Truth about WUSTL?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

<p>Is this student review true? It's making me rethink about applying...but when I visited this school in October I loved it:</p>

<p>"At first WashU was one of my top choices(third to Dartmouth and NU but I got rejected by both) and the best school that took me, which is why I went there. I was apprehensive about the city, but figured that it wasn't going to be so bad, right? I mean, at least I wasn't going to Grinnell in Iowa...</p>

<p>I imagined college would be fun and exciting. But the last 2 years have been absolute hell for me. I hated WashU since the 2nd week of school and tried to transfer out two years in a row. If you are bio major or premed, it will be an awful experience. I was originally a premed art major and switched to gender studies and finally to biology because it was the only major I could fulfill to graduate on time. The premed classes are enough to drive any sane person nuts.</p>

<p>The upper level gender studies professors are arrogant and attempt to shove their gender war agendas down your throat and are not open to new ideas. If you don't agree with them, you fail basically. Which is why I changed majors to biology, which I felt probably had more fair professors.</p>

<p>If you are a biology major or premed, you will have the unfortunate luck of encountering Dr. Tuan-hua Ho, professor for Bio 1. He speaks with an awfully strong accent and if you approach him for help, he will arrogantly reproach you and tell you to read the book.</p>

<p>If you are a chem major or premed, you will also get the luxury of meeting Professor Kit Mao.</p>

<p>Chem 1 and 2 were pretty awful and I have to admit I did not learn an applicable thing from either class. The intro physics class were ok though. I felt that I did gain something from Phys 117/118. The Calculus classes are absolutely horrible though.</p>

<p>If you want to go to med school, do not come here. Your ego will be destroyed and everything you ever learned will be turned upside down and your GPA will probably never get you in. You will probably not even want to be a doctor after you finish the requirements.</p>

<p>I genuinely tried and worked hard here but I have always felt that this was not the place for me and I was never happy here. The city of St. Louis is terrible as well. From a big city, I really regret coming to WashU for college. If I could do it again, I would have taken up that full scholarship at UMiami or USC."</p>

2

<p>WashU can’t be perfect for everyone… It tries hard, but it difficult to satisfy all 6,000 students at the same time.</p>

<p>Every school has people transferring year after year for various reasons, and truth be told, being a pre-med requires a lot of time and sacrifice. But if you quit now, how are you going to go to graduate school, do residency, internship, and finally enter the real world where no one is there to help you? From that point and beyond, no one teaches you. You have to learn by yourself…</p>

<p>I go to WashU and I like it. I’ve never visited or anything before I came, but I try to keep an open mind, and I think that helps a lot in many ways. Professors are the experts in their fields; of course they are going to have a more knowledge than you. But if you can make a strong case in your argument, I don’t see why they wouldn’t listen to you.</p>

<p>At WashU we have Uncle Joe’s (peer counseling), Cornerstone (tutoring), Writing Center (writing help), at least two advisors when you declare a major, and a number of other helpful resources. My friends at Rice, Northwestern, and Emory all say that they are jealous because they don’t have that kind of helpful resources at their school (I’m not lying, these come straight from my friends). </p>

<p>I actually feel sorry for the person who wrote the student review. He seems to focus more on the negative side of WashU rather than the positive side. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did the same thing after attending some other pre-med intensive university. </p>

<p>Just remember that coming to a university is a big jump from high school. Living on your own with greater workload is a challenge, and WashU accepts you because it thinks you can handle it. At least that’s what I learned here so far. I do not regret at all my decision to come here. </p>

<p>I’m assuming that you must be a senior in high school. Well, keep working hard and definitely look into which schools “fit” you. But, also remember that no school will fit you exactly. You might be forced to adjust to minor changes, but every institution has history and is probably doing it in the right direction.</p>

3

<p>I don’t know WashU very well, but I took summer courses with other WashU students and chatted with some of them. I’ve heard the pre-med program is challenging, but not absolute hell if you can manage your time and study well (still hellish though). I’ve heard some things about professors…the math department was okay although classes tend to be boring but there’s tons of tutoring help that’s definitely great to take advantage of. I also took a Bio and Writing class but that was more exclusive to the summer program I was in (my math class was composed of some WashU students and summer scholars). My friends in Chem 1 say that their class was hellish but the TA mandatory optional-help-sessions was where they learned the most. The crowd is really friendly and when I got lost (which was really often) I got to meet a lot of new people who wouldn’t mind walking with me partially or all the way to my classes while we talked. So yeah, academics are hard but tutoring and friendly people probably make it better I think :)</p>

4

<p>I like Wash U a lot. Who the fu****ck in their right mind would major in gender studies?</p>

5

<p>Wash U is a great school. It didn’t become great by giving easy classes that allow anyone to pass. Classes are very challenging here. However, that’s no reason to hate the school. My experiences so far have been that the professors are great. Kit Mao is an awesome person. Yes, she has a thick accent and tends to move very quickly in lectures. However, when I overslept on the day of the lab, she let me sign up for the make-up lab. She really cares about her students; you just have to work hard in her class.</p>

<p>I’m in Chem 1 right now and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not doing extremely well, but I enjoy the difficult material. It’s true that a lot of the first semester material is useless for pre-meds, but I think it’s still important to be able to understand the material to have a firm foundation for the other science classes you will inevitably take.</p>

<p>As Anonymous432 said, no school can be perfect for all its students. There are bound to be people who have bad experiences. Don’t let several bad experiences overwhelm the vast majority of students who love this school and enjoy every bit of their time here.</p>

6

<p>The reviewer was completely discredited when they slammed Kit Mao.</p>

<p>Kit Mao is 100% awesome.</p>

<p>But seriously, I’ll repeat what other posters have said- no school will be perfect for every student. You shouldn’t look at 1 negative review… I’d swear that at least 95% of the school loves it here. Yes there are negatives, but imo the positives outweigh the negatives countless times.</p>

7

<p>^Yes. There are certainly reasons why WashU might not be the school for you, but Kit Mao cannot be one of them. She is very intense, but I do not know a single person who does not love her to death.</p>

<p>I can’t respond to the words on Bio, but Chem 111 excellent.</p>

8

<p>Anyone else notice that post was quite racist towards Asian professors?</p>

<p>Anyways, premed classes are challenging, but they are manageable and it’s not difficult to do well. You definitely learn a lot from chem 1, and all my classes have been quite engaging. There are a lot of great resources available on campus, and extracurriculars and research are basically everywhere and quite easy to access. Premed here is definitely more challenging than that of most other colleges, but if you do well, you will be well on your way to med school.</p>

<p>Of course, there are always people at the bottom who resent the school for their terrible academic performance. On general though, students love it here at WashU.</p>

9

<p>Kit Mao is a fantastic woman.</p>

10

<p>Sophomore currently in WASHU…Observations:
I can’t comment on gender studies (BME here)…</p>

<p>Professor Ho is a decent professor. He is entertaining, and knows his stuff fairly well. His accent is heavy, but it’s kind of descriminating to not like him for that (+you get used to it fairly quickly). He is somewhat arrogant, but that’s mostly because lots of students are lazy (ie. he tells you [blank molecule] will be on the test, memorize its structure…and a good portion of the class doesn’t).</p>

<p>I had Gen Chem lab last year/currently work for Kit Mao. She is a fantastic professor. She is passionate about the class, always testing newer labs, looking for better learning efficiencies, and making better lectures. She has taught for over 20 years. She is amazing. Her accent is heavy, but it is fairly easy to understand her, and she comprehends English well.</p>

<p>Chem 1 is essentially Quantum Mechanics lite. Chem 2 is essentially super AP chem (thermodynamics, equilibrium, kinetics, electrochem, crystal structures,acids/bases). Chem 1 has massive use if you go deeper into chem/physics (ie. physical chemistry). Chem 2 is massively important to any premed/engineer/science major. Arguably the best of our chem professors teach Chem 1/2. They truly are good professors, but the test difficulty can be a little jarring just coming in as a freshmen. </p>

<p>Haven’t taken Phys 117/118, but know from experience of multiple friends: TAKE 197. If you do the due diligence and get into 197, you’re set. You won’t be perfectly trained for the MCAT, but you will be trained to think like a physicist, which makes MCAT training a breeze. The class is entertaining, and an easy A, with one of the best physics professors available. </p>

<p>I agree on the Math department. They do suck horribly (unless you’re an engineer, as you get to take Enmath witha wonderful professor).</p>

<p>Honestly, with the exception of the Math department/gender studies(I can’t comment), the review is about as false as gets. My view is that the review’s author probably shouldn’t be a premed. They probably are not cut out for it, but rather than accept this, or even wonder why, they blame the professors.</p>

<p>I don’t post often, so if anyone has questions, PM me.</p>

11

<p>To the OP…</p>

<p>I can’t speak to WUSTL, but I would note that I have found that the reviews in the website from which the quoted review originally came can be very negative, often with posters going out of their way to slam whatever school is being reviewed. I believe this is often true of review sites generally because people will more often take the time to post a negative review than they will a positive one.</p>

12

<p>Ninjainventor- I have only ever had one good prof in the Math department: Krantz. I had him for calc 3.</p>

<p>Also, Dr. Hasting teaches EnMath. She is awesome, and an incredible teacher. However, it should be noted that she is NOT part of the Math department. EnMath is run through the ESE department in the engineering school. As is ProbStats for Engineers (EnMath = ESE 317, ProbStats = ESE 326).</p>

13

<p>@raschu, I believe what you mentioned is “response bias” (even though the site isn’t exactly a statistical sampling, lol) haha</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I’m taking Enmath right now. She is awesome. I have heard good things about Krantz, but never got to take any classes with him. My other math professors were:

  1. Blake Thorton:
    Awful, shockingly bad professor. He knows his stuff, but cannot teach well. Students don’t complain because he is hilarious/grades easy. He is also rather mean at office hours.
  2. Lakey:
    Guest professor from New Mexico. Lectured ~3 or 4 times. Every other class was him doing example problems. Then we’d do the homework psets and they’d be far harder/involve exceptions to problems not dealt with in class. </p>

<p>Hilariously enough, Hasting used to be in the math department. Engineering basically poached her. It makes sense. With a math department like ours, we have the course of Enmath (with an awesome professor) to fix all the “damage” caused by other professors (also to teach us some specific knowledge/techniques for engineers).</p>