<p>hey guys, what are other schools like washu? im looking for a school strong in teh sciences, yet laid back...good campus...good food/dorms</p>
<p>Rice, Northwestern</p>
<p>Yup - Rice and NWern are often cited as its peers in the Midwest. In other parts of the country you might consider Tufts, Cornell, Duke, Emory.</p>
<p>I do not consider Northwestern and Rice to be peers of WashU.</p>
<p>Rice is the most similar to Wash U -- a medium research university that provides easy ability to switch among colleges/majors, close interaction with professors, high academic standards, and a bright, but laid-back vibe among students.</p>
<p>Phead128 - explain yourself? Then what universities/colleges would you consider to be WashU's peers then?</p>
<p>I agree with Rice, Northwestern, Cornell and Tufts.</p>
<p>Rice and WashU have a lot of cross admits. Rice is D1 athletics, which can be fun if you care about that. It also has a better climate.</p>
<p>I've never heard of Northwestern and Rice cited as peers of each other. According to this...</p>
<p>Best</a> Colleges - Education - US News and World Report</p>
<p>Phead -- you realize that your source is a ranking by some high school college counselors based on subjective criteria? First of all, the OP is asking about schools similar to Wash U, not necessarily schools that are of the same prestige level. But even if that's what he/she meant, Rice/Northwestern/JHU, etc, are all in the same ballpark.</p>
<p>Uh phead, just because you have never heard of it doesn't mean it's not valid, especially given that 5 others senior member of CC also chimed in with the same recommendations.
The OP was asking for colleges with these criteria- "school strong in the sciences, yet laid back...good campus...good food/dorms "and if he has the stats for Wash U he would probably also have a chance at those colleges as well.
there are lots of other valid ways to compare colleges than just US News. Not everyone is fixated on ranking.</p>
<p>Your source is "Best Colleges: High School Counselor Rankings of National Universities"?</p>
<p>Hah, excuse me? I thought your link would lead me to the National USNWR rankings, but no, you're judging based on high school counselor rankings. Wow, that's absolutely ridiculous, no offense. I hope you didn't use this to pick your colleges... cause that's just a little sad.</p>
<p>ACTUALLY, if you look at it, WashU and Rice have the same exact rankings. Go figure. </p>
<p>I wouldn't give a second thought to what another counselor thought about what college I went to. I mean, why would I care? Why should you care? Anyone care?</p>
<p>A few schools further down the admissions food chain that would be good backups to WashU are Case Western and U of Rochester... both of which are in the same athletic conference as WashU (the University Athletic Association). The UAA is kind of like the poor man's version of the Ivy League, at the D3 level. Emory (another UAA member) might also be another possibility, though I don't know if it is as "laid back" as WashU.</p>
<p>Well... This list actually has HYPSM on the same tier level, gives extra weight to Cornell and Brown (two understimated Ivies by USNews rank IMO), gives proper recognition to Berkeley and Georgetown (vastly underestimated in the rankings IMHO), and puts WashU and UChicago at their respective levels.</p>
<p>Hotasice: You shouldn't care what I say either. It's just my opinion right? My opinion backed up by the opinion of GCs whose job it is to send kids to college. I think they are a little more qualified than you or me on this matter. PS. Guidance counselor rankings provide another perspective that USNews report fails to give. It is what you make of it.</p>
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My opinion backed up by the opinion of GCs whose job it is to send kids to college. I think they are a little more qualified than you or me on this matter. Guidance counselor rankings provide another perspective that USNews report fails to give.
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<p>Right, but USNWR uses explicit methodology in ranking the universities, whereas guidance counselors mostly go by personal experiences and anecdotes and probably regional prestige aside from the national prestige of HYPSM (for example, a Midwestern counselor may rank WashU higher than Emory, for example, perhaps because s/he is more familiar with WashU and in the Midwest WashU is more well known--just an example, there are endless factors and possibilities). Not to mention obviously they are pretty familiar with their particular high school's history of sending kids to colleges, and those colleges that readily accept their students, colleges that in decades have not, etc.</p>
<p>Do you think they really spend the time to research student-faculty ratio of each of the hundreds of colleges, to assess and compare the SAT ranges for each school? Or do you think it'd might be a whole lot easier for them to just "arbitrarily" judge one school to be ranked higher than another because so-and-so excellent student got rejected from there (insert another variable anecdote), etc?</p>
<p>It's a lot more subjective and personal with guidance counselor rankings as opposed to the objective and rather numbers-based criteria that USNWR uses to judge each college's ranking. I'm not saying USNWR is perfect, of course its got its flaws (as does any other ranking), but at least it relies on quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality.</p>
<p>And yes, it is your opinion. I was just pointing out the slight flaws with using the judgment of guidance counselors to determine any particular school's peers.</p>
<p>If you want the DEFINITIVE book that college counselors actually use, then look up Ruggs's Recommendations. It is a compilation of recommendations by college counselors from across the nation, based on years of input.</p>
<p>ALso, I think it would be helpful if Phead describes the exact amount of time he has spent on the Wash U campus and his degree of familiarity with the school.</p>
<p>You can also look at this year's USNews peer assessment rankings. Thats definitive proof that Northwestern, Rice, and WashU are not academic peers of each other. Yet another reason why I believe my opinion is right.</p>
<p>Phead- those of us who have spent a lot of time on these forums and have been through one or more college searches with our kids are actually more qualified to help someone with a college search than most high school guidance counselors.</p>
<p>In MY humble opinion, Rice is BETTER than both Northwestern and WashU and Emory as well. Probably on par with Duke but I just dont like that school.</p>