<p>To noimagination: Yep, I applied for financial aid. </p>
<p>To WongTongTong: Thanks a lot for the comforting words. I don’t intend on staying on the waitlist; it just doesn’t seem worth it. I like WashU but I think I’ve moved on. </p>
<p>Congratulations to those who were accepted! What I do wonder about, though, is whether my additional essay for the University Scholars Program had any impact on my ultimate waitlist. My parents really pushed me to apply for the program, even though I’ve had only minimal hospital/medicine experience (I’ve never volunteered hard core at a hospital, which my med-school cousins say is a must for such programs). So of course, I was rejected from the University Scholars Program…Just a random thought: maybe they thought I only applied to WashU for its University Scholars Program and so decided my interest wasn’t “genuine?”</p>
<p>Vanderbilt just released some statistics for the class of 2015</p>
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<p>Thanks parent62 and massgirl for understanding.</p>
<p>@Rmom and Green678, yes WashU is slightly more selective, but hardly more so than Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>@NWrnnr5, for what I’ve said, it’s certainly not arrogant to believe I didn’t deserve rejection, as the number of waitlistees + acceptances is astronomical at WashU this year. But thank you for your rationalization, and I’m happy with what I have. </p>
<p>@SimpleLife
“I might be thinking of a different person, but aren’t you from the Nashville area? Considering that you applied to Vanderbilt as well, could that have left the impression with Wash U admissions that you wouldn’t attend?”
Actually, I recently talked to someone with close family/friends that work with admissions at top schools. He suggested to me that WashU and Vandy most likely have correspondence about applicants. With my demonstration of want for financial aid, my lack of merit at WashU and my full ride at Vandy, my familiarity and close proximity to Vandy/Nashville, and Vandy’s top BME and neuroscience (which is what I’m interested in), he said there’s a good chance they marked me off as highly unlikely to attend WashU. Makes sense enough I suppose.</p>
<p>^And which would your son have rather attended, boymom? (I guess what I’m wondering is, IF it’s true that the colleges are comparing notes, are they making the right choices for their applicants? Just curious.</p>
<p>Having no particular “draw” for early admission, I guess my son didn’t come under either school’s radar for the “chance of attendance” question. He was accepted RD to Wash U a few weeks ago, and I just discovered a big, fat cardboard packet in the mailbox with the word “Congratulations!” on it from Vanderbilt! He’s going to be (momentarily) excited. (I say “momentarily” because we know he didn’t get one of Vandy’s full-tuition scholarships, and so I think it’s going to be impossible for him to attend. Oh well.)</p>
<p>SimpleLife - Congrats to your son! My D would prefer Wash U. Who knows if they really do - would hate to think applying to a certain school is a disadvantage to get into another.
Did your son get $ at Wash U?</p>
<p>^Oh, boymom, that’s sad! No fair! I was hoping that you would say he’d rather attend Vandy. My first thought, when thinking about keellota, and then you, is that a kid could really get short-changed by these college’s “guesses” after they decide to share info (if that’s even true). I don’t like the idea of that.</p>
<p>My son did not get the full- or half-tuition scholarships at Wash U either. It’s a bit disappointing, but not in any way unexpected. We knew they were next to impossible to get – particularly at Wash U, and particularly with no real “hooks.” He has a handful of other great choices, though, so we’re okay.</p>
<p>well I was really not feeling confident after being waitlisted by WashU but I just got into Vandy, which seems to be a trend on this page haha. Vandy also offered decent finaid.</p>
<p>My son’s Vandy need-based aid was actually the best of the private colleges so far, by quite a lot. We were surprised! I wonder why … but I’m not complaining. Wash U was good too, though.</p>
<p>^What?! From Wash U, you mean? Are you kidding? Tons of people get rejected. It’s very selective, actually. If you want, you can take a look at the Official RD Decisions thread, pemberley. I think there will be rejections on there. But, people who were accepted tend to most more often than people who were rejected.</p>
<p>SimpleLife- I got CRAZY-awesome need-based aid from Vandy too… I hadn’t really heard Vandy’s name in the discussion of best need-based aid, but got nearly full-tuition from them (37.5k out of the total 40k, i think) when I didnt get hardly any need-based aid from Rice or WUSTL. however, I did get the Olin Scholarship (merit-based) at WUSTL, which is like half-tuition. But i got next to nothing in need-based aid from Rice (with a little extra help from the National Merit Scholarship at all three schools).</p>
<p>^Interesting, jgorman. It is odd to see how much our need-based aid varies. I think I’m going to call Vanderbilt next week to ask how much that aid might vary over 4 years. I called Wash U this week. My son’s need-based aid at Wash U will drop off considerably after my other college kids graduate. That makes sense and is only fair, I guess. But will Vanderbilt’s drop off by the same amount, or will it drop off proportionally more (since the award is so much more)? Must find out. :)</p>
<p>I’m officially convinced that WashU definitely practices some Tufts Syndrome…
I got in…
and I was just waitlisted from Northwestern…
and I haven’t received anything from Vandy,and all acceptances arrived in mailboxes either yesterday or today (priority mail).
■■■.
All the kids who were waitlisted from WashU keep getting into these crazy selective schools…</p>
<p>It can’t be that all of those schools are in the top 20 in the nation with thousands upon thousands of qualified applicants, all with quirks that make certain students more appealing to certain schools.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the fact that many people on this board (including myself) got in to WUSTL as well as other top-20 schools is moot, since you clearly have proof of Tufts Syndrome.</p>
<p>C’mon people… let’s use some common sense.</p>
<p>I’m sorry about Northwestern and Vanderbilt (if it does turn out that it wasn’t just a ****-up in the mail) but you cannot declare “Tuft’s Syndrome” because one top-20 school accepted you and another two did not.</p>
<p>//All the kids who were waitlisted from WashU keep getting into these crazy selective schools//</p>
<p>WashU’s ~16-17% acceptance rate this year makes it one of the most selective schools in the country. So unless all these kids you know are getting into <em>every</em> other “crazy” selective school with a similar or lower acceptance rate, it is irrelevant if they’re getting into some–that would be EXPECTED. Actually, not even, since your sample size of people you’re considering is too small anyways to be statistically significant.</p>
<p>to those waitlisted: did ur letter have a real ink signature (not a computer one)? (mine did) perhaps the waitlist is smaller this year if someone had the time to sign all the letters…</p>
<p>@massgirl92 - I don’t thing being accepted into WUSTL means that you have a lesser chance of getting into other top schools. My D was accepted into WUSTL and she also got accepted into Vandy and Northwestern.</p>
<p>@SimpleLife
Barring finances, I would attend Vandy over WashU.
And the college correspondence is still partly speculative, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true-- I mean, if I were a college administrator, I would surely want to know things like that.</p>
<p>@matcat1116
I agree with you, and I understand you may feel personally insulted with people indirectly downplaying your achievement of acceptance to WashU. Normally, I wouldn’t complain about such, especially if I had been “barely” (i.e. without merit scholarship; not being derogatory) accepted to similar schools and waitlisted here-- that would definitely be expected as generallywrong said in post #36. My case, at least, has much more of a stark contrast between decisions, which is why I’ve been posting.</p>
<p>I’ve been accepted with full merit scholarship (Vandy) and partial merit scholarship (Emory) to schools of essentially equivalent selectivity/prestige to WashU, which rejected me. </p>
<p>I’m not following the logic, I’ve been accepted with full merit scholarship to two top-20 schools, thus I should be accepted to WashU. I’m pointing out those achievements as they further validate the caliber of my application beyond simply, say, reading a chance thread of me. With that caliber, I’m stating that it’s odd for Vandy/Emory to value me as one of their top ~150 applicants, while WashU places me outside of their top ten-or-so thousand students (accepted + large waitlist size).</p>
<p>Although, more generally, I will say I have been very impressed with many applicants waitlisted at WashU and less so with many of the acceptees-- on CC and with people I know. Still, there are also many impressive acceptees and less impressive waitlisted/rejected applicants; this might even be more so the case.</p>
It’s a bit disappointing, but not in any way unexpected. We knew they were next to impossible to get – particularly at Wash U, and particularly with no real “hooks.” He has a handful of other great choices, though, so we’re okay.</p>