Not visiting campus... how much will it hurt chances?

I live in CA so I haven’t visited WashU. Will admissions understand that I haven’t visited since I live so far away, or will it just hurt me since I didn’t visit? I did, however, apply to scholarships and interviewed. I’ve also emailed my rep a couple times.

No need to worry! Visiting and showing interest at a school like Wash U isn’t considered in the admissions

@coolcheesebagel you must be misinformed… WashU heavily tracks interest. You may be confusing it with University of Washington.

OP, maybe you could look for other ways to demonstrate interest. WashU sometimes sends admissions staff to other cities to conduct information sessions. In the last month, I’ve seen notices for three of those sessions go up on WashU’s website and those are in Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta and Bethesda MD. I know you said you’re in CA, so the three currently scheduled don’t help you much. But if you check periodically, you might eventually see one scheduled in your area. Attending would be a good way to demonstrate interest. The info is posted on WashU’s website: https://admissions.wustl.edu/news-events. Good luck!

https://admissions.wustl.edu/news/Pages/Los-Angeles-Information-Session.aspx

OP, WashU just posted this relating to an info session in Los Angeles. Hope that helps!

OP, you’re still worrying. It’s not just a physical visit but how you showed your match, after stats. The most "interested " kids have a better handle on that.

@lookingforward You are probably (certainly) more knowledgable than me with the whole admissions process, but I would just like to offer my view. WashU does not include ANY supplemental essay questions, not even at least a “Why WashU” that many of its peers appear to have to show how you fit. The only requirement is the universal Common App essay, which I believe is geared more towards helping them understand your personality than why specifically you are a match.

Therefore, I think they make it extremely difficult, rather impossible, to show them how well you fit within the scope of the application itself. I am very much “interested” in WashU. I would love to have an opportunity talk about specific professors whose work I’ve followed, the research at one of its centers that I’ve actually made use of, and how all this aligns with my goals and my interests. But there simply isn’t a place for me to do that. This is also why I believe they heavily use college visits and all that to track interest.

@HalfPastThree Ive heard people say that you should fill out scholarship forms to show interest since there arent any supplements.

@HalfPastThree WashU does not have supplementals because they want applicants to be using their time on the scholarship applications which require many essays and additional letter of recommendations, allowing students to show who they are other than their stats. This also weeds out those only willing to do the bare minimum and those not very interested in the University (Plus it drives down the acceptance rate). If you want to go to WashU, fill out the scholarship app even if you think there’s no chance you’ll get one.

@llw333 not all scholarships require recs, right? Te two I applied to didn’t mention getting extra recs…

@ap012199 no not all require recs! A few do and a few don’t