@momworried True, I wish they would have a supplement so they could be better judges of that though…imo it’s hard to get to know someone just by their resume and their common app essay 
@bordertexan Sorry to hear that…Hopefully the FA at MIT was good?
@madeon We will find out soon. I think they start going out after RDs are sent.
@Madeon I see that you were accepted to MIT yesterday, and have likely letters from 3 Ivy League schools. Yet your ego is so bruised by WashU that you started not one, but two threads? You need to step back and realize how that reflects on you.
You didn’t say-did you submit the merit applications? How many?
Your credibility continues to decline. You cannot possibly know what most people think. That doesn’t represent an opinion on your part, it is a fact that short of you conducting some kind of thorough survey, this is completely unknowable to you. ED applicants are also not significantly weaker than RD applicants, if they are weaker at all. Support your contention through some credible evidence. Although if they are, it only supports the contention that WUSTL wants students that really want to be there, since ED is the ultimate demonstration of that. Why would WUSTL suddenly reverse their stance on that just because the ED round ended?
Then you “clarified” that you are actually only referring to maybe 200 or so of the TOP candidates, not the “average Ivy” candidate. That’s a ridiculous distinction to begin with, but it certainly completely destroys your contention that WUSTL turns them down to goose its stats. That number moves the needle even less than I already demonstrated it does. A tiny percentage within a statistic that already is only a little over 1% of the ranking formula? That makes no sense.
If it isn’t too much trouble, since you know these TOP candidates so well, please name a few of the best selling authors that got accepted to Ivies and turned down by WUSTL. You can’t be violating their privacy since they are best selling authors. If they used nom de plumes, give us those.
I think it is abundantly clear at this point that you have little understanding of the admissions process in general, and at that group of schools similar to WUSTL in particular. Sure, everyone can have an opinion, but it makes little difference when it isn’t an informed opinion and the purveyor of that opinion has to make up facts as they go to support it, not to mention resorting to the most cynical of explanations for everything they see.
I’ve been wondering why you are spending all this time and energy on this? You even created two separate posts on this. WOW!
The only thing I can think of is that you are deeply hurt over your rejection to Wash U. That’s sad. You aren’t the only person who has been rejected by any college. That is part of life. All you can do is apply and try. Don’t bring others to this - this is clearly about you.
If you cannot handle rejection, then you should have applied to only super safety schools with a guaranteed acceptance. Every top 20 school rejects MANY top students which is a fact. In fact the Dean of ND apologized for having to turn down MANY top students simply because there aren’t enough spots.
There is nothing you can do about this at this point. We’ve all tried telling you how the process works but you are ignoring us and at the same time you are trying to put others down and making up stuff. That is not a good trait to have.
Instead what you should be doing is looking at the positives and move on. Congrats on your MIT acceptance. You should be happy.
Just for general information, starting two or more threads on the same topic is considered akin to spamming and is a violation of the Terms of Service.
@Madeon except that no major ranking system uses yield as a component any more, so yield protection really has nothing to do with “gaming” rankings.
If I were in admissions at Tufts or WUSTL I would definitely try to find students that genuinely wanted to enroll- a campus full of disgruntled HYPSM rejects sounds like an awful place.
Madeon, you are obviously a talented kid, but you also obviously lack the maturity to accept being waitlisted at WUSTL. The problem as I see it is that you deem WUSTL as subpar compared to the other schools, and so, feel insulted that they would dare waitlist you. Get over the insult and move on.
WashU has tons of kids applying with great stats. They can afford to be choosy and pick kids who TRULY love the school and want to be there… Also, another thing WashU mentioned multiple times when we visited is that they want “nice” kids. I took that to mean that they want kids who work well with others (as opposed to being of the “cutthroat” mentality). Maybe they look at the teacher and counselor recs to get a feel for that?
To all the WUSTL haters out there: if you have bothered to actually compute WUSTL RD yield from common data set numbers, you will see that their RD yield was somewhere around 24-25% (depending on how you estimate yield of the waitlisted admits). This means almost 3 out of 4 RD admits would eventually choose to go somewhere else.
Now if you cannot grasp what this means exactly and still think WUSTL is trying to protect their yield by rejecting “overqualified” applicants like you, then I say I feel sorry for the Dukes, the MITs, the Columbias that admitted you. For someone who won’t even bother to lookup what WUSTL’s actual yield is before making accusations about “yield protection” or “yield management”, I say I am glad that WUSTL rejected you as you obviously don’t understand simple math or simple logic.
@Amherst5168 Their yield is primarily terrible because they give little FA. Also because they have such a low yield, they are most definitely trying to increase it.
That’s not a true statement either. From what it seems like there are quite a few that have received generous FA. The people that didn’t at first didn’t realize how FA works which is indeed very complicated.
@newjersey17 This is something that is inarguable. Compared to its peer schools, WashU’s financial aid is MUCH WORSE. I can provide numbers if you’d like.
I have a friend that got the same FA from Brown, JHU, Wash U and Cornell. However, I didn’t get the same because I have multiple children in college. Wash U was indeed significantly the best for us. Most colleges no longer care if you have more than one in college. So it really all depends on your situation. I have learned that FA is definitely not the same among all colleges. Some exclude home equity while others include it. Others also don’t meet 100% need. Also, it depends on when you’ve filed. It seems to be first in first out. Also, other schools are more generous with merit vs. FA. There are way too many variables.
@newjersey17 Yes, it does vary from person to person. But on average for a family in the income bracket of $75,001 – $110,000, WashU is $7000 more expensive than a school like Brown (28,000 vs 21,000). Then when you compare to a school like Harvard, WashU is much more expensive - almost double the cost (Harvard’s is on average 13,600 for the same income bracket).
@Madeon
So… the school is beneath your credentials, you find their admissions practices suspect, and you believe their FA to be lacking?
Why did you apply at all, and why are you so distraught that they snubbed you first? Wait, are you still stinging over the Stanford deferral?
And you never answered the question about whether or not you submitted merit applications?
@planner03
I applied for a full ride, didn’t get it. After that I knew I wouldn’t be attending anyways…
Once again, I never felt that WashU was beneath me (if it was, why did bother applying?), I was not bitter at the decision either. I’ve said that the entire time, yet you guys just continue to bring up the same things over and over again.
And why would I be bitter over a Stanford deferral? Have you even seen the acceptance rate for deferred applicants?
@Madeon. Just thought you’d like to know that this same conversation went on last year at this time, with so many top candidates waitlisted. I checked back here just now to see if it happened again! My kid was accepted into top 10 LACs, 2 ivies, received likely letters, then Waitlisted at WUSTL. Best of luck to you - who knows why colleges do what they do in admissions.
I was admitted to wash u regular decision and I’m also a finalist for one of their academic scholarships. I haven’t gotten any ivy likely letters nor have I won any major science awards or published any novels. I probably could have dedicated my high school experience to gathering up awards or attending prestigious summer programs, but instead I hung out with my friends, played sports, did normal teenage things. Obviously I’m not knocking down any of those “top applicants” but I’m really happy and grateful that there was a place for me at such a great school as wash u- even if that place did come from one of those aforementioned “top applicants.” I might not be the most qualified or most impressive applicant, but I think that I’m one of those “nice” kids that some people mentioned earlier and I’m glad that wash u saw potential in me for both acceptance as well as consideration for a scholarship. And personally, I think that wash u’s ED policy is great. Of course I want to spend my next four years with kids who are genuinely happy and excited to be at their first choice, even if it means their GPA may be a bit lower or their accomplishments not so impressive as those rejected science winners or novelists.
I don’t think you are more qualified than me to be accepted to wash u simply because you’ve also gotten into a few ivies or MIT or wherever. I think wash u admissions does a good job selecting students that really want to be there and aren’t completely consumed with prestige. My first reaction when I got into wash u was one of complete surprise and excitement because I didn’t assume I was going to be accepted, even though my GPA and SAT put my in their top percentiles. At the end of the day, stats and awards and resumes are all incredibly subjective and they really don’t attest to someone’s character, so I’m glad wash u puts a bit of effort into finding those “nice kids”. Maybe super competitive, focused, single-minded “top tier” applicants don’t belong at wash u; maybe they simply don’t fit in with thee atmosphere they are trying to cultivate. Anyone who would assume they were overqualified to a school he was rejected to and look down upon students accepted at that school isn’t someone I would want as a classmate. I always think back to two of my alumni interviews when discerning the difference between WUSTL and “top tier” schools. Both my wustl interviewer and my harvard interviewer asked me about the other schools I was considering. When I named tulane, one of my other top choices and a school I can really see myself at, my WUSTL interviewer smiled and told me I was lucky to have such great options, no matter whether I ended up being accepted to WUSTL. My harvard interviewer kind of sneered and told me I’d have to watch my social life there. I’m not trying to make generalizations here, but those remarks made a strong impression into the characters of those schools and the types of people I would be surrounded with. Anyway, I guess that was my long-winded way of saying that WUSTL seems to be great at selecting nice, collaborative students with a genuine interest in being there- and those are the types of students I want to surround myself with.
I totally agree with ejs371. My D is a junior at Washu, and I often check this forum just to find out any interesting discussions.
Good students always have good options in college choices. Since the college admission is decided on various standards including academic excellence, there is no clear cut standards. I have seen a student rejected from Georgetown was admitted to Harvard. I don’t think the student was rejected by Georgetown just because the student was overqualified. Admission is often determined by subjective standards and there is nothing wrong with that, because every school has a different culture and environment. For example, Johns Hopkins premed program is very cut-throat while Washu premed is very cooperative and collaborative.
Just like students want to go to their top choice college, colleges want to admit their top choice students. Top students do not mean just academically top students but top students in their standards which can be a good combination of academic, extracurricular, personality, and how the students can fit the school. The last standard (how to fit the college) is not the most important factor, but not the least important factor, either.
I wish the waitlisted or rejected students a good luck for their choices, and I like to encourage them to move forward by choosing a right school from the available choices rather than looking back and speculating the decision that is already made.