<p>I was recently accepted to WashU, I visited the campus last week and thought is was beautiful. I really liked everything I saw. I saw that St. Louis is listed as the most dangerous city in America. What is the real deal here. The area around the school looked really nice to me however these reports concern me and my parents. Is there a really bad section os St Louis??? If so where is it in relation to the school. These are real questions not looking for a flaming. Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>Don’t walk around off campus at 2am by yourself. Otherwise’ you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>There are bad parts of EVERY city in America. Wash U is in a nice part of St. Louis. The inner city isn’t so great, but we’re in a suburb.</p>
<p>I live in NJ and understand about bad sections but the number 2 most dangerous city in Camden NJ and we go to NYC often. I NEVER go to Camden! How safe is the park? We walked to the zoo when I visited but when you see reports like this it makes you take a close look.</p>
<p>Here’s a StudLife (our campus newspaper) Letter to the Editor written by a professor debunking St. Louis’s unfortunate crime ranking.</p>
<p>[Letter</a> to the Editor: The facts behind St. Louis’ crime rate | Student Life](<a href=“http://www.studlife.com/forum/letter-to-the-editor/2010/12/03/letter-to-the-editor-the-facts-behind-st-louis-crime-rate/]Letter”>Letter to the Editor: The facts behind St. Louis’ crime rate - Student Life)</p>
<p>The truly dangerous St. Louis is East St. Louis … which isn’t even in Missouri.</p>
<p>I know what you mean about Camden - I would /never/ go into East St. Louis without a reason to (and I’ve never had one).</p>
<p>musical, Thanks for the article. I feel much better about WASHU. When we went there last week I really liked but I was worried about the safety of the area. Essentially it would be like looking at only the worst area of any city not the entire area. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>The part of St. Louis that Wash U is in (Clayton, MO) is a very nice suburb. The university and its surrounding environment is very safe. Wash U is far away from the dangerous areas of the city.</p>
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<p>I would disagree that the surrounding environment is “very safe.” Plenty of students have been mugged just off the campus’s north side (the blocks between WashU and the Loop). Not to mention that you’re just asking for trouble if you venture north of Delmar, which isn’t too far away from campus. </p>
<p>By the way, East St. Louis gets a bad reputation as the most dangerous part of the StL metro, but it isn’t that bad if you go there with a group. I went there a couple times for concerts and it doesn’t feel “ghetto”, just creepily empty.</p>