Are the admit rates different for the different academic divisions? Like is it easier to get into the College of Arts and Sciences than it is to get into the College of Art? Asking for a friend lol
Maybe the 2023 profile will help you: https://admissions.wustl.edu/apply_site/Pages/profile.aspx
Thank you! Just looked it over. Much smaller proportion at college of art, but I assume many fewer applied to it. Hmm?
With an overall 14% acceptance for the Class of 2023 (and likely lower next year), there is no way of judging which of the schools is easier to be accepted to. I’m assuming the overall acceptance rates should be equal with Olin and the Sam Fox possibly having lower rates than the average.
I don’t know the relative acceptance rates of each school–in a admissions session I went to, the presenter said he didn’t know. (but he probably does!)
What is very interesting is that after adding a supplementary essay this year, WashU’s total applicants decreased nearly 19%–from about 31,300 for class of 2022 to about 25,400 for class of 2023. That is over $440K in lost application revenues! I wonder if the extra essay explains the entire decrease, and if WashU expected that? In my suburban Chicago area WashU is as popular as ever.
The supplemental essay requirement certainly accounted for the lower number of applications since WashU was one of the few Top 20 schools that did not require supplemental essays and high stat students would use WashU as a backup.
That is really interesting @Mwfan1921 @Hamurtle especially because the general acceptance rate dropped by like 2 or 3 percent in the past year (as far as I can tell) but the applications dropped by a ton as well? That doesn’t quite add up since it’s the same sized incoming class… I guess admit rates just keep going down. I had no idea the supplement was new this year, I just assumed it was specific to the different divisions. I wonder why they added that since it’s so detrimental to revenue.
Also @Hamurtle that’s interesting that the art school might be a lower acceptance rate. I assumed it would have slightly lower academic requirements.
@feversandmirrors I would not assume that Sam Fox has lower academic requirements. There was a girl from his high school with an unweighted 4.0 and NMF who matriculated to Fox 3 years ago. It’s also harder to earn a 3.5+ GPA from Fox.
@fevorsandmirrors I understand where you are coming from… math seemed off to me too. However, it does seem that with a larger number of ED1 and ED2 admits (who are 100% vs RD with a yield of around 25-30%) the overall admit rate could go down. For every extra ED admit, they need 4 less RD admits (if the yield is 25% they admit 4 for every 1 spot)… I don’t have all the numbers but seems possible.
I do not have stats for previous years - just what WashU reported on their site for this year - class of 2023.
As was pointed out by @fevorsandmirrors If the number of Apps for the class of 2023 (25,400) dropped from the previous year AND the % of those offered admission decreased (only 14%) - then it is likely that the overall yield is expected to increase and this is likely since they added ED2. There were likely more ED (ED1 + ED2) and these offers are essentially 100% yield, and there were likely fewer RD offers, and these are likely at a lower yield.
I don’t know if the SAT/ACT medium range stayed the same or not. For 2023 it is > 1500-1560 / 33-35
Also, as was pointed out most schools at this level require a supplemental essay - and it makes sense that WashU add that as a way for WashU to measure the candidate’s interest in going to WashU vs generic interest in an elite school.
The supplemental essay takes time and when other schools require one as well it can really be challenging for the applicants. Also for WashU several of the Scholarship applications require essays - and this take time but it can help the candidate give a more complete picture and it can help WahU measure the level of interest in WashU.
I don’t think it is healthy for the kids that many schools have such low admit rates (it seems everyone is trying to go to the same 30 schools), it gives the entire process a sense of randomness and further encourages the need for students to apply to many schools without becoming too invested in any since the acceptance rates for these schools are so low.
In our case I did not know much of WashU and I don’t think my son either, however, his school counselor suggested WashU could be a good fit, and he looked into and became very invested in WashU. It was a worry because with such a low acceptance rate it means they will turn away many great kids with great academics etc… I know my son is very capable, but we feel very lucky - it could have gone the other way and he would still be the same great kid.
Iachhi – Congratulations to you son – I’m sure he will do great where ever he goes. Our student will be graduating in May and has really enjoyed their time in St. Louis. It has been hard – no doubt about that. But they had high ambitions and, thanks to many at Wash U, they were able to attain them. Like you, we all feel very lucky and feel that for our student, Wash U was the perfect fit. It may not be for others – but most will find their place.
Good luck!