<p>I'm from New England and just wondering if there are any current WUSTL students who are from NE also and could say what it's like going to school in St. Louis. I love everything about WUSTL, but I've never visited St. Louis so I have no idea what that would be like! I'm not against going to school away from home, I just have no reference point for this particular city..</p>
<p>any insights would be much appreciated. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance guys, it's been real!</p>
<p>Well, I live in the mid-Atlantic, which isn’t as far but still a serious distance. For me the issue was mostly money. I don’t care about going far away, but it’s expensive. That said, it costs less than $120 for a one way ticket (it appears cheaper to buy two one way tickets than a round trip ticket), and that’s WITHOUT searching for a good deal. Driving there when I go in the fall the first time (I probably won’t drive for move-in all but for the first year) will be really expensive since we’ll have to put gas in the car and find a place to stay for several nights (one on the road and a couple nights in St. Louis). A round-trip ticket is about $275, so if you do it twice per year, it’s really only $550. $550 isn’t chump change (for me, anyways), but it’s a lot less than I initially thought.</p>
<p>I’ve never been to New England (I’m a St. Louis native currently going to WUSTL), so I can’t really compare it to St. Louis, but I can tell you that there are plenty of students from the northeast. Not sure how many are from New England though; I think most are from New York or New Jersey (but from down here all those states look the same anyhow ;)).</p>
<p>You might be a bit biased, but what’s the culture like in St. Louis? Give me a virtual tour with words! I won’t be able to visit before applying, the best I can hope to do is maybe visit if I got in, before I accepted (like a pre-frosh visit), but I don’t even know if that would be an option…money’s tight.</p>
<p>St. Louis as a whole is fairly laid back/relaxed. It has a southern flair to a limited extent, but is midwestern for the most part. At least for the first year, most students spend most of their time on campus, simply because there’s so much going on. If you’re interested in experiencing the off-campus culture, there’s [a</a> lot to do](<a href=“Culture of St. Louis - Wikipedia”>Culture of St. Louis - Wikipedia).</p>
<p>The biggest thing to remember being from up north is that if you particularly like a faster pace of life, you may not enjoy it here.</p>
<p>its been real- I didn’t visit until after I was accepted, and they paid for my flight out there.</p>
<p>To OP: Try contacting the Alumni and Parents Admission Program (APAP) 1-800-935-4826 or apap.wustl.edu. They should be able to put you in contact with someone to talk with. Lately, the APAP has been sponsoring Summer Send-Off Receptions in areas across the country. If you are serious about Washington University, and act quickly, perhaps an invitation can be extended to one of these. My D and I recently attended one in our area. It was wonderful! So many friendly people - current students, parents and alumni all from our local area. Good luck.</p>
<p>Most of my friends are from the East coast, and they don’t seem to mind the distance. It’s only a 2 hour plane ride from much of the East Coast. I’m from the southwest, and it’s like about a 3 hour flight. </p>
<p>The way I looked it when I was applying to schools, is that Wash U is in the middle of the country. It’s probably the most equidistant top-tier University in the country from the coasts.</p>
<p>Wash U has TONS of people from the East coast. I’ve found that it also seems to have more people from the West/Mountain zones than most East Coast universities. I think the middle of the country location is a big draw for most people. When you’re on the West Coast, you’d end up driving such a long distance to basically any reputable school on the West Coast, so it’s often just better to fly to St Louis.</p>
<p>If you go to another school on the East Coast, you’ll likely spend 3+ hours driving there (for most schools), which is about the same distance by plane to St Louis. Sure, it might cost a little more money for a plane ticket, but it’s not like you’re going home once per month. </p>
<p>Many of my friends who have a car and are from the East Coast, only drive it back home for Summer and Winter breaks. You can keep it here over Thanksgiving and Spring breaks. Some people didn’t even drive for freshman move-in and move-out… they just flew in, and had lots of boxes shipped to campus with their stuff. You can definitely get by at Wash U without a car anyway (I do).</p>
<p>So, there’s lots of options as to how to get here. If you do drive with your family, you’ll probably only make that trip once or twice per year. And, you get to see a lot of beautiful country: 75% of the country isn’t on the East Coast!</p>
<p>in terms of St Louis, I like it a lot. I completeley echo the previous comments of it being laid-back and friendly. No city is New York City (besides New York City), so I hate when people make that comparasion. For what it is (a large medium-sized city), I’ve been really happy with it. Wash U’s in just about the best location you can be in St Louis: right across from Forest Park, the campus has two Metro stations, only 6 miles from downtown, three profesional sports teams, and the Loop is like 10 minutes walking distance. You’ll find museums, restaurants, amazing shopping, and Forest Park, all close to campus. St Louis used to be the 4th largest city in the country up until the 1930s or something, so it has tons of history and gorgeous old architecture in many places. All students also get free Meto passes. </p>
<p>Much of the immediate area around Wash U is extraordinarily wealthy (Clayton, Ladue, Frontenac, CWE), but not all of it is. There are some pretty poor and down-trodden areas, so you definitely aren’t sheltered every where you go in St Louis. you get a nice exposure to wealthy, and not so wealthy, areas by being here. It’s like you’re in a bubble (people call it the Wash U bubble), but the bubble has a little window to the not so glamorous part of town, to put things in perspective. Personally, I really like this sort of economic balance, it gives the city some character that many other cities don’t have. Some people may disagree with that, but I think it’s unique and gives Wash U this character that other colleges’ cities won’t give you. </p>
<p>Personally, I don’t feel that many Wash U students take advantage of St Louis (outside from the Loop and the Central West End) as much as they could. St Louis seems to be the the kind of city that you need to explore to enjoy, but once you leave campus and research what there is to do, it’s a really fun place. Campus has so much gonig on as is, so it ends up not being a big deal anyway. You’re definitely not desperately searching for things to do. </p>
<p>Many of Wash U’s competitor schools are either in small towns (ie: Yale, Cornell, Middlebury, Dartmouth), or in a suburb 30 minutes away from the actual city (ie: Northwestern, UChicago, Brandeis, Swarthmore). Provided you know what to expect going into a city, you’ll probably be happy in most locations. Make a pros/cons list and make an informed decision. I mean, in terms of location alone, don’t go to Princeton because it’s over an hour from Philly or NYC, go there because you are comfortable being in central New Jersey. You know what I mean? </p>
<p>IMO, Wash U’s location most closely resembles the kind of the location of Rice, Brown, Boston College, and Vanderbilt… in an inner-suburb area, close to the main downtown. Although STL is significantly bigger than Nashville and Providence, but smaller than Houston and Boston.</p>
<p>D (from CA) is starting second year at St. Louis. I grew up in CT (but now live in CA). St. Louis in parts (especially in Clayton around the school) reminds me of West Hartford CT (beautiful huge old homes). There are other residential areas that are mainly brick 2-3 bedroom middle-class homes with a lot of charm/character. Generally the city reminds me more of cities in the Northeast than anything in CA. It’s very negotiable, the transit system is good (and free to students), there’s quite a bit to do (but as someone else posted, most of your time is spent on campus anyway).</p>
<p>Nice descriptions of St. Louis - thanks!</p>
<p>How expensive is transportation between the airport and WashU? On our east coast college tour last spring, we were amazed at the cost of public transportation for some colleges that seemed not to be too far from a major airport. E.g. Davidson involves a $50 taxi to/from the Charlotte airport. Does WashU have some better options?</p>
<p>When I visited I didn’t fly in but I have read on here that there is a shuttle service from the airport directly to the college (I’m not sure if this is always available or just for special occasions such as April Welcome).</p>
<p>But WashU does give some info here: <a href=“http://admissions.wustl.edu/visit/Pages/Directions.aspx[/url]”>http://admissions.wustl.edu/visit/Pages/Directions.aspx</a><br>
The prices seem cheaper than other colleges (especially if you take public transportation)</p>
<p>You can take MetroLink from the airport to campus for a couple of bucks - free if you’re a student.</p>
<p>Thank you. Hooray for light rail!</p>
<p>Verbball90, University of Chicago is in the city of Chicago and Northwestern is in the city of Evanston. As for Northwestern you can stand with one foot in Chicago and one foot in Evanston (plus it has El stops that take you to downtown Chicago.) Don’t understand how you can claim that either school is “in a suburb 30 minutes away from the actual city…”</p>
<p>Thanks guys, this has been really helpful! And Vbball, just for the record, Boston College isn’t in Boston, it’s in Newton, and happens to be 2 blocks from my house, I can hear their football games from my bedroom 
Although I’m confused, because from Boston College you have to walk a few blocks and take the T into Boston…is WashU not IN St. Louis? You have to take trains to get into the heart of the city? Or is it walking distance? If so then I can TOTALLY imagine that type of location since that’s how I’ve been living since the age of 4 ;)</p>
<p>No, WashU is not in the middle of the city, it’s in a suburb of St. Louis. During multicultural weekend my friends and i rode on the metro to get to downtown st. louis and it only takes a few stops, really convenient. personally, i think the location is perfect because it’s far enough so that there is little noise pollution and less crime, but close enough so that hitting up larger stores is no hassle. </p>
<p>@rollins, I visited both schools and it took about 20-30 minutes to drive from the middle of chicago to the northwestern campus. University of Chicago, although it might be located in Chicago, Illinois, certainly isn’t surrounded by the tall modern buildings that are normally associated with Chicago right? It’s at least a 5-10 minute drive to get back to the heart of the city. UC and WashU both have addresses that say they’re located in their respective cities, but most people think that means they’re located in the heart of those cities. I don’t know how big chicago actually is but the UC campus is certainly not in downtown where most people think it is.</p>
<p>^
correct, Wash U is technically in Clayton and University City. </p>
<p>I visited Northwestern and it took about 30 minutes to get to the central downtown area where our hotel was, driving. I just used Google Maps to double-check, and it says 30 minutes to central downtown Chicago by driving, and just about 1 hour via the EL train.</p>
<p>The area reminds me of a little of the Boston College area mainly due to the demographics, close to public transit, it’s an inner-suburb of a big city, and is close to shops/restaurants that are good for college students. I have a cousin who graduated from BU, and now lives close to the BC campus in Brookline. </p>
<p>No location can exactly mirror another location in the country, but if you had to create a list of locations that are similar to the areas around Wash U, I think a reasonable list would definitely include the areas around Rice, Brown, Boston College, and Vanderbilt.</p>