<p>I hear an overwhelming majority of students are waitlisted even those who are quite qualified. Do they tend to accept people who visit the school and show lots of interest over those who just apply. I live quite a distance from WashU and I am not able to visit. So does anyone know how the process works?</p>
<p>and does anyone have any speculation on how financial situations will affect decisions by Wash U. specifically? rumor has always been that student who can pay have gotten at least some sort of leg up in the past over students who cant…will it be even worse this year?</p>
<p>i’m going to take an opposite position that most people take on WUSTL. i think that they probably don’t take interest into account as much as people think they do. here’s why:</p>
<p>the school is known for providing free trips to campus for many students who they admit. they want to get as many people as possible to visit campus (whether it’s before they applied, or after they were accepted for the first time). simply applying to a school is showing interest. not everyone can visit. you can also show interest through emails, phone calls, alumni interviews, or meeting with a rep when they visit your city/high school. </p>
<p>once they bring you to campus after you are accepted, they’ll sell you on the school and you’ll get to learn a lot about them. the most important thing in the admissions world is a college’s Yield — of the people they do accept, who will likely enroll. it doesn’t matter when you visit… as long as they get you to come to campus at some point. from their point of view, they can sell you on the school no matter when you visit, either before you apply or after you are accepted. </p>
<p>especially in today’s economy, it would be really unseemly if they looked at Campus Visits or Financial Aid to a greater degree than they may or may not have in the past. the school has a big enough endowment, even in today’s economy, where financial aid offers shouldn’t be significantly affected.</p>
<p>They tend to waitlist kids who are more than well qualified because they know some kids are using Wash. U as a safety, so I think showing interest counts a lot.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the above post. There’s no way to prove WHY a school makes certain decisions - whether its Wash U or Harvard or Cornell. It might be true that they wait-list more people than some other schools, but I think it’s a fallacy to say Wash U does it because they suspect that they’re being made someone’s safety school.</p>
<p>First, Wash U can’t be considered a Safety school. A safety school is one that you KNOW you can get into. Provided you get rejected from every other school you apply to, then a safety school is your sure bet - your last resort. If the argument is that they wait-list you if you are treating them as a safety school, then they aren’t a safety school. Once you start looking at schools who only accept <20% of their applicants, all bets are off.</p>
<p>Second, if you look at available data such as average SAT scores, GPAs, and Class Ranks, Wash U is basically at the same level as HYPS. Which essentially refutes the argument that they wait-list people because of a too high class rank or too high of an SAT score.</p>
<p>Third, schools don’t know where else kids apply to. Colleges never find out how many, or which, other colleges you sent the Common App to. Furthermore, lots of people visit 15 different schools, and Wash U might be one of those 15 schools visited. Is it really showing unique interest in the school if you are visiting Wash U in addition to 14 other schools? Colleges don’t have enough information about you, which schools you applied to, or which schools you also visited to rely on making admissions decisions based off of campus visits. </p>
<p>Finally, they invite so many people to campus in the spring time, as a previous poster said. Just read back on the CC boards about the Multicultural Weekend, the Scholarship Weekends, and other random fly-in weekends. You’ve gotta figure that the majority of kids invited to these weekeds in the spring time (after admissions decisions are made) did not visit before being accepted.</p>
<p>Sure, they might WL more people than other colleges, but I think it’s an irrelevant conclusion and begging the question to assume certain things that you can’t know for sure, and are probably false anyway (like they do it because of the safety school thing, or because you were “too” qualified).</p>
<p>
an overwhelming majority of qualified students is waitlisted or rejected at every top school with below 25% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>jcool155. schools CAN find out where other students apply if they wish. I contacted FAFSA and was told that each school to which a student sends a FAFSA receives the complete report–including the page that lists every school to which students send their FAFSA.</p>
<p>So, each of the schools to which my senior applied now has documentation of every other school to which she applied.</p>
<p>I asked whether that information would be hidden if we had her FAFSA sent to just one school at a time and was told that it wouldn’t help–each time a school is added (or the FAFSA is resubmitted for any other reason), it is resent to every school that previously was designated.</p>
<p>This doesn’t mean that Wash U (or any other school) is going to check on this or take it into account, but it DOES mean that the info is in their possession if they care to look.</p>
<p>Since WUSTL waitlists more applicants than it accepts, those who stay on the waitlist by definition “demonstrate interest.” If WUSTL had accepted them from the get-go, it wouldn’t have known that. Waitlisting for WUSTL is not so much based on indecision as gathering information (about likelihood of enrollment). Despite these games, WUSTL still can manage only a 34% yield rate, which is lower than even that of, say, Duke or Vanderbilt. Not only are WUSTL’s motives and tactics manipulative, but also painfully transparent.</p>
<p>i called FAFSA just now and got a different answer. they said that colleges are not given this information at any point. very interesting… not saying that “momof3greatkids” is misrepresenting information, but it is interesting that FAFSA gave people two different answers. i’m still included to believe that FAFSA doesn’t let colleges know where else you applied for financial aid. colleges have no business of being told this information from the government. </p>
<p>i also emailed the Common App, and here’s what they said:</p>
<p>"Thank you for your message.</p>
<p>Please be informed that the schools will not know where else you have applied.</p>
<p>Again, thank you for contacting The Support Team. Please contact us again if you need additional assistance with this incident.</p>
<p>Regards,
The Support Team"</p>
<p>They paid hundreds of dollars for me to go visit them…and then waitlisted me haha</p>
<p>^^Really? Wow…I always thought that after they invited to come to the fall weekend for free that I was surefire in. But I did apply for scholarships too.</p>
<p>^ So did I. I didn’t get them, but I applied lol</p>
<p>My son is also wait-listed. We did appy for FA, but based on the info from the FA application, they would have known that we don’t qualify for any FA. We got nothing from the state schools, not even loans.</p>
<p>Never visited; I don’t think anyone from my school has ever applied.</p>
<p>I was accepted.</p>
<p>I don’t think demonstrated interest helps that much, to be honest.</p>
<p>I’m so sick of hearing that “oh they just waitlist people that were using it as a safety” line.
WashU isn’t a safety for anyone. </p>
<p>One of the major reasons why the waitlist is so big is so that they can guarantee a perfect sized freshmen class- the current juniors (2010) had too high of a yield; thus overenrollment issues, which resulted in housing cramps. I’m fairly certain that the following year is when the waitlist size went up, and % direct admit went down.</p>
<p>^ Obviously, no one actually considers it a “safety” in the traditional sense, but people use that phrase to mean “WashU waitlists highly qualified people because they’re protecting their yield rate.”</p>
<p>Well, I’d say WashU waitlists people in general (overly qualified applicants, yes, but others too) because it decreases their direct acceptance rate and increases their yield.</p>
<p>WashU accepts qualified applicants. Period.
Sure, there are qualified applicants that get waitlisted/rejected, but that is just what happens at a top tier, selective University. You people definitely are overthinking the situation if you believe that WashU chooses not to accept the most qualified applicants just to protect their yield rate.</p>
<p>okay – this is what happened. WashU has practiced yield protection to a large extent up until last year, when they decided to stop. There acceptance rate shot up 5% (from 17% to 22%.) This is complete speculation, and probably on unfounded grounds, but I believe that b/c of this ‘decrease’ in selectivity, WashU changed directors of admissions (Nanette Tarbouni leaves to be a college counselor at a private St Louis high school next year-- definitely not on-par with her last job.) This is pure conjecture, but with WashU track record, it just may be believable. </p>
<p>I hope to never post on this site again.</p>
<p>Never posting here again might be a good idea since your numbers are way off. Last year the acceptance rate was below 20%. As for speculating on changes in staff, I guess anyone has the right to speculate on anything. It is always better if such speculation had some basis.</p>