Questions for current students

<p>Hi, my name is Morgan and I’m a sophomore in high school and my English class is doing a college fair and I’m doing Washington U. I have to contact a current student and ask them questions about their college experience and I was wondering if anybody that currently goes to Washington U could answer these questions.</p>

<li><p>Why did you choose Washington U?</p></li>
<li><p>What other colleges did you consider?</p></li>
<li><p>What are the dorms like?</p></li>
<li><p>What’s your major if you have one?</p></li>
<li><p>What is the major “feel” of the campus?</p></li>
<li><p>Are the teachers at the school approachable?</p></li>
<li><p>What are fellow students at Washington U like?</p></li>
<li><p>What is your average class size?</p></li>
<li><p>Does the school have a good balance between academics and social/sports?</p></li>
<li><p>What is the campus like?</p></li>
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<p>These are pretty much all my questions and if there is anything more you have to say about Washington U just add it. You can answer in this thread or email me at cubs<em>rock</em><a href="mailto:sox@yahoo.com">sox@yahoo.com</a> Thank you so much!</p>

<p>Nice list. Here goes...</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I chose WashU for several reasons. First, I live in Missouri so it seemed like a more natural choice than comparable schools. I liked that the music department on campus is good (albeit quite small) which is great for someone like me who just likes to do music on the side for fun. (I started playing violin and joined an A Cappella group up here - A Cappella is quite popular actually). WashU also gave me pretty generous FA/scholarships after I talked to the friendly SFS office people, which made everything affordable. WashU's academic reputation helped a lot as well with my decision, you have all kinds of opportunities for research, random classes, and branching out.</p></li>
<li><p>I considered (stereotypically) the Ivies, but Hahvahd never pulled me off the waitlist, so I ended up deciding between WashU, Drury, Cedarville University, and a couple other Christian schools. </p></li>
<li><p>Dorms are great, and getting better every year. By far the most comfortable of the dorms I toured. The construction does get a bit old, but I believe that by next year that will have slowed down on the S40. Having housing staff that cleans the (private 4-person) bathrooms twice a week is really over the top, but I'm not complaining.</p></li>
<li><p>No official major declared yet. I'll likely double-major in Physics and Computer Science, though. Minor in the Humanities. The introductory Comp Sci classes here are great, by the way, I'd recommend taking CSE131-132 even if you're not going to make it part of your degree.</p></li>
<li><p>Hm, not sure if I'd know how to put my finger on that. Anyone else?</p></li>
<li><p>Yeah, at least on the whole. I don't know that I'd feel comfortable joining my math Prof for lunch or anything, but the professors are definitely willing to help you and they appreciate it when people take the time to attend office hours, etc. Teachers for smaller classes (often discussion-based, in my experience so far) are definitely approachable. I have one teacher who learned every student's name (in a 120 student lecture class) within two weeks... That was a bit intimidating, actually...</p></li>
<li><p>Diverse... We've got a lot of internationals, and students from all over the country. It'd be tough to generalize...</p></li>
<li><p>~20 students average, aside from Calculus 1,2, & 3. That excludes the pre-req science classes too, which are up in the 90-120 student range. </p></li>
<li><p>The school is a bit light on the sports, from what I've seen, but I don't feel overwhelmed by the academic side of things. I'm in A Cappella, SPS, and a couple College Central groups, and somehow there's still time to sleep at night, so I'm happy with the balance. There really are a LOT of student groups you can get involved in, and as the tour guides will tell you, if you don't find what you want you can always request a budget from Student Union and start your own activity!</p></li>
<li><p>The campus is great. I really like the architecture - almost everything is built in an old gothic theme (although many buildings are actually fairly new), and it really is a great-looking campus. The location within St. Louis is nearly ideal as well, as we're right next to Forest Park, which is one of the largest city parks in the nation. The lack of a good 24-hour coffee shop is a bit painful to me, but other than that things are great.</p></li>
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