<p>I'm currently a junior and I am planning on applying early decision to Wash U. It seems like the perfect place for me, but I was just wondering what people don't like about it. Thanks!</p>
<p>Well I just got accepted ED this year. From what I've heard, a lot of their science classes use pure free response rather than multiple choice. I personally prefer that but I know some that dislike it. And if you plan on going to their college of arts and sciences/engineering, they have a cap of 15 credits you can get from APs. As with many top flight universities, their AP policy is strict. Also, again as a top flight university, the tuition is ridiculously high. Their financial aid is average comparatively.</p>
<p>Somewhat pointless but oddly enough a lot of college ranking sites are placing WashU far lower than previous years.</p>
<p>Some people complain about construction in the dorms, but it's a necessary evil and WUSTL does have amongst the best dorms of most colleges. Nearly all of that construction will be done by the Fall 2010 semester, though.</p>
<p>At WashU, I don't like the premeds at all. Sure they all help each other but there's also a sense of competition i really despise. Also, premeds are ridiculously uptight and always stressed out. They also are really "tunnel" visioned here, with really only 1 goal, to get into med school.</p>
<p>WashU isn't for everyone. I absolutely detest the atmosphere and how everything else is secondary to academics (what sports team? what division are we?) and extracurriculars(I wanted to do theater but there are no opportunities if you aren't a theater major). If you are looking for a place to get you somewhere, that's WashU. If you have that sense of competition and work well with stress, WashU is for you.</p>
<p>I also do not like the city of St. Louis at all. The social scene is very constrained as well. Sure the academics are great, but the first year will crippple your ego and expectations if you decide to go down the science route or probably any other route. </p>
<p>However, I'm a very jaded and biased freshman who is going to transfer next year so that is pretty much most of what I do not like about WashU. There are many positives as well, I just find that there are more negatives for me and it was definately not the place for me.</p>
<p>Sorry Leticia, but thanks for the insight!</p>
<p>I'm going to completely disagree with Leticia.</p>
<p>The majority of premeds I know are rather chill- sure there's a good chunk who are obsessive, but you'll find that at any school. (For the record, I am not pre-med, but am surrounded by a huge percentage in bme, so I know a lot of premeds).</p>
<p>Second, WashU may not be division 1, but the games are still fun to go to. And extracurriculars? I'm involved in more than I probably should be. Also, I have a friend who is super-super involved in theater (3+ plays this semester) and her intended major has absolutely nothing to do with theater. (Yes, she's a freshmen).</p>
<p>Third, I personally love St. Louis, but to each his own.</p>
<p>I will agree though that coming into wustl, you best be ready for your ego to take quite a few hits... that first gen chem test is interesting for those who never even took AP chem.</p>
<p>As for what I don't like? The stress level is a bit much at times. But then again, I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided engineering.</p>
<p>Cool, I want to do BME as well! I have a question Johnson181, I asked when I visited if people in engineering double major and they said that many do. I would be interested in IAS and BME, would this be a completely ridiculous course load? Also, what is the first year like for people in engineering, do we start right away?</p>
<p>FHN - where is Wash U ranked this year?</p>
<p>dpattz- IAS as in international and area studies?</p>
<p>If you come in with a ton of AP credits (and don't have to take some course like gen chem or physics), it will definitely bearable.
I came in with only 2 AP classes (and one was calc AB, so that doesn't really count with engineering here), and I'm set on track to at least get a minor or possibly a second minor in a subject in artsci (the second one would be in the art school).</p>
<p>The first year really isn't all that engineer-y. You'll take BME 140 in the fall (which was the bane of my existence last semester...), gen chem, chem lab, calc 2 or 3, physics, and if you want, an elective (or something like comp sci). I took 18 credits (all of that with an elective), and it was fine. Second semester is pretty much the same thing: chem 2, chem lab 2, bio 1, physics 2, and calc 3 or difeq.
As I said, it's a lot more open if you can test out of chem or physics.</p>
<p>It depends on whose ranking.
If US News&WR, it's at No. 12, tied with Northwestern, between Dartmouth and Cornell.
If Forbes, which I think is an odd ranking system, it's at No. 31.
If you look at Fiske and Princeton Review, they don't do rankings per se, they just assess the relative quality of things like academics, social life, quality of life, accessibility of professors, etc. This may be the most useful approach, since the strength of a school's academics are more important than, say, whether it is ranked No. 11 or No. 14 because of a few percentage points difference in the admit rate.</p>
<p>Forbes is by far the worst ranking system. Anyone that uses Who's Who and ratemyprofessor.com should not be taken seriously.</p>
<p>St. Louis is way too cold and way too hot at times. Fall is the best season... for about a month and a half.</p>
<p>Just fyi, I don't agree at all Leticia. I'm pre med, and all of my friends who are too always try to help each other out. I'm not always stressed out, or have "tunnel vision"...the school does have challenging academics, which can be stressful, but I wouldn't call it competitive at all. I think the atmosphere is great, and I personally don't mind that students think academics are more important than sports. </p>
<p>As to the "crippling" of your ego and expectations...seriously? Chemistry is hard, and I guess people who come in thinking they are going to completely dominate are in for a surprise, but you've got other problems if you base your self-worth on a couple of tests. Not everyone is going to get an A, and most people are very smart. You just need to work hard and take the hits...if you can't handle that during freshman year, med school won't be fun. My first chem exam was a disaster, but so what? I'm not giving up that easily. </p>
<p>Sorry, I just got a little frustrated by that post. I love Wash U. As to what I don't like, the construction is pretty annoying, but it's just temporary. I actually find the bizarre weather entertaining, but I'm not a fan of extreme wind. And it does get pretty stressful, but that's what you sign up for when you go to schools like Wash U. It would have been great if I could have gotten more AP credits, especially when I realized before I took my senior year APs that I already had the 15 credit max for ArtSci. </p>
<p>Nothing is perfect, but it's a great school. Good luck with the whole college application process...my sister is a junior and she's starting up too. I hope it goes well, and don't get too stressed out about it!</p>
<p>So did Fiske and Princeton give high marks to Wash U? And have they dropped anywhere? I thought that was what the other poster said.</p>
<p>Yup, Forbes' rankings are a joke.</p>
<p>Here are a few funny ones:</p>
<p>Notre Dame- 77
DUKE UNIVERSITY - 80 (!!)
West Point - 6
Georgetown - 76
Wabash College - 12
Stanford - 23</p>
<p>Oh, and Vandy and Cornell are 105th and 121th respectively, ha.</p>
<p>Edit- rofl, WashU is 146th on their "rankings".</p>
<p>We are from St. Louis (love it) and visited Wash U (my son is a National Merit Finalist) and found it to be ultra competitive and unfriendly and EXTREMELY liberal with everyone we met there thinking they are a gift to humanity. We found the admissions office to be uncaring and sterile. We found that most of the people we met were from the East Coast with lots of $$ and were social climbers that wish they had gotten into Harvard.</p>
<p>Interesting that we knew hardly anyone from St. Louis that considered Wash U (due to its East Coast $$ unfriendly reputation). So we just ignored that and visited anyway and tried to like it, but just couldn't.</p>
<p>Although the nay-sayers comments were pretty much refuted by many others, it's always fun to add to it!
-You don't have to be a drama/theatre major to be in any shows. The drama major is actually very small; There is no possible way for the drama major to fill even half of a normal production. All productions have a majority of non-theatre majors. This is actually unique to Wash U, and it also goes with the Music Department. At many schools, you can only take classes or audition for music/theater if you are a major. NOT the case at WU. It makes for a more interesting scene, because you see different people in the shows, and it gives people a chance to pursue passions besides drama in their majors.</p>
<p>-On the whole, the atmopshere is incredibly friendly and down to earth. Sure, everyone has bad days, but OVERALL the campus is very supportive and easy going. This is often the Number 1 reason why students go there over other schools. You might have the rare kid who is unhappy, but no school can make every single student 100% satisifed. Sorry, that's the case no matter where you look, but I think WU has amongst the highest percentage of satisifed students.</p>
<p>-USNews/Forbes/etc rankings are a good starting point to start in your college research, but that's about where it ends. I think Princeton Review ratings are pretty useful though, because they are actually based on student input and surveys sent to college kids. WU is rated </p>
<h1>1 for Quality of Life in the country</h1>
<h1>8 for campus food</h1>
<h1>7 for best dorms</h1>
<h1>9 for school runs like better (lack of bureaucracy and red tape)</h1>
<h1>11 for students happy with financial aid</h1>
<p>-Weather: Not as cold as Chicago, not as warm as Atlanta. The weather is random, but the only places in the country without seasonal weather would probably be the Southwest US where its miserably hot every day, or like Minnesota where is chilly->freezing every day. </p>
<p>-Geography: Illinois is the 1st most popular state where students come from. Missouri is a close 2nd. New York, California, and Texas are about equal for 3rd. Compared to WUSTL's closest comparasions, it is probably more geographically diverse. If you look at student maps for like Princeton and Harvard, the vast majority of their students come from the east coast and have little representation from places like the midwest and northwest. Because WU is smack dab in the middle of the country, it pulls pretty equally from all surrounding areas. </p>
<p>-Athletics. WU is a Division 3 school. You should know that before you go there and not be surprsied when you don't see people painting their faces for football games. WUSTL plays Emory, NYU, UChicago, Brandeis, and Carnegie Mellon in their conference. However, you must note that WUSTL is arguably the BEST Division 3 school in NCAA. The school won THREE national championships last year alone - Men's Basketball, Women's Volleyball, and Men's Tennis. So, you will find a solid contigent of dedicated fans, but it is NOT the school where the only thing to do on a weekend is go to a football game. People have more diverse and interesting niches. WU probably has the best compromise between 1) outstanding athletic programs and 2) not having sports be their sole definition of "school spirit."</p>
<p>GraceandPeace - I've lived in the Midwest and the Northeast. I can see where you're coming from although I wonder if you visited any other schools - schools in the Northeast, or selective schools in other parts of the country. Wash U is probably closer to the midwestern norm than most competitive colleges. Yes, Northeasterners who go to selective colleges tend to have money, be liberal, and be more full of themselves than people in the midwest in general. That said, Wash U is probably much more mellow than say an NYU or a Cornell. Wash U is an up and coming school which gets kids with very good stats and yes, many of them did probably apply to Ivys. The upside of that is that a lot of them are brilliant which will be intellectually stimulating for your son.</p>
<p>Amazon, agreed and that is why we looked at Wash U. I guess our disappointment came through a little harsh in my post. It is an excellent school and a great fit for many students. It is just really where my son WANTED to go and was very excited to visit there and he was very bummed afterward on the way home after the very disappointing visit.</p>
<p>Another thing that really turned us off was the all co-ed dorms within the same hall. I don't know about you, but I remember being a 19 year old. Also, they (the university officials) talked about a "substance free" dorm you could apply to, as in, all the other dorms, it was OK to have "substance", and the tunnel from the campus to the dorms was painted all over by students....fine. But when the largest and most obnoxious paintings that every student walks by every day was SEX SEX SEX and then graphic sex depictions, I thought, am I the only one that finds this problematic? (again the university officials extolled this student painting area as free expression. Well, it sure was). I feel sorry for the girls walking through there everyday being objectified.</p>
<p>Now to show my total non-PC, there were large LGBT banners on every pole. I mean, let's just shove it down our throats, shall we? My son said if he went there he was going to start a pro-polygamy group on campus and recruit heavily and protest for the university to have polygamy banners on every pole as well.</p>
<p>Those issues were just some of the issues, the others I detailed before. It just felt like a bastion of NYC right in STL. I have traveled extensively and I agree that it is more mellow than if it were on the East Coast, etc. But the drive to perform, the competitiveness, the stress I heard about from so many students there, was just not what we were looking for. A school can be good (and even stressful) without having the aire of consuming your soul.</p>
<p>Exactly...one of the only things I'm really afraid of is the competition/academic stress and the adjustment from high school to college. Quite honestly, I don't try that hard(except for select few classes) in high school and haven't really been tested yet. </p>
<p>Hah, I'm sure the first year will be interesting. I may go from doing like at max 1 hour of homework each day to like 3-6. I hear the teachers are really cooperative when it comes to helping students, so hopefully I wont mess my GPA up in one year. </p>
<p>And since I'm from missouri, transferring to mizzou is my safety net hah. I'm prepared for the worst.</p>