is it just me or is washu-st. louis terribly overrated?

College Search & Selection
41

<p>Well, when I logged onto CC today and read through this thread I intended to reply to atnyu's arguments in favor of NYU's superiority to Dartmouth, WashU, Amherst, Brown, Princeton - basically every school in the nation - but it's clear that logic is winning this battle. Nice to see. </p>

<p>
[quote]
It really appears to me that you just picked whatever ranking put your school at the highest, which would be those you pulled out, which, as hawkette didn't directly state but defiantly intended, a joke.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That pretty much sums it up. You are attempting to use university rankings (which incorporate grad school) as a measure of distinguishing the strength of undergraduate programs, which is pointless and gets you nowhere. NYU is awesome! I am applying there, so it should be obvious that I respect it to an extent, but you are really proving yourself to be a case of school pride gone bad by arguing that NYU is the best in every field simply due to the strength of its grad programs. </p>

<p>There's a reason that people that dream to go to NYU Law may not dream to go to NYU undergrad: the simple fact is there are better choices out there that give more attention to their students and are just a better undergrad experience than NYU. If NYU is clearly the best choice for all of the majors you've mentioned, simply due to the strength of its grad programs in those fields, why is it that NYU is demolished by schools such as Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, Amherst, etc. in the preferred choice rankings (or whatever the devil they're called)? Is everyone just stupid?</p>

42

<p>xiggi: of the 3k+ classes offered at Berkeley, only 15% have over 50 people; 60% are under 20. These are comparable to Harvard's and Stanford's class sizes. See the common data sets for each.</p>

<p>SweetLax88:</p>

<p>"I am no fan of Brown either (I actually despise Brown), but I do recognize that they are "better" unis than the UCs."</p>

<p>That's simply it. Certain rankings say that Brown, etc. are better than the UCs. But it's completely dependent on the metrics used. By other yardsticks, they aren't better than the UCs. See?</p>

43

<p>
[quote]
That's simply it. Certain rankings say that Brown, etc. are better than the UCs. But it's completely dependent on the metrics used. By other yardsticks, they aren't better than the UCs. See?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>99.99% of the discussions regarding a LAC-like university such as Brown (or for that matter Dartmouth, Princeton, etc.) revolve around their undergraduate programs... whereas people who discuss UC's may or may not be discussing undergraduate programs (they are equally likely to be discussing grad programs or a combination of both). </p>

<p>With that in mind, rankings that place UC schools above the likes of a Brown or a Dartmouth or a Princeton are clearly mixing apples and oranges. This is, mind you, not to take anything away from the strength of certain UC grad programs (in particular Cal and UCSF) as they are amongst the best in the nation.</p>

44

<p>@yeahcollege</p>

<p>A few observations:
-EVERYBODY talks about the great cooperative atmosphere
-It should be a top choice for pre-med and med for reasons which I won't go into here (~20% acceptance of own students into its amazing medical school; compare to JHU with 1.5%)
-One of the largest endowments from NIH
-If you're pompous, then they have modern dorms which are stylish. For other people, there are traditional dorms.
-Good neigborhood</p>

<p>BAD THINGS:
-Infamous waitlists. They will waitlist the top and barely achieving candidates. You could be accepted with full ride at HYP and still get waitlisted.
-Private=$$$</p>

45

<p>thank you afruff! what a truly enlightening post! and i really don't mean this as being sarcastic i promise. finally someone answers my question instead of arguing. yea im def looking into doing pre-med so that's what attracted me to washu</p>

46

<p>Premed at WashU is not perfect. Like Hopkins, it has grade deflation and a competitive atmosphere. My tour guide said that about 75% of pre-meds are weeded out, so obviously, the acceptance rate into medical school is higher with the remaining students.</p>

47

<p>
[quote]
It should be a top choice for pre-med and med

[/quote]

It sure is; 75% of biology majors are pre-med. :p</p>

48

<p>One thing to note is that the "rise" of WashU has largely been due to the rise in the caliber of its student body - which is, in no small part, due to WashU's prodigious spending on merit aid.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Not only has the money raised the university's standing -- one of the main factors in the U.S. News rankings is financial resources -- but it has also provided Wash U. the wherewithal to advance its footing in another category the magazine weighs: caliber of the student body. </p>

<p>With one of the most liberal uses of financial incentives for academic achievers among the top 20 universities, Wash U. is open about its reliance on what is typically called merit aid to compete with the elite schools in the recruitment wars.</p>

<p>But could the university fare as well without merit aid, a strategy that neither the Ivy League, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nor several other elite universities employ? </p>

<p>"Is it possible? Yes," Mr. Sandler said. "Could we achieve the same success and maintain it? I'm not sure. It would be a lot harder." </p>

<p>Indeed, the two U.S. News categories in which Washington University has made its most significant gains, financial resources and student selectivity, seem inextricably linked to its fund-raising prowess and $3.5 billion endowment, the 11th largest in the nation. </p>

<p>Washington University is hardly the only highly ranked university to give merit aid to top students who may not need help to pay for school -- Vanderbilt, Rice and Emory all devote a greater share of their financial aid budgets to the same end -- but the issue has become a volatile one among elite institutions. </p>

<p>Many of them scorn merit aid as a not-so-subtle means of buying a better class, sometimes at the expense of lower-income students who need financial assistance.

[/quote]
</p>

<p><a href="http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/607.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/607.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

49

<p>why do people dislike washu so much? it seems like people dont think their practices are fair simply because the goal is to improve their rankings and reputation. by doing so they attract better students, better faculty, and improve the overall quality of the school. having said that, washu may never have the reputation of many other top schools (i would still go to notre dame or berkeley), but i think it's safe to say you can get a better education there than at some of those "top schools".</p>

50

<p>I have no respect for WashU, it's pretty obvious that they try to game the system for their ranking</p>

<p>And I know that they overenrolled last year, but that's no excuse to waitlist um...everybody?</p>

51

<p>comet88, did you get waitlisted by WashU ?</p>

52

<p>no, I didn't even apply so I have nothing specifically against the school, but if you see the WashU forums and actually READ the results, I'd say it's pretty messed up</p>

53

<p>Pretty messed up - no doubt. Lets see - the ones that got in are happy - the ones that did not are not happy - wow - surprise - surprise. Amazing though - the kids on campus seem very happy as a group. I guess there must be something messed up about that.</p>

54

<p>yeah, washU is quite a bit overrated</p>

55

<p>…and all of you would prefer that they simply reject 1/2 or more of the people who were waitlisted?</p>