The Truth About Wash U=Visit, and see

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
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<p>I am a current Wash U freshman, A proud member of the class of 2009, and hardly have time to reply to some of the immensely ignorant oppinions voiced on this post. I find, however, that it would be a great disservice to students of the H.S. classes of 2006 and beyond to merely ignore the given proclamations. Many people here have claimed reports, studies, rankings and the like but i speak as a student t of the very institution at question and one who not long ago was using this site to narrow down my options. </p>

<p>In every sense, Wash U is astounding. I say this as a student who spent significant time visiting Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth,UPenn, NW,UVA, Duke, and many other excellant institutions. Beyond the extraordinary SAT's and GPA's, in a group of 09' sudents you would likely find that nearly all were valedictorians/club founders/Presidents/researchers/All state atheletes and yes, most rejected offers from the Ivy league. Beyond the students, the professors are amazing and the technology is state of the art. The campus is beatutiful and the social scene is great. Most of all, the attitude is that Wash U is grateful for having such extraordinarily talented students enroll in the University, rather than the "you should be happy that we accepted you" mentality of many other prestigous universities. Wash U spoils us to death and breaks their backs to make us comfortable. </p>

<p>In closing, I merely ask that stats, rankings, and opinions not be tossed around frivolously-or given as absolote truth- with regard to Wash U. Visit the school, they will pay for the trip and food, and you will see the truth for yourself. Disregard the belittling questions of Wash U's mailings, admissions policies, and all of the heresay-experience is the true discriminant. And for the record, I lived on these forums as I went through the application process last fall, trusted the words of CopterMom and Northstarmom, and found their wise words to be the truth. Let the statistics grab your attention, but visit and see for yourself.</p>

<p>BTW- I am a HYP admitee that chose Wash U for more than just money, and the money that I did recieve was far from easy to get. In all, 800 were considered and 30 scholarships(15 full, 15 partial) were awarded.</p>

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<p>great post. We had never considered Wash U until we started getting the mailings and reading the posts on this board. There seems to be so many happy students that I have encouraged my son to visit. He will be there for the diversity weekend the end of this month</p>

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<p>my S is loving it as well. I'm glad you put it in writing as you did. WASHU has an amazing student body in an incredibly nurturing environment.</p>

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<p>most rejected offers of other ivy league schools...really...that's interesting, at my school the only kids that attended were the ones that got in no where else. PPl turned it down for tufts, carnegie mellon, and wesleyan dude.</p>

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<p>hahaha...i havent met any of these so-called people. I'm sure its possible though.</p>

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<p>Not to cause you any additional pain or embarassment bball87, but you might just be the poster child of how not to choose a college. I'm sorry to see your posts that you are so unhappy at Cornell. Did you visit before you accepted admission offer or did you choose solely based on your perception of their prestige factor? The fact that you are 'honestly embarassed' by the fact that WUStls median SAT scores are now higher than Cornells and that b/c of this you feel you may be in the wrong place (not to suggest that WUStl is the RIGHT place for you by any means) reinforces all of the advice that students, parents and former/current AdComs have been trying to pass along all over CC boards. Do not - DO NOT ( can this be said any louder?) choose a school based on statistics. Current college applicants, at the very least, talk to actual people who have attended/are attending any school you may be interested in. Get to know them - not their stats. See the campus if it is financially feasible - do you really want an urban location instead of being 'out in the midddle of nowhere?' Apparently, according to his recent unhappy posts, relying on stats did not show bball87 any of this. </p>

<p>bball87 - The fact that you have posted ' I want to transfer to Penn ' AND 'I want to transfer to Brown' (both on the same day) and have stated in another of your posts that you would be happier at NW and Duke where you were also accepted (all of this after only 4 weeks on campus), suggests that you still don't have a handle on what it is that YOU really NEED from your school other than bragging rights to what a difficult school it was to get in. In each of these posts you mention the SAT scores. Think about what you liked in the other schools campus or curriculum or what it is that you didn't like about any of them. Think about and identify what it is about WUStl that causes you to return to this board to continually bash it and remove any other schools from your list that may have this factor. You have time to figure this out before you will be allowed to attempt a transfer to any other school. Good Luck and try to give Cornell as many chances as it takes to live up to your non-stat related expectations.</p>

<p>For disclosure purposes: I am a parent of a very satisfied WUStl fresman.</p>

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<p>I agree with CopterMom. It seems that WashU freshmen are happy with their choice. The more you look at bball87 posts, the more it sounds like a WashU WL or rejection. Always best to move ahead and not be bitter about the past.</p>

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<p>Good point CopterMom!</p>

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<p>Robert,</p>

<p>I've heard WashU is incredible and students are extremely happy there, but I have a question for you to clarify. In another thread you said you applied ED to WashU and here you listed yourself as an HYP admittee. How is that possible?</p>

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<p>Hmmm. I see that audiophile is right. Robert has posted that he was accepted to HYP and was accepted ED to Wash U. Something seems to be very wrong here....</p>

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<p>Hey I doubt Robert would lie about getting into HYP! Maybe he applied to all the schools mentioned and was accepted to them all? Wash U has EDII, where the decision happens in January sometime.</p>

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<p>I'm interested in hearing Robert's explanation. I hope he posts it.</p>

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<p>Yes, I see that as usual, the people at CC are very thorough about confirming sources and reasonably so. Without getting into the finnecky details of my experience with the application proccess, I applied ED I to Wash U on the very day that the applications where due ( I believe it was on or near Nov. 15th) through air-mail. I actually made my decision to apply early so "late" that I had already sent in several applications(some common app some not), including those mentioned in my post.
Strangely, as many others may have noted as well, after recieving my admittance to Wash U in December I found it difficult to rescind my applications to the other schools or to even contact their admissions offices period.And quite frankly, I was more interested in celebrating rather than stressing over schools not proccessing my requests to withdraw my application.
In the end, I wound up rejecting some offers in the spring by phone/mail while others assumedly found my emails and calls and rescinded their offers of admission accordingly. Most of this, however, came about in the spring. Though reasonably overwhelmed by the task of admissions, it seems that the schools that I withdrew from may have delayed my emails for some time without recognizing their content. On a more amusing note, Lehigh and Tulane even sent me rejection letters in spite of the fact that I never finished the final portion of their applications. So, it seems that these communications gaps occur across the board during the whole process.</p>

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<p>Robert,</p>

<p>Thanks for the explanation. Glad to hear you're enjoying WashU!</p>

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<p>I find it very interesting that you didn't recind by a faxed letter as many other of us have done.......too busy huh? Interesting story but I find your attitude very unprofessional with regard to handling your obligations. Glad it worked out for you but not a poster boy for how to handle business. My HS would not have tolerated such actions.......it reflects on them.</p>

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<p>Hazmat: LOL> Hey,give the kid a break. He was only 18. Were you the essence of responsibility at that age?</p>

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<p>I tried my best and the counseling department at my HS was strident about the policies........letters were drafted and faxes sent the moment a student made an early application. I was well versed in the pledge that I made and thus I was more worried about doing anything.......even unknowingly that would void my ED. Must have been where I came from. I will place the lack of professionalism on the HS from whence he came.</p>

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<p>After receiving admission to WashU ED, D immediately attempted to withdraw her finished applications and another app which was in the beginning stages to the balance of her schools by email and phone call. She was subsequently admitted to 2 of the 3 other schools she had applied to. One school acknowledged her acceptance to WashU but said that "If she found it was not what she wanted they would keep her app. on file for next year if she would like to switch!" So taking care of the business part is not always as cut and dried as you would maintain. Sometimes it's the college that keeps the app.s going. </p>

<p>I had to laugh at the "professionalism" comment by Hazmat. The majority of schools in the country are lucky to have counselors with the time to advise on which college to APPLY to. Forget following up with the kids to make sure that they have withdrawn their apps from other schools . In a perfect world that's what counselors (who in a public system, generally have anywhere from 250 to 500 students EACH to advise) would do. They're more involved these days in things parents should be helping kids with or getting the kids AWAY from the parents. Guidance in their students' personal lives has become a huge part of their day. Lucky you, Hazmat, if you were at a school or are connected with a school that has time to do the job they were hired for!</p>

<p>When I was 18 I might have been tempted to keep my apps. open just for the "I wonder if I made it?" aspect. Sorry if that made me an unprofessionsl or non businesslike kid! LOL</p>