Not a single link given by @lostaccount sheds even the slightest bit of light on the claim made of “much lower” stats for accepted full pay applicants. And so sorry, but you can say until you are blue in the face that you have dozens or hundreds or thousands of personal anecdotes. That just doesn’t cut it when making such a claim.
Now I find it strange that WUSTL, with their very large endowment, seems to struggle to be need-blind when schools with much less in resources somehow manage. But they are moving in the right direction, even if very late to do so.
@fallenchemist But with WUSTL, they meet 100% of you need. In other “need-blind” schools with less endowment, they may accept you but then you can’t attend anyways because it’s still too expensive. So in that aspect, I applaud WUSTL for their commitment to students with low incomes they accept.
With all due respect, given the resources they have had at hand for many years, that’s nonsense. If Tulane or probably any of the other schools that meet less than 100% of need (95% in Tulane’s case) took half as many large need cases as they currently do and enrolled full or near-full pay students in their place, then meeting 100% of need would be easy with the same budget. If it were as simple as you said, that is how they would have responded to the NYT and others. Instead, they basically issued a mea culpa and resolved to do better, quickly.
I think it is very fair to criticize WUSTL for some of the choices they have made at the expense of making a bigger push to enroll low income students. As they themselves say, they have spent the last three decades or more pouring incredible amounts of money into faculty and administration salaries, research facilities, I am sure areas like books and equipment for the libraries and such, etc. And that is hard to criticize if one wants to be a first rate institution for the mission of its very existence.
But I just had a message from a student that chose Tulane over WUSTL for various reasons, including cost but also location and some other factors. One if the hesitations they had was the fact that the dorms at WUSTL are so nice. And of course they valued other things over that in making the decision, but I get taking it into account when it is there to be had. Now if one is in the hotel business that might make sense to spend all that money on huge rooms, memory foam mattresses, and many other luxury comforts rather than, say, giving that money to charity. But not when you are in the higher education business, and tax-exempt at that. In other words, WUSTL made the choice to spend millions of marginal dollars that way rather than invest in low income students.
Students have survived and even thrived for centuries without 5 star room and board. It is a choice WUSTL was free to make of course, and I am sure their market research showed it would give them a measurable edge in attracting that Ivy quality, full pay student that is waffling as to where to deposit. Very smart in that sense, but fair game for argument when they were already at the very bottom of the list among the high endowment schools for enrolling low income students.
He is from a very small, 25 in his graduating class, rural poor socioeconomic school. He has a 32 ACT 33 superstore, 35 E 34 R 30 M and 32 S. He has a 4.0 non weighted and class valedictorian. Our school does not offer AP classes but he has taken every advanced class we offer. Four year varsity player in football and baseball, three years varsity in basketball, Captain football and basketball junior and senior years, numerous clubs with offices, lead in school musical for three years with regional awards, band, lots of volunteer work. He has displayed interest by attending junior football recruiting day, summer camp, and fall visit. We are within a three hour drive, and he wants to say close to home. Washington was always his first choice.
My D received an email this morning from WUSTL that she had 24 hours to accept the offer while she is expecting Vandy may extend an offer to her as well. She has been enrolled in USC at this point. any comments is welcome.
May I ask what are your daughter’s stats? Where are you from? (which state?) Does she need financial aid? How does
she know she’s expecting an offer from Vanderbilt? Thanks!
SAT 2280/ACT34, IB with GPA 4.32/4.5. rank 6/270.US citizen living abroad. hope the information help. She is on Vandy’s list but worked actively with the counselor. it was a surprise that WUSTL came first.
I don’t really prefer one over the other. WashU’s financial aid for middle class students is pretty bad, and Vandy’s net price calculator is offering about 30k more so I’m hoping for admission and more aid. I had to turn down WashU because I couldn’t afford it.