some interesting statistics about those accepted and waitlisted

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
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<p>kjanebarnum & Cressmom</p>

<p>I'm sorry that you appear to have had negative experiences with your college counselors. But mine is a brilliant woman who has worked as a college counselor for my school for the past 10 years. I trust that she has seen enough and knows enough to make a judgment.</p>

<p>She's also an english teacher and my advisor for my humor mag.</p>

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<p>Another way to see if there might be yield protection: find out who got into WUSTL <em>and</em> HYPSM. Because of the vagaries of admissions, it would be much better to look at cross-applicants on CC. If, for example, all, or even most, cross-applicants who got into HYPSM were waitlisted at WUSTL, that is revealing. Likewise, if equal numbers of HYPSM admits were accepted/waitlisted at WUSTL, then that discounts the rumors -- at least with this small sample.</p>

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<p>I GOT WAITLIST.
asian female
GPA: 4.08
SAT 1: 1710
ACT 28</p>

<p>ya everyone else makes me look really dumb. but o well i got waitlisted.</p>

44

<p>I would say that Washington U engages in misleading tactics. My daughter has excellent credentials and got waitlisted even though we made the trip out there, she showed interest and, like others who got waitlisted, got accepted to several comparable universities including U of M and UNC. Unlike many other schools, WashU makes it pretty clear that it is almost a necessity to visit the school in order to be seriously considered for admission. Admission representatives are sent out to high schools all over the country to encourage applicants to visit and send in their applications. Wash U is certainly a boon for the city of St. Louis. Hundreds, if not thousands, of students and their parents make the trek each year, stay in hotels, patronize the local restaurants, etc. Then everyone pays an application fee. If there were really 22,000 applicants this time around that adds up to a hefty amount of $$. These tactics are not practiced by the Ivies, other "New Ivies" nor other top notch schools.</p>

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<p>.... haven't we exhausted this topic already... I think we have six or seven threads devoted to whether or not "overqualified" applicants are waitlisted...</p>

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<p>First of all, all of the admissions stats show that WashU is more selective than U of M and UNC, at least in the last five years or so. </p>

<p>Second, if there is no "guarantee" of the admission for those who visited and scored higher than a cut-off point, I don't know how WashU practices "misleading" tactics. Showing interest probably will help in the admission, but there are plenty of posters here who said they never visited the school but still got admitted. </p>

<p>The tactics practiced by the Ivies are not necessarily noble, and I don't think we should ask WashU to adopt only those tactics invented by the Ivies. After all, it is competition in the market place, on a global scale.</p>

47

<p>I agree; U of M and UNC are great, but they are not nearly as selective as WashU and I wouldn't merit acceptance at those schools as evidence of a deserved acceptance at WashU. Either way, as has been said, there are plenty of students at HYPM that were waitlisted at WashU, so something seems to be up.</p>

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<p>How dare a school encourage students to visit... shameless, just shameless...</p>

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<p>I believe that it has already been established that WashU is shameless!</p>

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<p>I visited, interviewed, and applied for a scholarship...still waitlisted. It's fine, though. Higher-ranked schools have been considerably nicer to me.</p>

51

<p>Goblue, WashU spends a lot more money on the recruitment and selection process per applicant than they could possibly recover from application fees.
They are simply very selective not just in terms of scores/grades and essays but have added a criteria of candidate's interest in college. They have done really good job in the last few years of accepting just the right kids - the ones that are happy to be there.</p>

<p>If you think that your daugther would be really happy at WashU, this is her first choice (and she is qualified score/grade-wise) she should call adcom and make it clear - there is a good chance they will take her off the waitlist. </p>

<p>In case WashU is not your D's top choice - that would mean that adcom did a good job of filtering her out. I don't understand why people who would not come to WashU anyway be so upset about being waitlisted ?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I don't understand why people who would not come to WashU anyway be so upset about being waitlisted ?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>So true. But partially it's because so many people are eager to pounce on waitlistees and say "Ha! You weren't qualified!"</p>

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<p>


</p>

<pre><code>I disagree. Where I live in So. Calif, these "tactics" as you call them, are employed by many, many visiting colleges, some of them Ivy and New Ivy and various levels of top-notch. Every highly selective college sends its admissions reps on road trips to high schools, to info sessions at big hotels, to regional recruiting college fairs. HYPSM may go to fewer places, but they still travel, casting as wide a net as they can for applicants even though they know they will not be able to admit the vast majority. Only a few colleges are really blithely unconcerned with whether applicants show interest and I think we all know by know which ones they are (think yield of 60 percent and up.) You are within your rights to criticize washu, but it is not correct to say that no other top college encourages students to visit, to show why they want to attend, or sends its reps on trips across the country to meet with potentially interested students and their parents. They all do it to some extent.
</code></pre>

<p>And not only nationally. Stanford, and other elite colleges have made it clear in various interviews that they intend to step up their recruiting among international students; the trend among the elites is likely to go more global and all the other "top-notch" colleges will feel some pressure to follow suit. Partly I think because that is where the growth market is going to be in the near future --- international students --- as the numbers of American college-bound students begin to decline.</p>

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<p>Why is everyone so set on showing that WashU admitted "lower" or "mediocre" students from their schools or wherever and waitlisted the top ones? If WashU really did that all over....they would basically suck. All of you people who were waitlisted,no offense, but you try to convince everyone that the class is filled with mediocre kids, when, if you were a school that had 22,000+ applicants, wouldn't you want to find the best and the most who were most likely to go and be happy to be there? This whole game of acting shocked at kids who got in versus kids who were waitlisted is ridiculous, and half of the stories I read, Shoe66's just as an example, just adds fuel to the fire of the "overqualified" mess. Nobody can prove any of this. Period. WashU must be full of morons then to waitlist the better kids and let the rest of us crap in huh?</p>

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<br>


<br>

<p>Oh, please. How old are you, anyway?</p>

<p>My daughter applied because Wash U was her No. 1 choice and we felt she was a good candidate. We knew the risks, but even Wash U is admitting that it accepted fewer applicants this year after the over-enrollment problem of a year ago. My problem, if any, is with the curious way in which Wash U culled through the applicants.
I'm not angry at the school. Why attack me? I'm tired of people on this board (like Cressmom) who think they're sticking up for a school by verbally attacking people who feel they have a legitimate lament. It's a forum, people. It's supposed to encourage dialogue.</p>

<p>And your line, Cressmom, about talking "bad" about my D's classmates sounds like something a third grader would say. What I said about the two girls who were accepted is the gospel truth, and every student in my D's school knows those girls' situations, backwards and forwards. Admitting those two girls did not help Wash U's reputation at my D's school...that's all I'm saying.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry that you feel this way, but I’m tired of the people that can’t accept the reality. You can’t know if the applicants who were accepted in the admission office’s eyes look a better fit, and you still are blaming kids with supposedly lower stats for getting in instead of others with higher SAT’s.
My kids were lucky in the college applications’ process, but they have their frustrations in other things that matter to them, like not getting the main role in an audition, or a presidency in a club, and I never allowed them to bash the ones than were luckier because they need to learn respect toward others. Whatever we do or say should be an example to them, and we want them to grow up to be nice individuals, something that a diploma from a prestige university won’t give to them if they don’t learn that at home.
You just said you are not angry with the school, so this discussion ended; and please, don’t send me messages like this one.</p>

<p>“People like you are giving the school a bad name.
Your reply on the board was childish, at best.
How old are you, anyway?
What I've written has been consistent. I don't expect a shallow thinker
like yourself to understand.
Have a nice life, you creep.”</p>

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<p>Shoe66 - Many, many, many of us are in your situation. It isn't bashing whenever you are just stating facts. Cressmom doesn't want you to be able to make the arguement that has been made countless times. WashU is playing some game with these children. WashU is entitled to play whatever game that they choose in the admissions process. Many of us wish that we hadn't been involved in this game at all.</p>

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<p>While I can see most of your points...I still fully agree with Cressmom.</p>

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<p>Just what games do you feel WashU is playing? The fact that they accept candidates that they feel are the best fit for them? All these posts about who is admitted and who is not - based on no knowledge of what is on any given application. As for the statement "Many of us wish that we hadn't been involved in this game at all." - possibly some parents should have done or have their kids do more research, prior to deciding on which schools to apply to. Based on the statistics for the enrolles for the 2004 class, I would say the quality of student at WashU is quite high:</p>

<p>SAT 25-75 percentile 1350-1520
Top 10% of HS class 92%</p>

<p>I can certainly understand dissapointment - I can even understand students venting (they have a right to - they are young) - but parents should offer positive support to their kids. If WashU is still your first choice, even if you think they blew it (which in some cases they probably did) then accept a place on the WL and work at showing them why they should choose you. My feeling is that since they cut back on initial acceptances this year, they will take kids off the WL this year. If it is not your first choice, then don't accept a place on the WL (leaving those spots for people that want WashU). Based on the WL stats being quoted on CC, I am sure these people will have other fantastic choices. Who knows, not being accepted ay be a blessing in disguise - it may not have been the best fit and possibly the student may be much happier in another situation. Either way work at making it the best possible situation for your student.</p>

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<p>shoe66,</p>

<p>just because the students were "not even NM commended" who got in, perhaps they were just more interesting students than your daughter and the "top seniors" who didn't get in. Perhaps they had better essays and ECs.</p>

<p>Admissions doesn't revolve around SAT scores and AP courses or else WashU and other top colleges average SAT would be like a 2350 and 4.0 UW GPA</p>

<p>Just remember that the college you end up at is the best college for you</p>