<br>
<blockquote> <p>especially in materials engineering, geophysical engineering, metallurgical engineering, mining Engineering and petroleum engineering Missouri S&T grads are more sought after than Wash U grads.</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>The only thing we have close to this is geology...</p>
<p>i'm definitely going to agree with purpleBoople on this one. I would in no way shape or for recommend WashU for materials engineering, geophysical engineering, metallurgical engineering, mining Engineering and petroleum engineering.....mainly because of the fact that those programs don't exist at WashU. I would indeed favor a MO S&T in those fields......but I'd take a WashU Bear over a Sci + Tech-er in anything else any day of the week.</p>
<p>Leticia - it will be interesting to see if Northwestern is more mellow, less rigorous.</p>
<p>yeah i always thought of WashU as the calmest ivy-level school, one that doesn't carry the stresses of its East Coast peers</p>
<p>"Everyone is spending at least 6-9 hours a week outside of class and studying in chemistry, PLTL, etc. Our labs our 4 hours, etc. When I visited another top school, their labs were 2.5 hours and no one was as obsessed with chemistry as people are here."</p>
<p>At least 6-9 hours a week doesn't sound bad assuming that is for total courseload. I've heard about college labs that take hours and I'm afraid my amateur lab experiences in high school aren't going to prepare me well enough for college labs. Also, in high school no one really cared about the results so long as you weren't completely wrong/out of the ballpark and if you documented your data properly. Does this change in college?</p>
<p>My only hope is that Leticia is not a pre med student. 15-20 years from now when someone I know has to be rushed to the hospital, I want his/her/my doctor to be the one who spent not 2.5, not 4, not 6, but HOWEVER MANY HOURS PER DAY IT TOOK in Chem lab to become the best doctor they could be.</p>
<p>in reference to my earlier post consider this post from a different thread discussing reputation in industry regarding engineering schools..</p>
<p>This is from "blossom" on the thread "prestige going in vs succes getting out" and is post #56
"I recruited sales people for many years. Never once asked for GPA. Our favorite schools were Ohio State, Wisconsin, U Michigan. We looked for fraternity presidents who were first generation college and had worked their way through school. Didn't care about the major but English and History were good proxies for someone who could write a coherent presentation.</p>
<p>I recruited engineers; we loved MIT, Cal tech, UIUC, Missouri at Rolla, Cornell. We asked for GPA but anything at or over a 3.0 was fine (MIT is on a 5 point scale; you do the math.) We loved anything team related- sports, debate, whatever- anything that suggested the kid could lead, follow, and interact with peers on a sustained and regular basis. We loved well written cover letters.</p>
<p>I've recruited for financial engineering and asset management professionals. Handful of schools; GPA under 3.6 and you didn't get an interview unless you had something else very compelling on your resume (a couple of patents, co-authors of major research papers with professors, etc.)</p>
<p>I've recruited for editors and writers; we never asked GPA but we had two standardized tests we administered which assumed a 12th grade reading and writing level and we had PhD candidates in English who flunked the tests. An editor at a well regarded daily newspaper who flunked the grammer/standard written english test (but did fine on analytical reading and writing). If you graduated from podunk U with a degree in basket weaving but had great clips, good internships, and could ace my test- no problem.</p>
<p>So it depends. I wouldn't send a kid into a college suspecting that he or she was going to fail or end up at the bottom of the barrel, but I had no qualms sending my own into situations where they could have ended up at the bottom... as long as they learned something and worked hard at whatever they studied, I was a happy camper. There are plenty of careers out there they don't care your GPA, just as there are places where you can't get an interview with a B average. YMMV."</p>
<p>I don't understand what that has to do with Wash U at all.</p>
<p>and you will see the relevance to the discussion.</p>
<p>I did read the thread. I still don't think posting what someone else said on the site about how he views recruiting engineers is relevant to the discussion about what people don't like about Wash U. This is not a discussion about schools' reputations in the engineering industry...and your quote doesn't even have anything about Wash U or those colleges you listed. I guess you think that no one who goes to Wash U understands that a school's reputation doesn't make them the most sought after students within a particular industry. And it's not like there aren't 1000 other discussions on this site about all of these issues.</p>
<p>Listen, I'm sorry to be rude, but your posts have shocked me every time I read one. So many things you have said couldn't be farther from the truth. </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>I have NEVER felt like people around me were being competitive or unfriendly. Everyone shares information. I am not liberal, and I think I'm just as much a gift to humanity as every other person in the world. Not from the east coast, don't have a lot of money, and guess what, I got into Harvard and chose Wash U. And a HUGE number of people I know are from St. Louis, so apparently someone from here considers it.</p>
<p>"Great academics are important, but not king. They are part of a whole package."</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but I'll you've been doing on this thread is trashing the school based on ridiculous things. Your objections have been noted, so you don't need to keep coming back and writing about engineering. There ARE bad things about the school, but I think students are probably better able to recognize that then someone who visited once. You're describing a school I wouldn't go to (except for the coed dorms/LGBT signs...I don't see a problem with those). If it's not right for your son, good, he should go somewhere that fits him. But find something better to do with your time than hang around a message board for a school that you have already rejected. I'm just a normal kid, going to a school that is strong academically and in helping students become mature, capable adults. Please don't continue insulting my school (and my friends, the students) without reason.</p>
<p>Grace&Peace - I think the above was really harsh. I wasn't offended by your comments. It may have not been relevant to the original post but I did throw down the gauntlet by saying something pretty rude about that Missouri engineering school. So please feel welcome to post your opinions about Wash U. and good luck to your son wherever he ends up.</p>
<p>Graceandpeace-
I think you might have gotten a somewhat distorted impression of WashU because of the particular timing of your visit and tour guide. My kids happened not to choose it (although it was a close second choice for both), but I think it is an absolutely fabulous school.
Given the desire for a great engineering school that is driveable from your Peoria home, I was curious whether your son applied to Northwestern, Michigan and Wisconsin, all of which I think are academically superior to the schools you mentioned (and Northwestern, like WashU, is another "Ivy of the midwest" - like U Chicago)?</p>
<p>LOL! Work hard or complain. Hmmmmm I'll complain!</p>
<p>
Everyone is spending at least 6-9 hours a week outside of class and studying in chemistry, PLTL, etc.
That's not true. Other than PLTL, I don't study at all except for doing the problem sets. I study maybe 5 or 6 hours for an exam, and I got an A in 111, last semester. The key to succeeding is not studying harder or longer, but studying smarter. You need to be able to determine what is important (there is a lot of useless junk thrown into the class) and focus on it.</p>
<p>I think you just did poorly in the class and are feeling rather bitter towards WUSTL right now.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the posters here who are answering the "is there anything you don't like about washu" question. I have no problem finding good things by going to the school's web site, but it is hard finding anything that could be a negative for some students. My DS knows the environment he is looking for, and hearing different opinions helps him know if he'll be happy. For example, I was surprised to find the number of students who are from the NYC area. It doesn't bother DS, but I know that some of his friends are avoiding east coast schools because of a fear of culture shock coming from our rural west-of-the-Mississippi town. Knowing that a large number of students are from the east coast makes a difference to them.</p>
<p>One thing that has bothered me recently is that there has been no direct notification about "not-a-finalist" scholarship decisions. If I didn't hang out here at CC, I would not have known that the decisions were posted online last week. It just seems like it would be nice to get a letter, or at least an email, once the decisions were made. It makes me concerned that the school, in an effort to raise their numbers, has taken on more than they can comfortably handle.</p>
<p>Indiana91-
You should have received something in the mail by now... Last week I received both the acceptance for Danforth Scholars Program and the rejection for Fitzgibbon Scholarship.</p>
<p>Similar to newprov29, I received an email of Feb 24 indicating that scholarship decisions had been posted online. Maybe your son is receiving these emails, but you are not?</p>
<p>Thanks, newprov and tumbetiger. DS says that he hasn't seen anything, but it makes me feel better that he may have just fallen through the cracks and that it's not a WashU decision to just leave the kids hanging.</p>
<p>Indiana - My soph D has alot of friends and just one from the east coast - Boston. Several from California, Alabama, Missouri, Kansas, many Asian friends, some from Europe, couple from the Southwest, etc. Not a single NJ or NY friend - go figure!! Maybe you gravitate towards those you find similar to yourself.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, the relaxed atmosphere regarding underage drinking/drug use and the casual attitude towards sex did influence my nephew's decision not to return after his first semester at Wash U. this past fall. </p>
<p>My son has been accepted into the Summer Scholars Program at Wash U. and The Glynn Family Honors Program at Notre Dame and this is an issue for him as well.</p>
<p>I do know however, that regardless of where the kids end up, this is college...there is going to be a great deal of exploration and idea challenging experiences at each and every school. But I do believe it is a valid concern and that people need to be aware that just because it happens everywhere, or just because it is an accepted norm, it is a pain in the back end for a good number of kids who just don't want to go down that road.</p>