<p>I got into this school, but I'm hearing from people that washu is really "white" and shows no diversity in the student population in terms of ethnicity.
My friend, who is current at Washu for med school, told me that he felt kind of intimidated because it seemed like he was one of the very few minority students who attended washu.
Is this a true statement?
WashU is a really really amazing school, but I don't know how I feel about what other people are saying.</p>
<p>The Majority is white, but it definitely feels diverse. Walking around campus I saw such a variety of students. It definitely did not feel white at all, even if that’s what the statistics show. There are also hundreds of student organizations, including many minority and cultural ones.</p>
<p>adding on to the op’s question, I’ve heard that washu students tend to self-segregate by ethnic groups. although i’ve been on the campus only for a few days during multi-cultural week, i definitely got that sense.</p>
<p>anyone who actually goes to washu want to comment whether this is generally true?</p>
<p>I only really saw two dorms but here was what I saw:</p>
<p>dorm i was staying in: 2 asians, 2 whites…at night 2 african americans would come in and chill.</p>
<p>friend’s dorm: a black guy and a white guy were best friends hanging out and working with each other on projects.</p>
<p>OK, let’s get specific and compare Wash U to its peer institutions. Before doing that, the self-segregation question. I have heard the same said about almost every school there is, be it Duke, Harvard, Michigan, or Podunk U. I am sure there are exceptions, both within those schools and at a few schools where self-segregation is a lesser phenomenon, but those would indeed be the exception.</p>
<p>Wash U.:</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.16%
Asian: 12.27%
African-American: 9.68%
Hispanic: 2.69%
Caucasian: 60.89%
Race/ Ethnicity Unknown: 9.32%
International: 5%</p>
<p>Northwestern</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.11%
Asian: 18.19%
African-American: 5.42%
Hispanic: 6.61%
Caucasian: 57.1%
Race/ Ethnicity Unknown: 5.89%
International: 5.37%</p>
<p>Duke</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.41%
Asian: 11.89%
African-American: 10.39%
Hispanic: 5.91%
Caucasian: 60.95%
Race/ Ethnicity Unknown: 6.42%
International: 4.23%</p>
<p>Emory</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.29%
Asian: 20.25%
African-American: 10.15%
Hispanic: 3.57%
Caucasian: 51.18%
Race/ Ethnicity Unknown: 6.6%
International: 7.97%</p>
<p>Vanderbilt</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.47%
Asian: 6.93%
African-American: 8.66%
Hispanic: 5.88%
Caucasian: 59.15%
Race/ Ethnicity Unknown: 15.49%
International: 3.42%</p>
<p>University of Michigan</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.78%
Asian: 11.91%
African-American: 6.31%
Hispanic: 4.45%
Caucasian: 63.51%
Race/ Ethnicity Unknown: 7.77%
International: 5.26%</p>
<p>So Wash U is about the same as most except Emory, where the lower percentage of whites is almost entirely due to a higher percentage of Asian students. Wash U is actually less white than Michigan, which sure surprised me. I guess the bottom line is that Wash U is essentially the same as other schools at its academic level, even a big state school, although this was anything but exhaustively researched, just a few quick comparisons to obvious peer schools. Obviously there are schools out there with significantly lower percentages of white students, but not the few I checked quickly, except for Emory, that have Wash U’s academic standards.</p>
<p>Wustl is white, compared to its peers. Maybe Hispanics just aren’t interested in Missouri. Or maybe they are harmed by need-aware admissions.</p>
<p>Wustl: 61% White
Brown: 48% White
Cornell: 50% White
Hopkins: 47% White
Dartmouth: 57% White
U Chicago: 47% White
Columbia: 43% White
Rice: 52% White</p>
<p>lockn - I didn’t consider the Ivies as peers only in the sense that they still have a much lower acceptance rate than Wash U. However, I think you make a good point about need aware admissions. Nonetheless, there are a number of schools more similar in character to Wash U in terms of size, admission rate, and reputation overall that are also similar in terms of ethnic distrubution. Also, Michigan is certainly not need aware and it still has a slightly higher white percentage than Wash U. Go figure. I am sure it is a complicated issue, but given all these stats, the OP and others can decide if that makes Wash U “too white”.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist.</p>
<p>Not sure where you got your numbers, but Duke is nowhere near only 11% Asian. According to the most recent figure from the University itself, the undergrad student body is 22% Asian - double what you reported. </p>
<p>[Quick</a> Facts about Duke](<a href=“http://news.duke.edu/resources/quickfacts.html#students]Quick”>http://news.duke.edu/resources/quickfacts.html#students)</p>
<p>Duke is thus about 51% non-hispanic caucasians. This puts into question the other percentages your reported, although I don’t want to double check them all.</p>
<p>Having said that, I think Wash U is quite similar in diversity/self-segregation to most every other elite private school. And I wouldn’t think this should be a factor to be concerned with really.</p>
<p>My stats came from the Princeton Review site.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> University](<a href=“College Search | Find Colleges | The Princeton Review”>College Search | Find Colleges | The Princeton Review)</p>
<p>I originally checked the Wash U site and then checked the PR site and they agreed, so because the PR site was so much easier to use (stats in the same place for each school) and it seemed correct, I used it. I tried finding the stats on the Vandy, Emory and U of M sites and either they do not report them or I simply cannot find them. Maybe you are a much better sleuth than I am.</p>
<p>So I don’t know why the Duke stats are different than what PR reports. Maybe different years? Although that would be quite a change, so that seems unlikely. Anyway, I don’t know what the deal is, but I assure you I did not make them up. If the PR numbers are garbage (although like I said they agree for Wash U with Wash U’s site) then ignore my post. Maybe Wash U is very white, relatively speaking. Who knows.</p>
<p>I used this for all of mine: [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)
It says that duke was 52% white, as of 2007.</p>
<p>lockn - thanks. I checked the other schools against that reference, and they are pretty close to what PR had, varying by a percent here and there (and mostly showing a higher percentage of whites than PR) except Vandy they have as 63% white compared to 59% on my post, and Michigan having 66% instead of 63%. The other ethnicities agree, the extra % comes from the “unknown” category.</p>
<p>So for whatever reason, Duke seemed to be the only one that was really off.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=OP]
My friend, who is current at Washu for med school, told me that he felt kind of intimidated because it seemed like he was one of the very few minority students who attended washu.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It might be that this is true of the Med school specifically (although I would be surprised). Especially given it’s midwest location, WashU is pretty diverse. I think the national average is between 75%-80% white (according to census.gov), so in my opinion any school that stays below that percentage is basically on track.</p>
<p>Woah, whats wrong with white people…I am indian-asian, and white people are cool…</p>
<p>Although the majority are white, I didn’t really see as much self-segregation as I had heard about. On the floor I stayed in during my visit, a black guy, a white guy, and an indian guy were good friends. A black girl and a white girl were also best friends. </p>
<p>At this thing where they taught you how to do an Indian dance, people from all races were well-represented.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard that washu students tend to self-segregate by ethnic groups”</p>
<p>Um, that happens everywhere, whether it’s middle school, high school, or college. There’s always going to be people who form race-specific groups, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hang out with other people too. It’s not like they hate white people; it’s just that, by physical appearance and culture, they feel more comfortable around people of the same race. There’s also the minorities who ONLY hang out with white people, which, in my opinion, is just plain weird. </p>
<p>In short: It’s no big deal. Happens everywhere. Nothing wrong with it. Move on.</p>
<p>the men’s club crosses all racial boundaries.</p>
<p><a href=“https://sites.google.com/site/washuvolleyball/[/url]”>https://sites.google.com/site/washuvolleyball/</a></p>
<p>Washubear, why do you keep spamming that link? Stop being a moron.</p>
<p>And that is a mens volleyball club, not the mens club. Try harder next time, ■■■■■.</p>
<p>Washu is very “white” and that includes the culture as well. I’m white myself, but ended up at the business end of this culture when I came out as gay and lost all my friends, which resulted in academic difficulties for me in my premed program. Tons of southern and midwestern people going there, and as much as they like to gripe and complain about “reverse racism” or heterophobia, it’s probably healthier to avoid the headache altogether and go to a different school. I transferred out of there and it literally saved my life.</p>
<p>@jsmith - if you aren’t simply a ■■■■■, you can stop digging up year old threads to complain about the “homophobia” present at WUSTL… We get it - you had a bad experience. But you need to stop it with the whole “wash u is full of conservative midwestern homophobes” thing, because it simply is not true.</p>
<p>There are plenty of sources with reliable information regarding ethnic diversity. Use those instead of listening to someone who has a personal agenda. Wash U is diverse witstunner grad student enrollment at 59% Caucasian.</p>