<p>Just came back from WashU. I have to say, everything was awesome 
I feel like I can see myself going here next year and feel a little weird about going back to high school tomorrow.</p>
<p>A weekend of revelations, uncertainty, and excitement. =)</p>
<p>I came to the weekend 99% set on going to another school. Three and a half days later I changed my mind :)</p>
<p>haha :] funny how you can meet people from multicultural weekend even if you end up attending other colleges that arenāt wash U.</p>
<p>alphast0rm: Just out of curiosity, which school were you 99% sure of before the weekend?</p>
<p>USC</p>
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<p>alphast0rm - Wash U will be glad to know that their program had the desired effect. USC is a fine school of course, but I rather suspect you will like the campus life at Wash U far more, which is probably what you picked up on also. Congrats on your decision and Good Luck. Just donāt second guess yourself on those days when it is 15 degrees with -10 wind chill in St. Louis.</p>
<p>Iāve posted several things about USC v. Wash U (one D at each). So search for those if interested ā¦</p>
<p>fallenchemist: Youāre spot on ;D Someone PMād me asking for more specifics so I guess Iāll go ahead and post what I wrote here too.</p>
<p>I plan on studying Computer Science/Business Administration at USC or double major in Computer Engineering and Business Administration at WashU. So I had my mind pretty much set on USC before this weekend. My friend I met on the flight to St. Louis was in a similar situation except with UCLA. We both jokingly estimated that there was maybe a 1% chance that we would end up at WashU. Little did we know that weād both change our mind by the end of the weekend.
First off, the campus is absolutely stunning. USCās campus has an urban feel and while it is clean for the most part, there were still some dirty areas. WashUās campus, on the other hand, was absolutely spotless. TFrom what Iāve heard it is the same caliber as the Ivy League campuses. The dorms and amenities are also fantastic. WashU is ranked #1 Quality of Life by the Princeton Review, and it is very evident why.
The students and faculty are all very pleasant to be around. I can honestly say that every student I met was genuinely happy and excited to be at WUSTL. My friend and I were walking around campus but we didnāt really know where we were going. A student went out of there way to ask if we were lost and took the time to walk us towards where we were going. It is little things like this that really made my visit. The whole event was also planned superbly. Everything ran like clockwork. Another one of my friends wanted to change his major from CAS to the B-School and all he had to do was go to the office and put it in writing and they told him it would be done by the end of the day.
WashUās size was also a big advantage. After talking to some fraternity members it seems like 7,000 undergrads is the perfect size. There are enough people so wherever you go you will know someone, but there will always be people to meet. That brings me to the social scene. The thing that stood out to me was that WashU is a work hard, play hard environment. The academics are definitely there, and the students knew how to kick back and have a good time too, without losing sight of the big picture.
The best aspect of the trip for me was the people that I met. I ended up in a group of about 5 prefrosh that hung out the entire weekend and it was great to meet a couple of my future classmates. The Indian community at the university is also very chill.
I only have a couple of complaints about the university. The weather in Missouri is not quite as nice as it is in California. The girls are admittedly better looking at USC, but WashU still has its share of good looking ladies, you just have to find them.
Overall, the WashU experience seems very appealing to me. After visiting both campuses I feel more at home at WUSTL. It has the strong academics that Iām looking for without compromising the social scene. I think itās safe for me to say that this last weekend at WashU was an amazing experience and Iām looking forward to the fall (things are not 100% set in stone, but thatās how itās looking).</p>
<p>Having been involved in planning some of the events that occurred during Multiculti, I was wondering what people thought were the best/worst.</p>
<p>best would be the food at the last dinner, holi, spirit of korea and our lovely hosts! worst? thatās so hardā¦probably the construction? not really.</p>
<p>Holi, the Spirit of Korea, the dances, and the Carnival were excellent.</p>
<p>As for the worst, I donāt really have any complaints. Okay, I have one: it was too short!</p>
<p>Hahah I feel like such a complainer on this board lately (I guess itās the journalist side turning on WashU lol), but you asked xiv! Soā¦</p>
<p>Good Things: AWESOME scheduleā¦I loved it a lot, Iād been twice before, and the schedule was almost exactly the same both times. I was sooo glad when I saw that this was wayyy different- there was no bowling lol. The number of activities was ridic and I was never sitting around boredā¦only exhausted lol. Gorgeous opening dinner setup, at first I thought itād get boring but it was hilarious and fun. The theme was extremely cute! Carnival was tight. Holi was great to watch from my window in Mudd lolā¦not by choice though, next year Iāll be in the mud I hope! Club Indulgence was nicely decoratedā¦Idk about the music/dancing though.</p>
<p>Bad Things: My largest problemo was with the setup of the Friday Night Activities. The time when Spirit of Korea, the step show, the Ashoka meeting, Hindu and Muslim Assoc. Dinners/Desserts were ALL going on. It just kind of seemed to scream ādonāt bother trying to attend multiple events, just stick with your own.ā Which is really what most people seemed to do. They were spread ALL over campus, so it wasnāt like you could really just hop from one to another easily. I wanted to go to everything, but the Muslim Assoc. Dinner seemed like it would be too awkward (for a non-Muslim at least) because it was also the ālast meeting for seniorsā or somethingā¦people were already making me feel weird for going, and I guess that made me decide not to goā¦it wasnāt really clear how open they were to random people lol and that made it seem like even more of a closed event. People kept telling us that if we wanted good seats at the step show we would have to get there on timeā¦so all my friends, who were already kind of ambivalent about going to the Asian activities, decided that that was the only thing they would attend. I didnāt want to miss out (and besides, we already have great steppers at my school) so I went alone to Spirit of Korea for a while, which was awesome. Then I tried to go to the Ashoka meeting around 8:30ā¦and it was really awkward, everyone was huddled up in circles talking intently and no one was really very inviting, not that they had to be, butā¦idk, it felt weird already not being South Asian, so I decided to try to linger at the dessert tableā¦but everything was already gone lol, so I left. And it really sucked, because one of the things I REALLY liked about washu was that Ashoka was really active (Holi, Diwali stuff, etc.) and I couldnāt talk to them on Multicutural Weekend, of all weekends. After that, I didnāt even bother to go to the Hindu eventā¦Also, there was not a single Hispanic/Latin event??? ***? Did they have their own weekend? 
I feel like there were many student groups who didnāt come outā¦African Students Association, Womenās groups, etcā¦just the Korean Assoc. and the LGBTQIZ and ABS over an over againā¦Iām not sure why this was like that. I feel like all student groups would want the exposure, especially this particular weekend. I kind of wondered if a lot of the 200+ orgs WashU lists on their site are simply in name only or very secret/small and if these are pretty much the only cultural offerings we have to chose from.</p>
<p>Anyway, most of this wasnāt even WashUās faultā¦as I said in another message, a lot of the issues I had with MC weekend were personal problems of mine. I think that there needs to be more clarity that everyone is welcome to all the events, especially because they are culturally themed. Itās kind of like, a non-break dancer might feel comfortable going to Break Dance club because he or she can learn to break dance, but a non-black person might feel weird going to ABS, because they can never be black. I am used to attending random cultural stuff because of the extremely open and diverse nature of my school, but Iām sure many people arenāt. Sprit of Korea was great for example, but there were only like 3 black people there, one being me and one being my best friendās brother lol. They should emphasize that a lot, so people donāt get caught up in their own subgroups, because it is REALLY easy. I never thought Iād be the type to end up hanging out only with my own race, but surely enough, when I didnāt go to the step show on Friday, I realized I hadnāt met a SINGLE person (or at least, pre-frosh) who was not black. I almost criedā¦itās so unlike me. But I digressā¦anyway, the whole point is I felt like that article someone posted about MC Weekend from Stud Life ended up being so true, it really does isolate people. Iād like that to be proven wrong next year : )</p>
<p>Princessbell - great post & suggestions. I sure hope someone from WUSTL monitors these boards and takes your comments to heart!</p>
<p>I will say that I donāt think itād be a good idea for all those 200+ groups to all hold something. Too many groups just means too many choices. There were already too many to go to. I agree that I didnāt like choosing. However. i did go to multiple events, and it was great. The Indian dancing lesson had plenty of people from all races, which was good.</p>
<p>Haha - yeah, I agree that every group doesnāt need to hold something. My focus (which certainly wasnāt clear) was on princessbellās comments about the lack of inclusiveness/warmness of some of the groups.</p>