Yes, they send communications to the email account associated with the application. My son has an account just for college apps. Your iphone or similar device will allow you to manage multiple accounts. Should be no problem to keep up with the correspondence.
I agree with what so many others have said about the ease of flying out and using Bed Bath and Beyond. We have nonstop flights on SW, and our daughter, my husband and I each checked large bags. We didn’t need all 6 that we were allowed for free. We did the BB&B thing by going to a local store, getting a scanner, and walking around the store to add things to a list. You don’t pay until you pick up the stuff and you can change your mind then about what to keep or not keep, plus add more things from the STL before you check out. Save up your coupons!! They’ll take as many as you bring. I am thinking I’ll drive out to pick her up in May, but not sure yet. She’ll certainly store some things there. Also, with SW, no change fees, so you can make an educate guess on T’giving and breaks, and change if necessary. Of course, airfare might go up, but it also might go down if you switch to a less popular day. My daughter came home Monday night for T’giving, because only one class was meeting on Tuesday, and her prof said it was optional.
Our daughter went to SOAR and found it to be really useful. She made some friends there that she saw over the summer when we visited NYC. Not sure she sees them now that she’s a WashU, though. She also did a Pre-O and was very happy with that. She did a non-academic one and found that it helped her get involved in an area of interest to her right off the bat. We then flew out to meet her on the official move-in day to do family orientation with her. She is thinking of applying this summer or in the future to help with SOAR and/or Pre-O.
@niko9649, as much as we LOVE WashU, I don’t think they make the most of Preview Days. We had not visited before she was admitted, so no big deal for us, but it isn’t much more than the usual campus admissions tour, and you’re mixed in with H.S. juniors looking to apply next year (at least for A&S students). Different set of issues and questions for them than for admitted students, I think, which argues for separate tours. I would do SOAR instead. My daughter met no one on Preview Days who was going to be an incoming freshman (although we stayed with friends, rather than her doing an overnight visit).
Meals - not sure how my daughter will spend all she has on the silver plan. We will drop down next year, I’m sure, especially because it’s so easy to use Bear Bucks.
I have one very happy kid after one semester, and she was not “all in” for WashU upon entering. She now cannot imagine having gone anywhere else.
My son just got admitted to Wash U ED. Congratulations to everyone who got admitted and good luck to those who are waiting on RD. I was thinking of switching my phone service from Verizon to T-Mobile to save on money, but I was worried that T-Mobile may not get very good reception at Wash U. Does anyone know if T-Mobile works well on the college campus and in the surrounding St. Louis area? Thanks in advance!
@freshman979
All carriers are going to work fine in a major city like St. Louis and the nearby cities as well. Obviously if you go really far out, the reception may not be great. Also, every carrier will lose their signal in certain lecture halls and in the basement floors of certain buildings. I personally use Verizon and I have no problems. If you can save money with Verizon, consider switching.
Questions about dorms. I’d like to get people’s opinions on modern vs traditional. I know the basics. Traditional has bunch of rooms in a hall with one big bathroom at the end of the hall. And modern is suite style where 2 rooms share one bathrooms. But what about the rest? Are rooms same size? Is traditional older then modern? Do both have same mattresses? What do freshman generally prefer? If you want freshman only dorms does it mean you need to pick traditional? I’d like to hear what you guys think.
Aldo, in terms of roommate, is it better to go random. My older son picked his roomate on the match site at his UG and he was very happy.
All the dorms have temper-pedic mattresses. There are freshmen dorms of both the modern and traditional types. The freshmen are housed together on the South 40, which contains both types of dorms set around “the swamp” and a dining hall plus a few other things.
@freshman979 Also keep in mind that WashU has a very good wifi network on campus, so the carrier’s service might not be as important if your student stays connected to wifi mostly.
Regarding dorms: I believe all freshmen are housed in “freshmen only” dorms, some traditional and some modern. My D commented the other day that, while she loves the suite set-up in her modern dorm, she would believes she would be closer to others on her floor if she were in a traditional dorm. It’s easy to “silo” with only one’s suitemates in the modern dorm. Her sophomore friend who lived in a traditional dorm freshman year has a larger group of close friends of both genders. Honestly, that might just be a difference in personalities, though. Her suite is very spacious and nicer than any dorms where I went to college. She did random roommate match and has been very happy. Next year, she plans to live with one of her suitemates.
So I believe the move in day is Thursday August 20. Want to get plane and hotel reserved. Should we fly on Thursday morning? When should we head back? Friday night, Saturday or Sunday?
We drove in the night before move in day and I flew back two days later (which was the day after move in day). There were all sorts of functions the day I left but I chose not to stick around. Many parents did though. I knew saying goodbye would be hard so I didnt’ want to drag it out. I wanted to stay just long enough to get her moved in. 
You ought to check out last years schedule to see if any of that interests you.
If you are a parent of Freshman, I highly recommend staying for Convocation. It is a very special ceremony. Flights depend on if you need connecting flights. I would fly the day before due to taking connecting flights. We would have a 7 hour flight day, on a good day without delays.
@newcrew42 when is the convocation? Is it on Friday nights? What rime? If we’re staying for convocation should we fly back on Saturday then?
My daughter wants to do SOAR. Or whatever it’s called. The summer 3 days program. Is it worth it?
Convocation was the night of move in for the current freshman class. Yes, I agree you definitely want to see that. Also, a tip go early because the seats fill up!
Calif-based Son and Mom/Dad are visiting WashU next week (first-time visit). Tough decision for S - deciding among WashU, Dartmouth and Claremont McKenna. Financial considerations are all comparable. Still deciding on major concentration - life sciences (bio), psych, econ, international relations (Chinese), and public policy are all possibilities. Any feedback to consider in his final decision?
Wash U does a fabulous job with the parent activities during move-in (also for students but questions are focusing on parents). I highly recommend doing all activities that you can. After convocation, the parents line up in a “tunnel” and cheer all the freshman as they walk by (at least they did when my senior S was a freshman). Saying good-bye is very hard, but by the time we did it my S had already spent two nights in his dorm room and it seemed like home to him. I think that was much easier than drop off and leave. As for the choice between Wash U and other schools, I can tell you that I think Wash U is fabulous. I imagine parents with kids at your other choices might say the same, but that is all I know.
My DD graduated in 2014 and had a fabulous - and educational - time at Wash U. I thought I would give you a good parent tip. When we took my DD out freshman year, we stayed in Clayton, which was fine, but expensive (my recollection is it was well over $100 per night) and very busy because of all the other families there. Her sophomore year, we booked the Hampton Inn in Chesterfield. Chesterfield is about 20 minutes away (by highway) from Wash U. The Hampton In was much less expensive and included breakfast. If you call the hotel front desk, ask for the “university rate” which was about $76, which is cheaper than online. For graduation, we had a number of family members flying in from the east coast and Florida. I had four rooms booked with people staying a different number of days and I need two handicapped accessible rooms. The Hampton In worked out really well. It turned out there are a number of restaurants near the hotel. The Chesterfield Mall is about 5 minutes away. Getting from the airport to Chesterfield is pretty easy by car. So if you are driving there, or have a rental car, I’d recommend staying a little further from Wash U.
My DD’s freshman year, we shipped several boxes via UTrucking. That worked out better than by post as the boxes were in her room when we arrived. Many kids do not live close by and they all chip in and get storage units for the summer. I can’t remember exactly what they cost, but I think it was less than $30 a month for 3 months. Much cheaper than shipping stuff home or flying back to to help DD pack it up. The kids all figure it out together.
I will also say that Wash U did a great job of keeping parents in the loop about what was going on at school. I hope all your kids have as great an experience at Wash U as my daughter did. My son is now a high school junior so we are starting the college admissions process all over again. He is very different socially than my DD, as well as younger, so it will be an interesting year as we try to find the best fit for him.
Just going to throw this out as another option - I had a lot of friends with basements (tons of duplexes you can rent off campus) and they’d charge people anywhere from $50 to $100 to store their stuff for the summer. A nominal amount, really, and a win-win for both the people in the apt as well as the students who don’t want to pay utrucking’s exorbitant fees (but also don’t want to have to find a storage locker miles away).
As for what I did… my mom drove up after my freshman year and we drove everything back home (~700 miles). I brought my car to school my sophomore year. Summer after sophomore year I stored stuff in my own basement (as I got an off-campus apt junior year) and sublet the room for the summer. Summer after junior & senior years (I stayed a 5th year for my masters) I was working internships/co-ops in st. louis so it didn’t matter anyway.
We only used UTrucking before freshman year and bought most things out there. Winter clothes went back with DD at Thanksgiving. Off campus storage was 2 -3 miles away, very close. We l live 900 miles away and there was no way we were driving out every spring and summer. The cost of gas and tolls would well have exceeded the cost of storage, not to mention time away from work, etc. But there are options for everyone.
700 miles is about the max I’d suggest for driving. It’s under 10 hours. In my case it was actually cheaper for us - drive up saturday, leave sunday (so no time off work), and sure, gas is expensive, but it was a hell of a lot cheaper than a plane ticket.
Kid tried to notify WashU today that he was not attending. It wouldn’t let him until he named where he was going. He hasn’t decided yet, so we’ll hold off. He was thinking by notifying them, someone might get off a wait list for CAS.
I doubt anybody’s getting off the waitlist before May 1, @bordertexan. It’s perfectly acceptable to just not send in the deposit to WashU, come May 1 they’ll know the kids not coming.