school where
the top students (who usually get accepted to H/P/M/S) get
waitlisted at WUSTL and the #25 student gets accepted. </p>
<p>As someone who very strongly considered WUSTL as a safety
for a period of time before deciding to not waste money applying
to WUSTL I would caution perfect GPA + high SAT&SATII scorers
to heed their schools admittance data.</p>