Weekends

<p>So for current students, what do you do for fun on the weekends? Do you go into St. Louis ever or often? How far is it? How are the frat parties? Do a lot of people go to them? How many nights a week do people go out? Thanks for any responses.</p>

<p>WUSTL is an excellent school, and St. Louis is second only to Washington DC in terms of free public attractions like parks and a lot of museums. There are frat parties just like at any other school, though maybe not as prevalent; though Wash. U. does have a slight reputation for an alcohol problem, the school is taking measures (such as a mandatory course) to try and prevent this.</p>

<p>WUSTL is a prestigious institution, and like any school of its calibre, the amount of work students have any given night is likely to be more than average; however, this also varies with majors. I've heard stories of B school majors going out drinking every night and pulling straight As while genchem regularly flunks out a fourth of its students. </p>

<p>This is everything I've heard or picked up from my one day there. I'm sure a current Wash. U. student would better be able to answer your question.</p>

<p>A lot of the answer to your question depends on what school you're in, and what you define as "going out". Really, the parties won't compare
to what you'll find at a state school, but there were always tons of frat/apartment parties, and compared to other schools of the same type - WashU kids def. know how to go out and have fun/party. </p>

<p>Frat parties are big for many freshmen, sophomores, and anyone affiliated with the greek system. There are lots of parties open to everyone, so they're pretty popular with freshman. Most of the parties I ended up at were tons of fun, some kinda wild. As HVS said, they're cracking down a bit on alcohol use more recently, but I don't think the change is really that drastic. By junior/senior years everyone has their groups of friends and are hanging out/partying with them. I'd say that most weekends I did something fun both Fri and Sat nights - maybe a party one night, and hanging out with friends the other. There's definitely a heavy workload, but we made time to go out and have fun every week... can't go crazy doing work :) </p>

<p>Freshman year, there will always be something happening on your floor. Someone watching a movie, playing a game, chatting in the hall, playing dodgeball in the riot-proof hallways :)... something. So you can end up hanging out with your friends every night if you want. In addition, there are tons of events on campus... there's something to go see/do pretty much every weekend, and lots of times floors go to the events together. I'd say freshman year I probably ended up going out off campus maybe once during the week (to a restaurant or something), probably about the same sophomore year. </p>

<p>As far as going out during the week: Definitely by the last few years, the B school kids are going out thursday nights, and wednesday nights even... and the engineers are doing problem sets that are due friday... Artsci is somewhere in between. That's a pretty general statement, of course... but often the scheduling works out that way. And of course by senior year, especially spring semester, everyone's at Blueberry Hill (nearby bar) on the Loop Thursday nights... aah how I miss bluehill.</p>

<p>For St. Louis: WashU's pretty much on the edge of the "city", and the heart of downtown is a couple miles away. The campus is bordered by a couple areas that are popular for restaurants, bars, and shopping (Clayton, the Loop, and the Central West End), all of which are accessible via the shuttle, so students spend a lot of time there. Forest Park, bordering WashU, also has the zoo and museums, which lots of students visit. There's a good amount to do, and it'll at least keep you busy until someone you know gets a car soph/jr year. Downtown there are more restaurants/bars/clubs, and cultural activities. The bars downtown are popular with the upperclassmen on the weekends. It's nice to go downtown or to other parts of StL county every now and then, since things are pretty spread out, but there's also lots near WashU. </p>

<p>Hope that helps a little (I'm bad at short answers to broad questions, heh)! And fyi, I'm a recent grad (04) and I'm from StL originally. Let me know if you have more questions...
And can't blame washu for having a slight alcohol problem... look at how we're funded :)</p>

<p>Anheiser-Busch all the way ;)</p>

<p>Oh, don't forget, MetroLink will probably be completed by 2008. That's going to be so nice.</p>

<p>Man I really hope I recover from this deferral and get in. It's such a great school.</p>

<p>Even as it was before all this extension/construction, metrolink wasn't too bad from washu... you could take the shuttle or walk to a stop, and it would take you downtown. Can't wait till the it's finished though!</p>