<p>So I visited st louis and I feel like it's too small a city and that people aren't as friendly as I originally thought. So to washu students, how often do you go into the city? Is my perception of st louis true? I'm Asian and think I would be he only Asian kid walking he streets. The city also felt fairly deserted.</p>
<p>I know PLENTY of people who live in St. Louis b/c of work, and they will be the first to admit it’s not the BEST city by any means. It has its nice stores, bars, restaurants, etc., but in general is not some huge happening place like a New York, Chicago, or anything. They also all seem to echo the same sentiment that unlike other cities where the crime is pretty concentrated in a few bad areas, in St. Louis, it gets sketchy every few blocks in any direction-this is why so much crime happens and why it has been ranked most dangerous city by many sources for quite some time. I like the attractions of St. Louis (The Loop, Cardinals baseball, etc.), but also get what they mean by how the bad areas/shady activity is spread well throughout the area-harder to avoid, hence more crime in general occurs to innocent passersby. </p>
<p>This is just what I have gathered from the people I know who live there and from my few visits to the city. It really does have its nice parts, and WashU isn’t downtown or anywhere close like SLU is–wait to see what other schools you get into and see if you like those cities better. Location can play a big role in decisions only if you let it-if you want a more vibrant, “safer” city than St. Louis, let it be a factor when considering your options and choose somewhere else. If you’d rather stay on campous, WashU’s can’t easily be beat!</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>As a St. Louis native, I can’t argue with most of what Coffee said. St. Louis is mostly a suburban focused metro area, except for the sports and some theaters, etc. Downtown gets pretty quiet at night unless there is a game. As I have said in other posts, it definitely is not a NYC, Boston, Chicago, SF, etc. However, I would just clarify that the Wash U campus and the surrounding area is EXTREMELY nice, and as safe as anyplace I can think of in a metro area. The Delmar Loop area has a decent nightlife, especially on weekends and is popular with Wash U students. Of course I wouldn’t walk through Forest Park alone at night, but that would be true of lots of parks in small college towns as well. In other words, use common sense and you will be fine.</p>
<p>As far as I know, there is not a large Asian population in St. Louis, but there is at Wash U as a percentage of the students. I do think, though, you will find St. Louis people to be friendly (maybe it was really really cold that say? lol). But if you are from a more “high-energy” metro area or are looking for that, then St. Louis is not the right fit. It is right in the middle between a small college town and a Chicago, I would say.</p>
<p>Wow thanks, I greatly appreciate your experiences and advice. I definitely will wait to see what other colleges I get into and will still consider washu until the very end.</p>
<p>Forest Park is like right next to WashU and it’s absolutely gorgeous. We go there every single time we go to St.Louis. It’s got to be one of my favorite places. </p>
<p>There are some sketchy areas …but that’s common in all cities. </p>
<p>There’s a decent Asian population in St.Louis. (But of course, I come from a city where there’s a veryyyy tiny Asian community so I thought it was quite big) and I saw plenty of Asians walking around when I visited. The campus is gorgeous. The buildings all look the same though haha, I got quite confused when I mixed up a couple of the buildings. </p>
<p>It’s a fairly small city but I think you’ll have plenty to do. It’s not really close a lot of really big cities, but I really enjoy St.Louis. And I thought the people were very nice. Not as nice as if you go further South but they definitely weren’t rude or anything. Many people even offered to help us find places.</p>
<p>the students and faculty (even the landscapers) were nice, a big contrast from some of the drivers and other blue collared workers I saw while walking around. I figure though, washU’s academics are great enough and its campus have more than enough to do already that I can spend the majority of my time on campus and in the immediate neighborhood. Thanks again for the comments and keep them coming!</p>
<p>Smile- I thought that too at first (about the campus buildings), but you learn your way around super quickly. I knew the campus within two days of starting my pre-o. It’s a super easy campus to navigate.</p>
<p>i’ve spent a lot of time in St Louis, and it seems to be a good place for a college town and to spend 4 years.</p>
<p>it’s not overwhelming big, but it’s not a tiny city either. Wash U is probably in the best possible area in the entire city (Forest Park, Clayton, the Loop, Central West End, Lafayette Square, The Hill, are all nearby). All students get free annual passes to ride the Metro and the bus system, which has stops on both ends of campus and takes you to the airport and downtown and things in between. You are really never more than a few minutes away from everything… walking, biking, or the Metro. </p>
<p>It’s not a city for everyone, and doesn’t come to your front door like NYC. But, if you are someone who likes to explore a bit, it’s a really nice city with tons of unique history and neighborhoods with character. It’s a city that you shouldn’t come to with grand expectations. If you come here not expecting NYC/Chicago/SF, then you’ll probably enjoy yourself. Treat it like a Minneapolis/Philly/Cleveland/Nashville type of a city.</p>
<p>It’s a medium sized city, which to me is a nice place to spend 4 years. Other people want a small city, and other people want a college in a bustling downtown. It’s personal preference. Think about what you want in a college environment. There are clearly people who love St Louis and live there their whole lives, and people who don’t like it. Similarly, I know people who don’t like NYC because its too big, who don’t like SF because it’s too pricy, who don’t like Boston because it’s too Red Sox 
. But, for 4 years, St Louis is a good city to spend your college years. </p>
<p>And, as someone said before, Wash U’s campus has tons of excitement going on. Honestly, at most Universities you’re probably looking at, you’re going to be spending 90% of your time on campus. Probably 10% of your time off campus. To me, as long as the city offers typical things like museums, concert venues, movie theatres, shopping, good food… then you’ll be pretty content spending that 10% of your time in that city.</p>
<p>Well said Keepitcoolidge, just watch it on those Red Sox comments, lol. Actually Cardinals all the way for me, I was the only one in my family that wasn’t a traitor when the Sox beat the Cardinals.</p>
<p>As for the Asian population of St. Louis, you will primarily find Asians living either close to Wash U, close to Monsanto or close to Olive Blvd or highway 40 (from the CWE to U City to Clayton to Olivette to Creve Coeur and out to Chesterfield). You rarely see any Asians in North or South County. The highest concentration of Asians you will see anywhere in St. Louis, though, is definitely right here at Wash U, both on the Danforth and the medical campuses.</p>
<p>And for some reason there are a lot of Red Sox fans on campus too, but please don’t hold that against Wash U. At least they are better than Yankees and Cubs fans!</p>
<p>are there many bars or clubs near washU that students go to or is nightlife restricted to frats and dorms mostly?</p>
<p>^Every thursday there are busses out to the clubs.</p>
<p>I’m from St. Louis, and went to undergrad at WashU… I agree with pretty much all of the above, except for the crime issues. Yes, StL has been ranked pretty highly on crime, but if you take a look at the statistics, they only include a small portion of the Metro area. StL, like a lot of other midwest midsized cities, is a city of suburbs, and the city population is really small, with some high crime areas. I completely disagree with the “sketchy in any direction” comment - There are definitely a number of unsafe neighborhoods, but many many safe areas. I didn’t feel any less safe at WashU than I would at any other “closed” college campus. Students spend lots of time exploring the surrounding neighborhoods and some of the more popular parts of the city. You should feel completely comfortable doing this too, just using some common sense for safety - don’t let the crime rates make you think you’ll be stuck on campus for the entire 4 years!</p>
<p>To clarify about my former comment on “sketchiness” (sp?), I have only heard that from people who live in St. Louis and they only meant in the downtown area…not near WashU. Washu’s campus is completely safe and in an upscale area–no safety problems on campus. My take on what my St. Louis friends told me is that perhaps St. Louis can be a bit more sketchy walking around downtown at night than some other cities only because the bad areas are spread out more…I didn’t mean to imply that you will stumble upon drug deals, gang bangers, and the like every few blocks! As long as you don’t go out alone and 3:00 am or anything, you don’t have much to worry about.</p>
<p>And luckily (as everyone’s pointed out) there isn’t exactly a ton to do late at night downtown or in the sketchy areas, that you can’t do closer to campus :)</p>
<p>There are also a number of bars on the Loop and in the Central West End, which are both easily accessible. Also, there are some great wine bars and jazz clubs if that floats your boat. One key thing to keep in mind is that the cost of living in St Louis is pretty low. So that means everything tends to be a little cheaper.</p>