<p>I am considering to apply there because I read it's a very good school academically, the campus and the area around are great, and it's quite prestigious. however I'm concerned about job opportunities (since it's in the middle of nowhere) and since I'm interested in IR if it has a good IR school? any other pro/cons you can list of WashU?</p>
<p>WashU is an excellent school. It’s not in the middle of nowhere – it’s in a good sized city. The schools that are in the middle of nowhere are schools like Amherst and Williams and Bowdoin which aren’t anywhere near a major city, but somehow rural New England is more “somewhere” than big city Midwest. Give me a break.</p>
<p>I must protest, PG. Bowdoin is about 25 minutes away from ME, so it is hardly in the middle of nowhere! :D</p>
<p>WashU is definitely not in the middle of nowhere. St Louis is one of the bigger cities in the Midwest and definitely feels like it.
It has a population of 319,294 so it’s the 58th largest city in the USA and the Greater St Louis area has a population of nearly 3 million making it the 16th-largest urban area in the country. Largest in the state…
God…I hope thats not the middle of nowhere…</p>
<p>[International</a> and Area Studies](<a href=“http://ias.wustl.edu/]International”>http://ias.wustl.edu/)</p>
<p>OK</p>
<p>This one I can definitely help you with.</p>
<p>My brother’s kid went there, majored in business, got a job at an investment bank, and is now making over $200,000 a year, just a few years out of school. So even though it is St Louis, evidently the top firms recruit there. And I also know that he liked going to the school.</p>
<p>I think some of the east-coast people who are supposedly oh-so-sophisticated would be shocked, SHOCKED, if they ever got on a plane and realized the existence of other sophisticated intellectual communities and wealth that is to be found elsewhere in this country. You know, there are actual big companies in St. Louis! Who hire real people! And banks too! And … multimillionaires who could buy and sell everyone on College Confidential twenty times over! And they don’t all wear overalls and chew tobacker! </p>
<p>I get the mindset, I really do, since I grew up in the east myself, but come on. Don’t feed me the line that major cities in the midwest are the “middle of nowhere” but upstate New York or rural New England aren’t. It doesn’t hold.</p>
<p>^^^Agreed.</p>
<p>Well I guess I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but I will use the excuse that I’m an international student to cover that 
Anyway, how would you compare WashU to, for example, Tufts or USC or Ann Arbor? would it be considered a reach school no matter of my stats? I am still looking for one more reach school as now I have Brown and Yale…</p>
<p>All of those schools are fine schools. I personally prefer WashU and Tufts over USC and Michigan, but a lot of that has to do with personal preferences for size (and not liking USC’s neighborhood).</p>
<p>And yes, of COURSE it’s a reach no matter what your stats are. WashU is a top 20 university. Every single top 20 university is a reach for every single person. Period, the end.</p>
<p>Unfortunately WashU’s climb in the rankings hasn’t driven elite recruiters to campus the way you see them at comparable schools like Cornell and Northwestern. If you were to choose, based on where you will get a top job those other two and Michigan-Ross are going to do better. WashU will do better than Tufts and USC.</p>
<p>Also location has nothing to do with recruiting. Dartmouth does exceptionally well with recruiters and its in NH.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately WashU’s climb in the rankings hasn’t driven elite recruiters to campus the way you see them at comparable schools like Cornell and Northwestern.”</p>
<p>That is because they aren’t “comparabe schools”.</p>
<p>WUSTL must have the hardest working postal system and outside communications department.</p>
<p>Yes they are, informative. Get out of Boston one of these days.</p>
<p>WUSTL is at least as selective as half of the Ivies (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/687793-selectivity-ranking-national-us-lacs-combined-usnews-method.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/687793-selectivity-ranking-national-us-lacs-combined-usnews-method.html</a>). For quality of life (dorms, food) it seems to have a better reputation than almost any other top school (judging from CC comments and the Princeton Review comparisons). For the number of classes under 20 students, it is comparable to small LACs like Pomona and Middlebury (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html</a>). As a research university, although it doesn’t have quite the level of excellence in as many areas as some other top schools (Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard), in the life sciences it may be among the top 5-10 (depending on how we measure these things - [Best</a> Microbiology Programs | Top Science Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/microbiology-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/microbiology-rankings)).</p>
<p>“National” universities and colleges, like WUSTL, draw students from all over the USA and the world. Their mission isn’t job-training for local and regional markets. All else being equal, DC and Manhattan are better locations for internships in some fields (including IR). However, virtually any decent university has study abroad programs these days. WUSTL’s size, location, and quality should be up to the task of providing you good research and internship opportunities.</p>
<p>If you are strongly focused on IR, and if great internship opportunities are important to you, Georgetown would be a better choice. Otherwise, WUSTL has more diverse strengths as all-around research university. Just be sure to have back-up applications to “match” and safety schools.</p>
<p>International students interested in studying IR (and perhaps working in the field) are best served attending Georgetown or Tufts. WUSTL is excellent, but its core strength lies in the life sciences (Biology and pre-med).</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is another excellent urban university with a strong IR program.</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about IR specifically. You need a school that fits you and you need a big picture view of the school. Many students change major once or twice during the first two years of college. Probably this is not relevant, but one of my computer programmers has both undergrad and grad degrees in IR from Georgetown. Even the best IR school can’t place you in your desired field.</p>
<p>PG, I hope you realize that I was joking about Bowdoin’s location. It’s always amusing to see a place one knows described is “the middle of nowhere,” especially when it is in a town several times the size of one’s own.</p>
<p>Brunswick is a very nice small town in an area of significant natural beauty, but it certainly isn’t urban by any stretch of the imagination. BTW, Brunswick is within 20 miles of Portland, the small city that is the region’s cultural and business center, with an IMPei-designed art museum, a professional symphony orchestra, very lively art, music, and foodie scenes, a working waterfront, an airport, and so forth. Portland is small–thank goodness–but it is “bigger” in some respects than its population would suggest. It really is a gem.</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks that St Louis is “the middle of nowhere” is either an idiot or simply misinformed.</p>
<p>St. Louis is a big city in the midwest, but I understand your concern. Even Fresno is bigger than St. Louis (and the only Fresno school I can think of is CSU Fresno, mostly known for its viticulture program, hahaha). WUSTL is a great school academically, but you already know that. Many of WUSTL graduates, including one of my friends, don’t stay in St Louis. With its prestige, I’m confident to say that some companies outside of St. Louis (maybe from Chicago, NYC, etc) will come job seeking at WUSTL. If not, it’s up to you to apply to out of state jobs.</p>