<p>There is a stereotype that WashU is way overrated in US News rankings, and I have to admit that I'm starting to think that this is true. Why?</p>
<p>-ridiculous marketing practices. Overwhelming even mediocre candidates with information to get them to apply to lower acceptance rate. Similarly ranked schools like Dartmouth and Columbia don't come close to doing that.</p>
<p>-excessive usage of waitlisting. WashU waitlists a ton of kids and then takes accepts alot off of the waitlist. the kids accepted off of the waitlist don't factor into the acceptance rate, so the acceptance rate is actually a good bit lower that it actually is. Ivy League schools usually take very very few kids, if any, off of the waitlist.</p>
<p>-awful yield. WashU has a yield around 30%, meaning that only about 30% of accepted students go there. Columbia and Dartmouth have yields nearly twice that, each around 50+%. WashU is a safety school for many kids shooting for the Ivies, and is an inferior choice. And even the 30% is high for WashU, because they have done so many dubious techniques to increase it (ED, ED II (catching the kids who were rejected/deferred from Ivy League schools), yield protection by counting campus visits, something that essentially all Ivy League schools don't do). </p>
<p>-unsuccessful at creating an atmosphere of openness and diversity. schools like columbia have acheived this atmosphere. WashU is nearly 50% Jewish (depending on what source you use), and lower-ranked schools like Cornell and Brown have much more inviting and diverse student bodies. WashU is almost the only school in the top 20/25 that tries to be diverse like a Ivy League school but fails. The others either are as well (stanford, berkeley) or don't try (Notre Dame). </p>
<p>what do you all think?</p>
<p>WUSTL has spent the last 10 years figuring out how to manipulate it's US news ranking. Everyone knows that WUSTL isn't as good as it is ranked. Just look at the kind of people they let in ED.</p>
<p>See I don't agree with the OP, I don't really agree with those USNWR because the thing is that depending on what type of atmosphere and what you are planning on studying, everyone's personal rankings are different. Also there are things that Wash U offers that other schools like Columbia or Dartmouth don't offer. So, to each his own.</p>
<p>I feel that ppl respect WashU less than their ranking... partially b/c no one can say that for example, WashU is better than Cornell/Brown/etc. Most ppl would pick Brown over WashU any day. I think WashU markets itself very well. They're trying so hard to get higher in the rankings and get their name out there (by, for example, sending every1 dozens of WashU junkmail begging them to apply.) It's fame is rapidly growing... do you think there's such thing as name-inflation? lol. It might crash down one day.</p>
<p>Overrated otherwise or not, it's still academically underrated.</p>
<p>to everyone- is this hatred coming because you didnt get in??</p>
<p>Hey, I'm defending Woostle! :[</p>
<p>if you took psat or sat before, then you must have already receieved at least 5 junkmails from Wash U now...they just love to send advertisements to EVERYBODY.</p>
<p>no shame in that, let them send the junk mail but if you dont have it you still aren't getting in</p>
<p>They're not just junk mail or advertisements...they're very informative and accurate reflections of the nature of the school itself.</p>
<p>see, therein is one of the points of contention. Do you see Dartmouth sending out massive amounts of mail ("junk mail") to marginal students, or to any students? Heck, do any of the Ivies do that for that matter? No. No other school in the top 50 (you could even stretch this to to 75+ or so) comes close to this. It seems like a 'real' prestigious school shouldn't need to sell itself so much to students.</p>
<p>The top schools like the Ivies have people clamoring to get in, many of whom have no idea why they want to go there, except that it's prestigious. This is why they don't send a lot of stuff to prospectives...it's arrogance and complacency at best...</p>
<p>I, for one, appreciated the kind of information WashU sent to its applicants and prospectives because it helped me make an intelligent choice about where to apply. That, I think, is the purpose of sending these publications. I highly doubt that anyone would spend $55 dollars to apply to some school just because they got stuff in the mail, without actually going through and READING some of this so called "junk mail", and doing some research and whatnot.</p>
<p>...off topic, but is there a way to subscribe to a thread without posting on it? (sort of like I'm doing here...mostly to subscribe to it anyway)</p>
<p>Near the top --> Thread Tools (next to Search this thread), then the popup --> Subscribe to this Thread.</p>
<p>I do agree that the tactics that the OP listed are in use. However, I also think WUSTL has an underrated academic performance. Their marketing tactics are just to try to get the recognition they deserve, even if I don't particularly agree with their practices.</p>
<p>About the Ivies not sending junk mail --> most of them don't but I got 4 unsolicited applications from Harvard and 3 from Yale. Meh.</p>
<p>Okay, see...I was gonna not reply but this is getting ridiculous. WashU is getting hated on because they send out advertisments...hmmm</p>
<p>It is my understand that colleges are in the business of getting students to apply so they can select from the best crop of students possible and put this endowment money that they are given to good use. If WashU is able to senf out a lot of ads, then props to their promotions team and marketing department. You all say they send stuff out to mediocre students...stanford and harvard sent two apps to this girl in my school who got a freaking 1.2 GPA her junior year. He stats before that were mediocre as well. As a matter of fact, everyone in my damn school gets stuff from ivy league colleges and most of them certainly aren't qualified. </p>
<p>People say WashU is playing some type of game to manipulate their admit rate and yield and yadda yadda yadda...i think they are simply trying to find students who will appreciate what they have to offer. They are just getting on the national stage so it is their job to promote themselves well. They send out a lot of stuff so a lot of people know what WashU is about and can make an intelligent decision about the school. They sent me a lot of stuff and I never heard of them before. For some reason i read it learned about their merit scholarships and their felixibility and everything else. My heart was dead set against staying in the midwest for school cause I wanted to go to UPenn. After reading WashU's literature i realized my dream school was in St. Louis and I am thankful that I was given the information that they gave me.</p>
<p>That is all WashU is looking for. They aren't trying to steal ivy rejects or whatever. They want smart kids who want them as well. There is no crime in accepting who you think will come. The Ivies do it as well, but they are so cocky that they think everyone and thier mom wants to go their. A lot of people have turned down ivies for WashU and have never looked back. Yes, sometimes mediocre students get in, but I know mediocre students who are at Harvard. Yes, sometimes the best students get rejected, but I know a genuis who couldn't get into any ivy league school. </p>
<p>People need to stop trying to find a reason to hate and either decided if the school is for them or not. WashU is a great school with great academics and happy students and its repuation is growing. Is it on par of better tan ivies or stanford, mit, etc...well it depends on who u ask and what ur going for.</p>
<p>I was going for a school where I would be happy as hell, not have to pay, be able to double major/minor (math, business, education, etc), get some good food and live in luxurious dorms...thus, WashU is the best school imo and it doesn't hurt that their also a top 15 school</p>
<p>The other thing is Wash U is not the only school that sends out an enormous amount of mail to me at least: Emory, Carnegie Mellon, GW, Syracuse, Northwestern, and NYU. By the way, these mailings got me interested in a lot of these schools, so I think they are helpful to getting people who are unaware of a school interested in that school.</p>
<p>yeah, i totally agree, the only good thing about wustl is its medical school.</p>
<p>Haha...you guys are ridiculous.</p>
<p>I agree; they send out a lot of stuff to unqualified candidates. So? Still, if you're unqualified...they're not going to accept you!</p>
<p>My guess is that Wash. U. is sending all these ads because they want more name recognition. At the very least, people should "know" Wash. U. is a top school. I believe I read somewhere it was their goal to get into the same ranks as the upper ivies in name recognition. When my brother applied ten years ago, they accepted 7 candidates from my school (the top school in Arkansas asmsa.net); when my sister applied 5 years later: 2. It's because they had gotten a LOT more selective. </p>
<p>Wash. U. has risen something like ~10 places in the past ten years! That's extraordinary. They are reaching new levels of prestige....and frankly, people need to know about it. </p>
<p>Let's compare the stats with top schools ranked around the same as Wash. U.:</p>
<p>*Wash. U.
Middle 50% of
First-Year Students Percent Who
Submitted Scores
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 670 - 750 87%
SAT Reasoning Math: 690 - 770 87%
ACT Composite: 30 - 33 49%
*</p>
<p>Columbia (ranked higher)
Middle 50% of
First-Year Students<br>
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 670 - 770 93%
SAT Reasoning Math: 660 - 760 93%
ACT Composite: 27 - 32 15%</p>
<p>Dartmouth (ranked higher)
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 670 - 770 89%
SAT Reasoning Math: 680 - 780 89%
ACT Composite: 29 - 34 11% </p>
<p>Northwestern (ranked lower)
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 650 - 740 84%
SAT Reasoning Math: 670 - 760 84%
ACT Composite: 29 - 33 51%</p>
<p>Cornell (ranked lower)
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 630 - 720 98%
SAT Reasoning Math: 660 - 760 98%
ACT Composite: 28 - 32 18%</p>
<p>Brown (ranked lower)
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 660 - 760 96%
SAT Reasoning Math: 670 - 770 96%
ACT Composite: 27 - 33 21%</p>
<p>So according to these stats, Wash U. is exactly ranked where it needs to be.</p>