Hello all, I am a current high school senior and I was recently admitted to the WashU class of 2022. I would love to know a little more about the student life at WashU before I make my decision to commit (or not). If anyone has any insight on stress culture, student participation in clubs/organizations, and also the character of the typical WashU student, I would love to hear from you! Thanks in advance!
Let’s start out with the amenities first. WashU is known for good dorm food as well as Tempurpedic mattresses in the dorm rooms.
From what my son has told me so far about freshman year, the classes are challenging but manageable. From your username I’m assuming that you’re going to be a chemistry major. General Chemistry 1 and 2 are going to be interesting classes.
The school supposedly has some amount of grade deflation but most students generally do pretty well in their courses. The environment is conducive to collaboration. Very few gunners or cutthroat types in the school as compared to Cal or some of the more stressful Ivy schools.
Lots of clubs on campus and students are pretty active. Sports is not going to be a major emphasis since WashU is D3.
There is lots of student participation in clubs and activities. Students are very passionate about the activities they do. Stress culture does exist, though not much more, I would argue, than any other similar caliber school. The class environment is collaborative.
One of the things that attracted me to WashU is that students are multifaceted. 65% of students more than one major or a major and at least one minor. Often students major in more than one area. In general, the students are incredibly passionate about both their academic interests and their extracurricular involvements.
Student life revolves around around the campus. WashU hosts many on-campus events but the city of St. Louis is accessible if need be.
One drawback to WashU is the lack of socioeconomic diversity. The school has lots of very wealthy students and very few low-income students.
@scribbledinink is correct in his/her observations about WashU.
One more thing to add is that a lot of freshmen do get the opportunity to do internships or research immediately. The son took a class which resulted in his group presenting at an undergraduate research symposium.
The school does encourage students to volunteer in the community. It is true that the majority of WashU students are at the top 1% in family income. I haven’t seen too many really arrogant kids at the school though.