<p>The most appropriate method of judging schools would probably be by trying to finout how u as an indiv fit in. its all about the right fit. hence if ur interested n sports say football then Vanderbilt, or Usc or Ucla etc etc ....
if ur interested in finance then wash u, harvard, wharton etc etc would probbaly be the schools u would be looking at.
try to find out about professors. I for one, since i had one my research on washU, can say tht wash U has excellent faculty. </p>
<p>hence try not to look at the quantity of mails to judge the schools but try to do ur own research to see where u best fit in.</p>
<p>Stats
SAT: ~ 2200
SAT IIs: 800 USHis/ 750Chem/ 740 MathII
GPA: 4.5 weighted
Rank: n/a in my high school but in top 10 people out of 360
Other stats: started club in high school, played violin for 10 years, lots of community service</p>
<p>Subjective:
Essays: pretty good
Teacher Recs: didn't see but probably pretty good
Counselor Rec: so so
Hook (if any):</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country:NJ
School Type: public very competitive
Ethnicity: asian
Gender: female
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm not saying this is THE reason n88x thinks Wash U is overrated. I am saying, however, that we should put this criticism into proper perspective.</p>
<p>People say that Wash U manipulates their ranking by waitlisting many people, then accepting many off of the list. According to people here, the school accepted NOBODY from the waitlist this year, meaning there was no effect on the ranking. They waitlist people who they think are just using Wash U as a safety - I know people who are now going to Princeton and Yale who were waitlisted at respected universities such as Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon and the likes.</p>
<p>I think if you actually look at the packets that they send in the mail ( I am looking at it right now) you will see that it is really pretty standard information. Maybe they do send out a much higher volume, but I dont think that the conten itself hints at desparation, lower quality, or the "advertising" that is beneath elite and sometimes hard to learn about schools. If college was any other investment you would want all the information up front like this.</p>
<p>I'm interested to know where this 50% Jewish statistic comes from, considering at least 70% of the students I saw while visiting there were clearly Indian or Chinese, or they had Irish or German last names. The remaining 30%, I don't know what their ethnicity was, but I am assuming they weren't all Jewish.</p>
<p>It should be worth mentioning, however, that WashU DOES attract students from all over the country by taking in Southerners as well as Northeasterners, Midwesterners, and West Coasters, as opposed to Ivies who mostly scoop up students from the West Coast and the Northeast.</p>
<p>And this was a response to the first post, because it is 1:50am, and I failed to see this was a 10 page thread...</p>
<p>The last figures I saw published (in one of the college guides not through WashU) stated that about 30% of the WashU student body is Jewish. </p>
<p>Check on the WashU website under Campus Ministries for information on locations and services offered by Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Hindu etc. student centers.</p>
<p>Back to the original post. The WashU is overrated theory has been around for a few years, but the rant seems a LOT less strident this year! Perhaps because as more students actually explored the opportunities presented at WashU and they came to recognize that it IS a top university. D has just come home from her fresh. year - 'the best year of my life'. She found the academic challenge and interesting students and faculty she was looking for at WashU. She is currently using skills learned at WashU in a genetic research internship she secured for the summer and is spending major time on her cell and computer keeping in touch with new friends from across the country. Academic challenge and a much broader social life than she ever had in HS all in a friendly environment. What's not to like?! Overrated? That horse is dead - move on!</p>
<p>This is so amusing how all of you have managed to extend this e-fight to a whopping 152 posts (including mine)...you people should learn not to focus so much on rankings, because when you're studying at the undergraduate level they really don't matter.</p>
<p>As far as this whole "waitlisting overqualified applicants" business goes, I should point out that the WSJ ran an article about this back in early 2003. My memory may be off, but here's what I recall:</p>
<p>Every school has a habit of waitlisting otherwise-qualified candidates whom they don't think will matriculate if accepted. There are three exceptions: Yale, Princeton, and the University of Chicago. Duke and Emory in particular are credited with pioneering this phenomenon.</p>
<p>I just thought it was an interesting thread that some people might want to read. I mean, with 11 pages there certainly has been alot of past interest in this....</p>
<p>hahaha. i don't know much about washu's marketing techniques, but i do find it odd that i, an asian, was invited to the multicultural weekend. i didn't know that asians were considered multicultural at any university.</p>