What's Washington U about?

<p>So I hadn't really heard of this school until, when on a UChicago visit, the Admissions Counselor mentioned WashU as a primary competitor in sports/academics/for prospective students. Is this true? Is WashU similar to UChicago? What's the character of WashU? How is it academically? Why have I never heard of it?</p>

<p>You should visit Wash U and find out for yourself why the students who go there—love it soooo!!!</p>

<p>Wash U gives you great academics and a great social life as well. Wash U has the best campus in the nation from what I've visited, and the student life and activities are amazing.</p>

<p>Wash U is the best kept secret in the midwest "no more"
Again, go visit Wash U, and decide for yourself. U of Chicago has an excellent reputation academically speaking, but I'm not sure about the social aspect (?) I am happy w/Wash U because S is getting a great education—plus he loves his social life there.</p>

<p>I had never heard of this school until I got a letter from the Director of Admissions. She talked about the school and how I should apply. I got a little curious, so I looked it up in the US News rankings, and I see its 11th. 11th! (I was seriously considering looking for the ranking from the bottom up) </p>

<p>I know that US News rankings aren't very accurate, so I'm wondering how good the school really is. How does it compare to other schools, particularly in fields like Science, Engineering and Computer Science?</p>

<p>WashU lives off of its Medical School which #3 nationally. In all other areas WashU really sucks.</p>

<p>college2go:</p>

<p>Did you go to Wash U? Curious, where your Wash U opinion comes from? Why does Wash U suck in all areas except medicine? I'm interested in whatever insights you are willing to share. Thanks!</p>

<p>wash u is ranked in the top 20 in EVERY school besides engineering where it is 41st - tied with yale. so if wash u sucks, i'd like to see you get in like we did</p>

<p>how does washington med compare with harvard or jh med?</p>

<p>college2go,</p>

<p>I find it hard to understand your comments about WashU. The stats for admited students compare favorably with most of the top schools in the country. I seriously doubt these kinds of applicants would consider attending a school that "sucks" in your opinion.</p>

<p>School SAT 25%-75% Top 10%
Harvard 1400 - 1580 96%
Princeton 1370 - 1560 94%
Yale 1400 - 1560 95%
Penn 1330 - 1500 94%
Duke 1330 - 1530 87%
Stanford 1370 - 1550 87%
Cal Tech 1450 - 1570 93%
MIT 1410 - 1560 97%
Columbia 1330 - 1540 86%
Dartmouth 1360 - 1550 88%
WashU 1350 - 1520 93%</p>

<p>USNews rankings are horrible though. How could they put duke and penn above caltech and mit?</p>

<p>People. I have an Uncle teaching at WashU and he tells me never to go there simply because of their focus on statistics and rankings. They tend to change things like class sizes by increasing the amout of classes taught by assistants and stuff which isn't unheard of but unfortunately WashU has a particularly bad reputation to it. They also love advertising- They advertise, promote themselves and stuff quite excessively just to ensure they get more applicants and hence a higher selectivity rank. I've also heard its a school where if you have a good SAT scores, top 10% of your etc etc you'd have a really good chance even if your ec's sucked. And GoBot- seriously- never look purely at statistics. If you purely looking at statistics then you deserve to go to WashU.</p>

<p>Oh- is your using USNews, just reorder the rankings based on Peer Assesment. Although its not perfect but its definately one of the best ways to rank a uni.</p>

<p>Well, this is just my opinion anyways
I'm sure there's great things about UWash that I don't know abt (like parties. but then would you go to a school just because it has good parties?)</p>

<p>you can be sure that every other university in the top 10 does the same!</p>

<p>The peer assesment thing works great. </p>

<p>Ya, I have noticed some of that WashU advertising. And I was very surprised to see that a school that does so much advertising is ranked 11th. </p>

<p>Thanks for the info, kjoodles</p>

<p>Most colleges at the top are working it so that they look good in US News Best College rankings! Have you ever heard what undergrad students say about Harvard—not all good news coming from that college—and supposedly Harvard is number 1.....</p>

<p>GoBot:</p>

<p>People do consider going to overrated schools. USNEWS overrate WASHU. Do you really believe that WASHU (#11) can compare to Chicago (#14), Cornell (#13) or Northwestern (#12)? </p>

<p>baseballstud: You coud hardly compare to my stats. WashU is my safety school.</p>

<p>college2go—Don't be so smug, you may not get into any of your top colleges—safetys too....do you realize how many kids can compare to you—academically speaking? Good Luck—arrogance is a sign of stupidity!</p>

<p>It was just announced that the class of 2009 at WashU has the 2nd best test scores (behind MIT) in the nation. You're right... we're all retarded. There were over 21000 applicants and 1493 enrolled freshman. You do the math.</p>

<p>Don't get offensive missmolly.
One non-orthodox way to measure how successful one school is the number of students admitted to the Harvard Law School. Harvard 237, Yale 107, Princeton 72, Cornell 44, Chicago 16, WashU 2.
I hope you are not thinking to apply there.</p>

<p>That non-orthodox way of measuring success is not that useful since it begs two questions: How many students at Wash U want to be lawyers; How many students there applied to Harvard. Not everyone who goes to college wants to be a lawyer or views a Harvard Law acceptance as the epitome of success.</p>