I think your counselor is overselling WashU. It’s a great school, but it’s not like JHU, which I would have said would be worth it for BME, possibly over GT.
In the end though, you need to come to your own conclusions. From your posts, it sounds like you want to have options. Go with your gut.
Admission chances at WUSTL for ED are significantly higher RD (Don’t have exact ED2 stats but roughly 60% of a class is filled with ED 1 and 2 students).
Apart from that, your post is a pretty good precis of the meeting - the cost favours GT, but washu offers a much better personal experience. The expense won’t be a deciding factor but may play a roll.
I do know someone at GT as well, who says it’s tough if you want to go that extra mile but extremely rewarding as well. On a side note - is your son set to graduate on time? I’ve heard the average time at GT is often 4.5 years.
Thank you!
I didn’t choose JHU for ED2 since its acceptance rate is even lower. I do want to have options, but I also acknowledge I may not know best (as a student applying vs counsellors with years of experience). But I will definitely take more time to consider things, as well as more opinions.
For the schools on your final list, I’d encourage you to map out the 4 year plans of study, visit the career center sites for each school, look at the industry ties, and then start reading the student newspapers, following the school’s social media pages, and maybe even reaching out to see if admissions will put you in touch with some current BME students to message with. (I know Purdue does that ; )).
He should graduate in 3 years. He had a lot of AP and CC transfer credits. The reason GT’s average time is higher is because of internships and co-ops. Many students co-op which stretches out graduation times. It’s one of the big selling points for GT. Students graduate with real-world experience.
JHU, GT, and WashU are all known for being academic grinds, not sure the academic vibe will be very different among them. There are more full pay students at WashU vs GT…I would say WashU offers a more ‘upscale’ experience. I assume after graduating undergrad (maybe getting a master’s) you will return to India?
I can’t disagree with any of your counselors’ points, but being accepted to GT has IMO changed the nature of the WashU ED2 decision. It’s up to you what you want to do.
Here are GTech’s outcomes for 2020 grads (only 53% in total participated in the survey though): Georgia Tech Career Survey Report: AY 2019-2020 | Office of Academic Effectiveness
And WashU’s: Career Outcome Data - Students
FWIW based on incomplete data, it looks like GTech BME grads earn higher salaries than at WashU.
Good luck making your decision.
I think your experience at GT would be radically different from your experience at WashU. I agree with @momofboiler1 that one way to gauge this difference is by looking at the student newspapers—what topics they cover and how they are treated. For instance, each school’s newspaper currently has an article that addresses how we can work toward equity—GT’s article reports on a MLK celebration, while WashU’s article is a personal piece about Black History month:
OP - it seems like you value the personal experience you would obtain at WashU. As others have pointed out already, it is definitely a more upscale experience than GT. The university is lovely and the surrounding area is quite nice. And if WashU doesn’t work out via ED2, you still have GT. BTW, GT is not exactly slumming - it’s a nice campus as well. It is more socioeconomically diverse that WashU.
I don’t have an answer to the question on the title of your post. It looks like your private counselors are knowledgeable and have a lot more data points than we do. Have you contacted any of the students at WashU that have gone there from Bombay via your counselors?
A number of people have commented about the “upscale” experience of WashU, but I believe the difference in experience between GT and WashU goes far beyond dorms and food. If the OP wanted the higher ranked engineering school, then the choice would be easy. At GT OP will have enormous engineering resources, but he will never be able to forge a friendship with an Arabic, political science, music, or philosophy major, because those majors do not exist at GT. Both are amazing schools, but they offer markedly different experiences.
No
No, I don’t have any of their contacts but I could ask and see. Would that be to ask them for their experiences?
Yes - and whatever else you want to find out.
If you switch your ED2 application to RD, you will most likely get waitlisted. I know someone who did that at WashU last year.
So you can switch your app to RD, but doing that is essentially letting WashU go. So I guess you just have to decide If you are okay with giving it up.
Technically my application should not be treated any different from a regular decision? At least that’s what my counsellor said. Still quite possible I’l be waitlisted or rejected
I posted this in the other thread by mistake- but basically my suggestion would be to stick with WashU if there is even a small inkling that you may down the road want to switch majors or double major. WashU makes it very easy to do both. If you want to combine engineering with a business degree or really anything else - stay with WashU. There is a growing start -up biotechnology industry in St Louis. WashU offers a biotechnology explorers pathway program to introduce first year students to it and internships are plentiful. Advising is very good and the environment is very supportive and not cutthroat in any way. I have a student who is currently a STEM/business major currently at WashU. It is very collaborative, however many of the BME majors are planning for medical school after graduation along with approx. 40% of the entire student body. Another approx 30-40% will graduate with a business major or minor.
Not radically. Those ED chances are, in most part, due to the fact that recruited athletes apply ED (and since they’ve already been recruited, they are almost accepted at 100%), Questbridge (who are also go their selection before they apply), and legacies generally get their increased admissions when they apply ED. The increase in acceptance rates for ED students who are not hooked is not all that large.
However, all that is not actually relevant for you, since you’re an international student, and are being reviewed differently. One advantage of WashU for international students is that it does not have an especially large number of international students, compared to other “elite” private colleges. Most have around 10% international students, while WashU has only 6%. In fact, WashU has one of the lowest percent of international undergraduates among “elite” private colleges. I think that only Tulane and Notre Dame have a lower percent of international undergraduates (some public “elite” colleges, like UNC or W&M, have fewer).
Factors that you have going for you, as an international students, are that you are high stats and full-pay. While WashU has gone need blind, that’s just for USA students.
SO I don’t know that there would be any real way to figure out how much your chances will change by applying ED.
If there is one feature at which WashU is at the very top, that is accommodations. Their dorms are considered some of the very best of all colleges. @SamSB - if quality of dorms is a top factor in where you want to attend, I will change my recommendation.
PS. @SamSB one of the reasons that I recommend that you change your ED application is that I think that you are a very strong applicant and that your chances at acceptance to WashU are pretty good, so that choosing now is relevant.
I’ll make it simple: If you keep the ED2 application, you will get accepted to WashU and you will have to go there. If you convert ED2 to RD, you will get rejected and not have the opportunity to go to WashU.
Which one of the above feels better to you?
Does this mean that international admissions rate at WashU are higher than at most other elite colleges?
Chances ED or RD as well?
Are either of these a given, though? Isn’t there a fair chance I get rejected ED2, or even accepted RD (by which I mean my RD chances should not be significantly lower than a normal RD applicant)
Along the same vein.
You have GT in the bag along with several other very good engineering schools like Purdue and CWRU. You also have Harvard, JHU, UCB, and others on the list. What if you get into Harvard or JHU or UCB or all. Would you be OK turning down GT, Harvard, UCB and JHU for WUSTL? Maybe you would. At some point you have to make your own choices and decisions. Choose what’s best for you, not a counselor. Good luck.
If he gets into WashU ED 2 he will never know about Harvard, JHU etc.! That’s the age old trade off with ED…