<p>A few days ago, I received a letter from Washington University in St.Louis
saying that with my academic record, I'll soon be hearing from a lot of colleges, all saying that they're right for me, and also that they hope Washington University in St.Louis is one of my choices.
I've never gotten these kind of letters before so I'm kind of excited right now. Do rising juniors often get these sort of letters?
Has anyone else gotten letters like I did?
By the way, Washington University in St.Louis....I've never heard of it.
Can anybody tell me what they know about here?</p>
<p>don't get too excited, they send out letters like that non stop, it's their way of recruiting you so you pay them a lot of money.... just wait until this year goes by, you WILL NOT STOP RECEIVING LETTERS AND YOU WILL GET ANNOYED</p>
<p>Holler.</p>
<p>Yah. ESP Wash U.</p>
<p>OMG DO NOT FALL INTO THE WASHU TRAP!! If you want to go to WashU make sure you have a 3.5 and a 1350 SAT, nothing higher!! The letter is just a clever scheme to get you to apply so they can defer/reject you. At my high school I knew like 5 ppl who got into princeton, MIT, yale... all deferred by Washu... who got in? so-so students (one girl who got into washu got a D in ap calc, yikes! and guess what? she attends the washu engineering college!!)</p>
<p>How did they find out about me?
Did they look at my grades or did they just radomly send out letters to
anybody?
Anyway, they sent me a letter so does that mean that my grades are decent enough to apply to their college or any other ones that are about the same rank?</p>
<p>rydess, it's for anyone.</p>
<p>calloftheblade, why is it a trap. I have a 3.9 and a 2280, but I want to get spammed by Washu and I want them to offer me a lot of money. Unfortuantely for me, they have yet to send me a letter.</p>
<p>oh okay so it's nothing to be excited about</p>
<p>PSAT scores and such. They want as many people to apply as possible because their selectivity rating goes up.</p>
<p>psat scores are sent out to different colleges. washu for many years was a regional school and for the past decade or so it has been working hard to change the image. it publicizes its school like crazy and it is a VERY good school, dont let people tell u its not. what calloftheblade is talking about is tho, many students know its a good school, but since its just now becoming nationally known, its admissions werent terribly difficult and its prestige ranks nowhere near other top tier schools (it basically became the ivy back up). it is now known for rejecting overly-strong students and accepting more "strong but closer to average" students. but, it is still a VERY goopd school.</p>
<p>Well I didnt' take PSAT because I'm new in the US
so I guess they saw my AP scores or maybe I got chosen at random.
Thnx for the replies everyone.</p>
<p>My S enjoyed getting all the mail from schools. It helped him make his decision. His ultimate choice sent him postcards every couple of months (he checked the box on a reply card saying he would like to get them) that were informative and quite humorous as well as informative. </p>
<p>As far as Washington Univ. accepting "strong but closer to average students" here are their stats:</p>
<p>SAT - Verbal Range (25-75%): 660-740
SAT - Math Range (25-75%): 690-780
93% in top 10%</p>
<p>As compared to Princeton:
SAT - Verbal Range (25-75%):680-770
SAT - Math Range (25-75%): 690-790
94% in top 10%</p>
<p>or Columbia:
SAT - Verbal Range (25-75%):660-760
SAT - Math Range (25-75%): 660-760
85% in top 10%</p>
<p>or Stanford
SAT - Verbal Range (25-75%):680-770
SAT - Math Range (25-75%): 690-780
87% in top 10%</p>
<p>Doesn't seem like its student body is all that close to "average".</p>
<p>Wash U doesn't choose people at random.They do send lots of letters out, however, probably to students who do very well on the PSAT, SAT, etc. Because so many of these students hang out on CC, lots of students here get those letters from Wash U, however it definitely doesn't mean the letters are meaningless.</p>
<p>Wash U is an excellent school. I know some parents of top high school students who chose to go to Wash U, and the parents say that their students are very happy. Some also got merit aid. </p>
<p>I think that some of the high stat students who get rejected by Wash U are rejected because they assume they are shoo-ins and then blow off the application. Big mistake!</p>
<p>Enjoy your mail. :)</p>
<p>just one letter? Better put a box aside, WUSTL is notorious for flooding students with mail. They're trying to raise their national ranking, so they're on a big advertising binge. As for where they got your name, they bought it from the SAT company.</p>
<p>As for what these letters mean, they mean nothing. The colleges & their PR consultants know that kids are surprised and delighted to receive these letters, and the early ones often make a lasting impression. So you'll get tons of mail that comes as close as they can to saying "we want you" without actually promising anything, all to get you excited and entice you to apply.</p>
<p>Treat these letters like an ad in the paper, or a credit card solicitation your folks see. They're ads, that's it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Treat these letters like an ad in the paper, or a credit card solicitation your folks see. They're ads, that's it.
[/quote]
Whether they are from WashU or Harvard, they are the same. (Maybe Harvard is on the same binge.) Soliciting apps. At our house D gets a lot of WashU but she has sent in the first part of the app so it is understandable. The ones that continue to amaze me are the weekly posters, viewboooks, postcards from Cal Tech and almost as many from Harvard (one postcard total from Yale). I keep them all hoping she will look at them before this process is over.</p>
<p>our family feels kinda dissapointed with WashU bcos we haven't received much mail from them. We've received much more from other, equally selective schools. I guess they don't like our zip code., or thinks we're all Dodger fans.</p>