Two years ago...

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

<p>By Clo18224 (Clo18224) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 04:59 pm: Edit
i was waitlisted too, this sucks! now i'm really scared I won't get into my other schools. oh well, obviously i'm not supposed to go there, it'll all work out! </p>

<p>By Tbone (Tbone) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:01 pm: Edit
Waitlisted as well. Got into MIT, though. </p>

<p>By Collegeboarders (Collegeboarders) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:04 pm: Edit
Dude TBone, me too.. ***?
MIT thinks we're decent and yet not worthy for WUSTL? Whatever. :-P </p>

<p>By Jab23rox (Jab23rox) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:06 pm: Edit
I got waitlisted as well guys </p>

<p>By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:27 pm: Edit
I got waitlisted too! What the hell, how many ppl did they waitlist? </p>

<p>By Mfacusse (Mfacusse) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:36 pm: Edit
probably thousands... damn wash u.. </p>

<p>they admitted this girl in my school who has lower STATS than i do.. </p>

<p>By Ker12 (Ker12) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:36 pm: Edit
waitlist </p>

<p>By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:45 pm: Edit
waitlist </p>

<p>By Sfextreme2049 (Sfextreme2049) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 05:58 pm: Edit
waitlisted....but oh well....not too ****ed...I already got into UCLA and U Michigan. I am waiting for 14 other replies. </p>

<p>By Cotton (Cotton) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 06:43 pm: Edit
Waitlisted ;p </p>

<p>By Isunique17 (Isunique17) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 06:58 pm: Edit
waitlisted, but already got into Rice and UCLA. </p>

<p>By Chen (Chen) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 07:50 pm: Edit
Rejected. 1st official one on this board! Asian. 1420. bad GPA with Cs. deferred ED II originally. 700 writing 690 math ic 660 biology and worse other ones. I'm glad to know that my rejection will help make you feel better. </p>

<p>By Chardonnay (Chardonnay) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 08:10 pm: Edit
***, waitisted? but i got into mit! </p>

<p>By Sleepingawake2 (Sleepingawake2) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 08:11 pm: Edit
I got in to the Engineering School...</p>

2

<p>By Northeastdad (Northeastdad) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 11:12 am: Edit
Our D. SAT I: 1570, SAT IIs: 700s, National Merit Finalist (WashU is not her National Merit first choice college), Rank: 1/150. Good ECs. Likely or early acceptance from Amherst, Bowdoin, Dartmouth and Swarthmore so far (all RD). Wailtlisted by WUSTL.
Congratulations to those who got accepted. </p>

<p>By Copper45 (Copper45) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 04:03 pm: Edit
WAITLISTED
My third choice school, but I am nervous now that I won't get in the others. </p>

<p>So many people were waitlisted. Washington U seems like an Ivy League. One girl got in at my school so far with a 1560. It looks to me from this page that anyone who was accepted had high 1400s or 1500s? And even some 1500s were waitlisted? This is absolutely crazy. </p>

<p>1440 myself. </p>

<p>By Bing04 (Bing04) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 04:27 pm: Edit
i had a 1210.....and got in. </p>

<p>By Cantwait4colleg (Cantwait4colleg) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 04:45 pm: Edit
I was waitlisted. 1430 SAT, 800 writing SAT II, 2/460. I visited twice and expressed great interest. I shouldn't have expected to get in, but it hurts. As for the waitlist...HELL NO. If they didn't want me in the first place...screw them. Plus, if you get in off the waitlist, they won't have much $ to give you.
By Matthias (Matthias) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 07:49 pm: Edit
waitlisted... </p>

<p>white male
PA resident
1520
760/720/650
3.96 uw GPA
9 college course upon graduation
yada yada yada
By Deferreddude (Deferreddude) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 06:37 pm: Edit
I never really cared about WUSTL after I got into MIT and Dartmouth so I didnt check my online decision. But when I finally got around to checking it today I found out I got REJECTED!!! LOL!!! WUSTL is like friggin ten thousand times worse than MIT and Dartmouth and yet they reject me. Wow, I was going to turn WUSTL down but it looks like they fired me before I had a chance to quit. Quite funny though.
By Dp04 (Dp04) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 07:35 pm: Edit
waitlisted </p>

<p>4.41 gpa, top 8% of class</p>

3

<p>WUSTL is big on the admission game. They accept students who will matriculate to bring up their rankings. This is why they are so big on demonstrated interest. Knowing that all these intelligent kids likely will not go to WUSTL means they get waitlisted. </p>

<p>It makes you hate WashU doesn't it. For me, it means WashU admissions are a joke. BTW, I am pretty sure I will be waitlisted.</p>

4

<p>Unfair, isn't it? If you have SATs above 1400, you get waitlisted, between 1300 and under 1400, you are in, at least 2004 admissions show that.</p>

5

<p>Wash-U is no doubt exceedingly idiosyncratic in their admissions policies, marching entirely to their own drum beat. However, I also think this is a case of that policy being so unusual that those affected -- the rarely turned-down "stars" -- become rather vocal about it. How could they turn me down? Well, because Wash-U just does thing differently (rightly or wrongly).</p>

<p>My son started Wash-U in 2004 -- he was RD, 1540 and 3.98. Among people we know at his high school and neighboring high schools, we know at least six plus 1500 kids who were admitted to Wash-U -- two of whom matriculated with my son. Among his friends at Wash-U are lots of kids who were star stat kids at their schools. The Wash-U admitted and enrolled student numbers show very high scores and grades. Clearly, not all top scorers are denied. However, indisputably, more top scorers are denied (or usually waitlisted) at Wash-U then other places. Interestingly, most (not all, but most) of the top scoring kids that we personally know who were waitlisted rather than admitted unequivocally applied to Wash-U as either a total "safety" or as an afterthought.</p>

<p>Also, the great majority of the 1350-1450 SAT scorers who were admitted, were full-freight payers in the ED rounds. They seem to like to load up on that kind of student ED, reserving the RD admissions for higher stat kids (with scholarship money thrown at some) and the FA admittees whom they really want. Incidentally, in the high schools around here, we've also seen Penn and Cornell admit many 1350-1450 kids in the ED rounds, but NEVER in the RD round.</p>

<p>By this time, I think every college counselor understands that Wash-U does things their own way and, other than the full-freight paying ED applicant (1350, top 20% and up), NOTHING is guaranteed. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with that, but certainly it raises eyebrows because everybody else seemingly does things a different way.</p>

<p>One last thing -- admissions policies are whatever they are. If a student does make it over their unusual hurdles, they never again deal with the admissions office. Strange admissions policies in no way affect the spirit or mood of the school. Wash-U students are almost "moony-like" in their zeal for their school. It's been that way since the early '70's. Never confuse an admissions office with the undergraduate experience provided by the school.</p>

6

<p>Dudediligence- I disagree that they admit students with lower stats ED, I find that students with the higher stats are admitted ED so they can lock in strong students with great stats. I am not familiar with their RD trends because they have yet to release decisions but it would make sense that they would let in more students with lower stats who would most likely matriculate in, as well as some high stat kids who show geniune interest</p>

7

<p>JB ... I certainly don't claim to know it all here ... simply what I've seen over the past 3-5 years from Wash-U applicants from 4-6 top high schools around here. They will obviously and gladly let in high stat ED kids. Of course. And there are always some of those. But there are always some surprising admits ... from a straight stat perspective ... in the ED round ... and that happens at Penn, Cornell, Northwestern, and other schools too. A kid who doesn't need FA ... with 1350-1400 ... 3.7-3.8 ... or so ... has a definite chance of getting into Wash-U (or those others) in the ED round; from what we've tended to see, those kind of stats rarely are accepted in the RD round. But, you know what? I'm perfectly willing to concede that your experience and anecdotal evidence might show otherwise. I'm just reporting what our relatively small sampling seems to suggest.</p>

<p>My real point was showing how silly it is to support this belief that Wash-U turns away all of its top applicants. Why would they do that? And clearly, their admitted and enrolled numbers show they do otherwise? And the many high stat kids who are there ... and their many high stat kids friends ... what are they ... phantoms?</p>

<p>Wash-U is a wonderful school, albeit a wonderful school with some very unconventional admission practices. Yes ... they play tough with some top stat kids who are NEVER denied by other schools who are out of the top 10. So what? That's who they are ... everyone knows that by now. Adjust accordingly.</p>

8

<p>Don't think my comments meant I hated Wash U. I actually really like the school, but don't like the game they make admissions. 12 kids from my school applied last year, 2 were accepted (1 ED with very low stats, but he had double legacy), 2 were rejected, and 8 were waitlisted. How can you waitlist so many students, well it's all in the numbers game for Wash U. They are notorious for accepting students that will matriculate, and while I can understand this, the admissions process becomes more about predicting whether a student would attend than how they performed in school.</p>

<p>I do not mean to degrade the school by any means, and I even have friends who go there.</p>

9

<p>OSU ...</p>

<p>I didn't at all think you were a hater ... I think most acknowledge that Wash-U has strange admission practices. But I intentionally use the word "strange," since the way they've decided to do things isn't inherently right or wrong, but it's clearly very different from the pack. They are very clear that they strive to admit students who WANT to be there (first or second choice ... but clearly not as a "safety"). I've spoken with admissions officers and high school college counselors who acknowledge that Wash-U continually communicates with the high school in order to zero-in on the kids who really want to be there. No doubt that a part of this practice is geared towards playing the USNWR ratings game -- keeping admit rates as low as possible and yield numbers high (the combined effect of this in the USNWR ratings is not that great). But, institutionally, they have communicated to anyone listening that they primarily want to promote a campus culture of kids who are largely there by choice, not because they didn't get in some other place. Does this result in a better atmosphere on campus among the admitted students? They think it does and students I know seem to believe this too. Obviously, it leaves a lot of disenchanted students out there who were not admitted or who were waitlisted ... many of whom never truly preferred Wash-U, but wanted a Wash-U admit "ticket" as a just-in-case option while they hoped for admission at a supposedly "better" school. That's not wrong for a student to want Wash-U to function in this role, but why should Wash-U feel compelled to take on this role if they have other ideas in mind? Many students and parents don't want to understand that this is what's happening in admissions at Wash-U and, increasingly, at other schools in that 10-25 USNWR range. I don't want to get into a debate about other campuses, but here in the Chicago area for example, many people believe that a "too high" percentage of Northwestern undergrads seem disenchanted by being at NU instead of at so-called Top Ten schools (schools like Tufts and Emory are sometimes thought to have a bit of this "negative" attitude on campus too). Why should a school feel that this must be their lot in life if they can do it a different way?</p>

<p>Bottom-line is that they are who they are. Nobody should really be surprised with their admissions practices.</p>

10

<p>Dude, i'm pretty sure WashU is need-blind, so i don't know how FA can affect the admissions game, but i understand your other points</p>

11

<p>Wash-U is indeed "need-aware." They just don't like to advertise it.</p>

12

<p>Oh wow, i guess they are good at concealing it, thanks</p>

13

<p>hmm. then probably I won't get in.. I had too low EFC...</p>

<p>dang!</p>

14

<p>the percentage people who were admited in 2005 and actually attended the school, according to a data I found online in another forum, is 42% --> very low compare to other top schools?</p>

15

<p>Actually that would have been a decent yield. But it's actually quite a bit lower according to data from Yahoo education:
Admission 19,822 applied, 4,400 admitted, 1,452 enrolled</p>

16

<p>I know of a few students admitted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. who were rejected or waitlisted from WashU. A little bit ridiculous, but I can see where they are coming from if they don't want to hand out admission to people seeing Wash as a safety. Also, they don't want their admission rate to be too high. It stinks, though, when someone who has applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. really wants to go to Wash =/</p>

17

<p>Oh dear lord. This thread scared the hell out of me.</p>

<p>I didn't visit the school; I was too busy and I've been there dozens of times before with my sister (class of 04). I just sent an email apologizing for not visiting and explaining how I've been there several times. Hmmm....now that I think of it, I should have probably mentioned that my parents haven't been able to bring me to any schools (of course they would never allow me to go alone) that I applied to....other than the college an hour away. </p>

<p>I also updated my application with new awards/accomplishments and stuff. </p>

<p>Hopefully the legacy helps......my sister did graduate summa cum laude.</p>

<p>Ughhhhh i should have interviewed over summer.</p>

18

<p>I strongly hope that this scenario will not come about this year as well...:-S</p>

<p>I get the feeling that WashU doesn't reject applicants. It just waitlists them.</p>

19

<p>the scenario has come true....:(</p>

<p>well though less in magnitude but well yes waitlisted..</p>

<p>SM</p>