<p>I just attended an info session at my school, and the adcom made it sound idyllic. So I'm looking for more opinions, if you could comment that would be great.</p>
<p>Is the student body really as well rounded and down to earth as it sounds?</p>
<p>In your mind, how do you picture a "typical" WUSTL student? Pretty normal?</p>
<p>How intense is it, academically?</p>
<p>WUSTL or Harvard, price is no object, go.</p>
<p>I would say WUSTL is a duck school. It means it is like the Stanford analogy where the students look relaxed, but are barely surviving. It is a nice school, but not perfect because it will have a ton of work. But good luck getting in!</p>
<p>The premise is flawed to start with, even ignoring the fact that of course no school is “perfect”. The flaw is that what is great (or even “perfect”) for Student A might be just OK for Student B and a terrible fit for Student C. This is the same flaw that plagues the entire sham that is USNWR (or any other) rankings.</p>
<p>Having said that, WUSTL is a school with really excellent academics, a strong undergrad focus, generally well-grounded undergrads, and a mix of qualities in those students (ethnicities, geographic origins, family income levels, etc.). The quality that will be most similar throughout is that they are smart. Also, it is a very nice campus with excellent facilities. It really does offer a lot, but so do at least a couple dozen other schools that are similar to WUSTL.</p>
<p>Also, how intense it is will depend to some degree on your major, as you will find at most if not all highly selective schools. It also depends on how disciplined you are in your studies vs. partying, procrastinating, whatever. And I would think you would expect any school where you want to get in because it offers a very high level educational experience to be challenging. Otherwise what is the point? Might as well go to State U and save the money.</p>
<p>Thanks, but can anyone give a bit more specific info? I’m trying to compare WUSTL to other selective schools, to decide whether to apply or not, so telling me that everyone’s smart doesn’t really distinguish it. Also, I know it will be rigorous, but HOW rigorous? If you could compare to other schools that would be great. Ie, I’m assuming it’s not as tough as Caltech, but tougher than a community college. If someone could help narrow that range that would help a lot. 
In the info session the alumni really downplayed the academics so I’m not too sure where it falls… Being ranked with the nicest dorms/food is a HUGE draw for me, I’m just looking for a little more context.</p>
<p>I’m really not trying to be difficult, but what you are asking is impossible. There are thousands of other colleges and dozens of highly selective ones. Even if one could give gross generalizations, it only makes sense to compare it to two or three others at a time, at most. Besides, who knows if it is tougher than Vanderbilt or not as tough as Duke, or whatever. It depends so much on the person, the major, which profs you happen to get… Any answers are going to be so general in nature as to be fairly useless.</p>
<p>Maybe the best way to look at it is that, IMO, how difficult a school is to get good grades is largely dependent on the competition from your classmates. So you can look at the general stats of WUSTL students compared to other schools and get a very broad idea of how tough it will be. Of course there are other factors and this is very rough, but it is as good a measure as any for what is essentially an impossible question to answer.</p>
<p>I have to agree with fallenchemist. There are numerous factors that influence how difficult a school will be for an individual student. Whether or not you take college rankings with more than a grain of salt is your choice, but Wash U is obviously one of the top universities in the nation. With that reputation comes rigorous academics. It’s difficult here, and I don’t think you can find anybody here who thinks they’re having an easy time. It’s certainly more difficult for some people than for others, but it’s not easy.</p>
<p>If that still doesn’t help much, I can try to quantify it for you a little bit: The average GPA for the engineering school is about a 3.3. That number is a little higher (I think about 3.5) for the other schools. There are some classes (at least in the engineering school) where a 45 on an exam could get you an A. The professors obviously know that Wash U is a prestigious university and as a result, they expect a lot from their students.</p>
<p>I hope that’s a satisfying answer for you. As fallenchemist already said, difficulty is hard to judge.</p>
<p>Hmm ok, I see what you’re saying. Really I’m just looking for stereotypes. Like Chicago is where fun goes to die, Caltech is impossible, Princeton has grade deflation, Carnegie Mellon is computer science… It’s just hard to get a feel for WUSTL, and I don’t think I’ll be able to visit. Thanks for trying though. :)</p>
<p>OK, that is a little easier. I don’t think WUSTL is any particular stereotype. I think most students find it is a very nice balance between rigorous academics, some really fun activities and nice peers, also peers that like to have serious discussions but can then put that aside to just blow off some steam, great campus with great dorms and food, a city big enough to have interesting things going on most of the time, so on and so forth. In other words, it is very Midwest. For those from the Midwest or familiar with the typical Midwesterner, that will make sense. Again that is kind of a melding of a lot of individuals, but I think it gives a fairly accurate portrayal of the overall “feel” of WUSTL.</p>
<p>I hope that helps. FYI, the Chicago reputation, while an amusing stereotype, is not so true. Certainly it is probably even a little more serious that WUSTL and the quarter system by its nature makes it more intense, but a student can definitely have a lot of fun at Chicago. And CMU has one of the better theater and arts programs in the country, which I always found to be a stunning juxtaposition given their extremely strong math/computer science departments. Just goes to show that stereotypes can be very misleading.</p>
<p>Yep that’s exactly what I was looking for. 
Even though stereotypes can be misleading I think they can also be helpful to get a little background. The presenter at this meeting basically said "well yes we do offer classes that some people go to but the students mostly like to have fun…>>>>30 minute discussion of the community/other events. I just wanted to reaffirm that WUSTL is still an institution of higher education. 
Thanks again, I think I’ll apply.</p>
<p>Curious where you saw the Info Session. Doesn’t seem like they did a good job.</p>
<p>Make a list up of criteria that are most important to you and wtg them.
Then get information by visiting, talking to existing students, reputable college research sources in that order.
I started with Princeton Review Top Colleges book. I had already created a list of potential colleges based on the College Board profile - i was looking for colleges with a certain major, undergrad size (medium) and strong academically. </p>
<p>I visited the top 5 on my preliminary list and completed the criteria ranking on each right after my visit. It was an easy choice for me (Wash U). The other colleges i visited - Brown, Cornell, Hopkins and Emory.</p>
<p>I am a parent with a fair amount of knowledge of WashU even though neither of my kids ultimately went there. I have been there a couple of times, have had intense discussions about the school with longtime faculty, and have very close family friends there. Both of my kids loved it, as did their parents, but when it came to making a decision on whether to apply ED, both kids ultimately chose other schools, with WashU being an incredibly close second choice for each.
So that’s the basis for my personal perspective. Here’s what I think of the school, and why I like it so much (and would have been delighted if either or both of my kids had chosen to go there): The academics are first rate. It is obviously superb for premeds, the PNP major is fabulous, and it is generally very, very strong in all the traditional liberal arts areas. On top of that, though, it’s got the undergrad business school and the engineering school (in which the biomedical engineering program gets incredibly high marks across the nation). I think the campus is beautiful. THe dorms and food are basically second to none (certainly with respect to other top schools) and better than most. The student body is generally very friendly and engaging, and the school seems to take a very nurturing approach to freshmen, so that it’s much harder to get “lost” there as a frosh, as compared to other schools.
Minor negatives, in my opinion, are that St. Louis leaves something to be desired, although there’s not much need to go beyond the vicinity near the school (the loop?), which is very nice. Also, while the school has varsity sports and Greek life, the sports are clearly not Div I and the Greek life doesn’t compare to that at some other schools. (These are all reasons why one of my kids narrowly favored Northwestern over WashU, but it really was narrow.)
Bottom line: Wash U is an absolutely wonderful school, and anyone would be lucky to go there. I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t apply. You can decide where to go once you know which schools actually offer you a spot in the class of 2017.</p>
<p>
An ideal example of why there is no such thing as a school that is perfect for everyone. Some people take those things as negatives and choose schools like Northwestern or Duke or Vandy because of it, and others think it makes WUSTL so much better than going to Northwestern or Duke or Vandy. As onecot59 correctly points out, it is just a matter of what is important to you.</p>
<p>Exactly fallen. I didn’t want a school with a big D1 sports program or a large greek life influence.</p>
<p>We visited WUSTL this past Monday and it sure seemed perfect to us! One standard question I asked every student with whom we met was, “Tell me one thing you DON’T like about WashU.” Without fail, each student was stumped, and eventually said the weather was less than perfect (it was rainy that day). The theme of the presentations focused on support. Students work very hard but they have an incredible amount of support to make sure they don’t flounder. You have an advisor for every major and minor you pursue, plus advisors for internship, study abroad, career, etc. In the residence halls you have four different types of advisors, from live-in RA’s and faculty to other “live-out” students and faculty assigned to each dorm. In the afternoon we met with an economics prof from Olin who had spoken to some U of Chicago students. Their attitude was “this sucks but it will be worth it in the end”. At WUSTL it will be “worth it in the end” without sucking (not the professor’s exact words). Napalm, I know this isn’t quite the info you were looking for. I’m not a WUSTL student and I don’t know any students personally. But when I saw the title of this post I laughed and had to reply, “Yes, WUSTL is perfect”!</p>
<p>"The presenter at this meeting basically said "well yes we do offer classes that some people go to but the students mostly like to have fun…>>>>30 minute discussion of the community/other events. I just wanted to reaffirm that WUSTL is still an institution of higher education. "</p>
<p>This is very inaccurate description of Wash U and I can’t imagine representative from Wash U describing the school this way. The academics are intense, but the overall environment is great. Perhaps the Wash U rep was talking about the First 40, which is their program to help fresham acclimate to school. The first 40 days of freshman year are packed with fun events ON TOP OF GOING TO CLASSES. I think the First 40 is really a unique program given the extent to which the university invests in fun and community-building events in an effort to prevent social isolation and depression, which lead to poor grades and dropping out. You can read more about it here: [?First</a> 40? days crucial to successful freshman transition | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/24179.aspx]?First”>‘First 40’ days crucial to successful freshman transition - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis)</p>
<p>As the parent of a brand new Freshman I can say that WashU has been “perfect” for my DS. </p>
<p>Funny enough, being from South Florida, the school was not originally even on his radar. He applied because he is pre-med and wanted a school with great academics and research opportunities. He did a local interview but didn’t visit until after he was accepted (and they paid for the trip). Once he was there, he knew it was a perfect fit.</p>
<p>From what we have seen thus far, the school is extremely, over-the-top supportive. Academics are tough but the amount of extra help and support that is available is overwhelming. The stand out feature, however, has been how happy all of the students are. My son is already on two intermural sports teams, in study groups for all of his classes and is planning to rush a fraternity in the spring. He has had planned activities every day since he arrived at school and has made a ton of great friends already (the residence halls are very bonded).</p>
<p>I have spoken to the parents of my son’s friends and none of them have experienced the smooth transition that my son has at WashU. It doesn’t hurt that the dorms are like a resort (compared to mine many moons ago) and the food is amazing.</p>
<p>The school also does an excellent job connecting with families and we are very excited about parents weekend in October! </p>
<p>Just thought I’d give a mom’s perspective. Anyone lucky enough to be accepted to WashU should give the school serious consideration. It is a very happy and accepting place with an amazing reputation and tons of academic flexibilty.</p>
<p>No school is perfect, or can be. I think a lot of college is what you make of it. </p>
<p>That being said, WashU gives you a lot to work with. We have great academics (we study like the best of them), an AMAZING advising system (no really, how many advisors does it take to get a student to graduate on time? 4? 5? 10?), a welcoming campus atmosphere (we’re huggers) and faculty that is invested in our success(teachers getting mad at other teachers when tests are too hard actually happens). </p>
<p>You should visit sometime, stay overnight if you’re feeling crazy and get to know WashU as a home not just as a collection of numbers from our website (which is wustl.edu for anyone interested =P).</p>
<p>My daughter attended Wash U and for her it was perfect! I could not believe the caliber of the professors, and the extent to which she learned and thrived. She took 10 AP tests, and I was wondering what more she could possibly do, and I sure found out. She had opportunities to pursue topics of interest to her with faculty advisors. The students were very diverse and hard working, incredibly smart and compassionate. She loved every second of it and graduated top of her class. She worked very hard, but had fun as well. I would say if you get in, you would already be well prepared to handle the work load. The school really works to build a community. The dorms are amazing, and they kids often move from one dorm to the next all together. My daughter kept the same random roomnates all 4 years. I can’t think of one negative thing to say.</p>
<p>Wash U parent here. Son went to Wash U; so did a few nieces; and so did many friends’ kids. And before that, since the 60’s/70’s, so did MANY family members and friends.</p>
<p>Is Wash U “perfect?” Of course not. No school could ever be “perfect” and anyone even using the language of “perfect” needs to take a step back and revise the way they’re approaching the college selection biz.</p>
<p>That said, Wash U is pretty darned “special.” Rather than rehashing what others have already said, I think the best thing I can say about Wash U is that this pervasive sense of “happy and well-rounded students,” who mostly truly wanted to be there, attending a university that is exceptionally supportive and caring, all in a work-hard and play-hard (or at least play-enjoyably) environment isn’t some new thing at Wash U, dreamed-up by some marketing types. Wash U students and alums have been absolutely (and sometimes disgustingly) effusive in their praise of their school for generations, going back at least 40-50 years when they were in their “hidden gem” era.</p>
<p>Perfect? No. Like all schools, the student needs to at least somewhat “match” the general “type” of school. But it’s a school that has consistently earned rave reviews (from its students and alums) for years and the rare school that much more often than not truly lives up to its hype.</p>