<p>I was reading that underrated/overrated board and everyone (almost) said Wash U?! As a St. Louisan, I'm almost offended lol...I mean, has everyone visited there, and they know its underrated!? Is it not a great school?</p>
<p>It's a good school. I think you meant overrated?!</p>
<p>Perhaps, what posters are refering to is its quick rise from 1994 to now. They used to accept 60%+ of their applicants, guarentee to meet need, and remained somewhat regional. </p>
<p>They changed their policies to move up in the rankings by: increasing tuition (to attract applicants who equate a large price tag with quality), started to use merit aid as a recruitment tool, got rid of the guarentee to meet need, spent a bit of their endowment on upgrading their facilities (once used as a measure of USN), started rejecting those that they believed would go elsewhere (to lower acceptance rate for USN rank), focused on increasing their SAT averages (another measure used by USN), etc...</p>
<p>That is why, if you look at its peer assessment score, Wash U's is a bit lower than peer institutions...</p>
<p>The most important thing is to consider how Wash U fits...not its USN rank. If you like the school, even if it is sometimes viewed as overrated, you should not be offened, other schools have used similar tactics to rise in the rankings. Some of them are: Northeastern, BU, Kenyon, Tufts, Duke, BC, Georgetown, Brown.</p>
<p>The upshot is that USN rankings are not necessarily good indicators of the quality, education, and experience you'll have at a school. You are the best judge of what schools work for you and those that do not.</p>
<p>I don't think Wash U is overrated, and if you ask most people, they won't tell you it is either. </p>
<p>On CC, we have this perception just because of the USNEWS rankings. No, it is not the 10th or 11th best university in the US. It is still a great school at the level of a Georgetown, Tufts, and maybe even Northwestern. Most pepole would agree with that. In fact, Wash U is less known than all those schools, so maybe it could even be considered underrated. Anyways, Wash U is just ranked to high in the USNEWS, that doesn't mean its overrated in the general public's eyes or any other ranking system.</p>
<p>Wash U seems to play with its information to keep it high on the US News list. They don't divulge their merit information at all (to keep luring applicants, keeping their yield low for selectivity).</p>
<p>Ok thanks for the input!</p>
<p>Yeah, I based my reaction on a handful of people from CC lol.</p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>WashU is a overrated because it isn't a strong research institution (aka Cal) but its not strong in undergrad focus either (ala Brown, Pton, Dartmouth). </p>
<p>Most importantly WashI doesn't do very well at the things that matter to undergrads, especially compared to its peers. Notable, WashU is weak at graduate school placement AND recruiting. </p>
<p>WashU is ranked 47 in grad placement, and even assuming an east coast bias this significantly trails its peers. </p>
<p>The bottom line is WashU does terribly at placing its grads into the BEST professional programs, significantly behind its peers regardless of how you rationalize it.</p>
<p>WashU does badly with recruiting. </p>
<p>If you look at the Olin placement list, its not that impressive. Its missing many of the elite firms and the list looks more like one from a school ranked 25-30, but its not close to a top 10 school in this area. </p>
<p>Add this to the fact that anyone over 30 isn't aware of its recent rise in selectivity and you see a school that in my opinion is clearly and absolutely overrated.</p>
<p>You know, slipper1234, that's the first time I've seen anyone post stats to back that claim up. I can actually see where you're coming from.</p>
<p>Makes me think, so thanks for that. Wash U is pretty high on my list, so I like to see rational information about it.</p>
<p>Meesh, its still a great school but in my opinion I would be comparing it against schools like Vanderbilt, Emory, and UVA rather than schools like Brown and Columbia as some have done given its USNEWS ranking.</p>
<p>"I don't think Wash U is overrated, and if you ask most people, they won't tell you it is either."</p>
<p>yeah but I dont think most people will have any idea that it's "ranked" ahead of places like Brown, Cornell (tied I think), and maybe even places like Rice</p>
<p>"I would be comparing it against schools like Vanderbilt, Emory, and UVA rather than schools like Brown and Columbia as some have done given its USNEWS ranking"</p>
<p>agreed.</p>
<p>I don't think Wash U is overrated, if anything it is underrated, due to being considered overrated for so long. I think it is on par with schools like Cornell Rice, Columbia, and Northwestern.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Its missing many of the elite firms and the list looks more like one from a school ranked 25-30
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well...I believe it is considered to be somewhere in the 25-30 range in actuality. So placement comparable to that of top 10 business schools shouldn't be expected. And, as a possible business or economics major, when applying to WashU I made sure to apply to Econ because the business school just didn't seem like the money. Next to the more recognized college of arts and sciences, it just seemed...out of place. They've got some work to do.</p>
<p>Slipper...I remember reading that WSJ article. I was disappointed in WashU's low ranking on it but wondered how accurate the criteria used was. I'm not sure if I'd place WashU down there on the list as more comparable to Emory, UVA, etc. I'd say it's undergraduate college is somewhere inbetween the quality of the previously mentioned schools and those like Northwestern, Cornell, etc.</p>
<p>"I don't think Wash U is overrated, if anything it is underrated, due to being considered overrated for so long."</p>
<p>The schools has only recently been ranked so high, so hence it's only been considered overrated for a relativly short amount of time. </p>
<p>"I think it is on par with schools like Cornell Rice, Columbia, and Northwestern."</p>
<p>Maybe if you think of things like SAT averages and acceptance rate - however this doesn't work when you look at much more important things such as peer assessment, graduate placement, undergraduate placement, and yield. This is where the other schools consistently rank higher, even schools that US News places behind WUSL.</p>
<p>Can someone post the employment stats for econ departments at Brown, Cornell, Columbia etc.? I am too lazy to do so. I thought that the avg starting salaries around $49k from Olin are pretty good.</p>
<p>Building a reputation takes much longer time than getting some higher stats for the USN rankings. But I think eventually WashU will be among the top schools. People forget the fact that the current Chancellor at WashU was a provost at MIT -- who knows what a great research university should be.
St. Louis is not that a super-attractive city. It is already amazing they can build a nationally ranked school there. Hopefully, the university will be getting better in the future.</p>
<p>Getting a university is like buying a stock. It is a long-term investment. You need to look at the growth potentials!</p>
<p>Well, for Graduate schools, the faculty and system at Wash U is very strong, especially medicine fields.</p>
<p>people generally fault WashU based on misconceptions, rumors, misinterpreted data and accuse them of wrong doing for doing the things they should do to improve themselves.</p>
<p>Also, WashU is very undergrad focused</p>
<p>slipper, I do appreciate you giving data to back up your claims. However, I just want people to use it to be aware that the grad school placement article is from 03(WU seems to improve by leaps and bounds every year, so the grad school placement has improved since 03) and if you actually read the article, there is a legit argument against those rankings (they chart the number of students enrolled in the top progams, this is misleading because a number of students are admitted to the top programs, but choose to attend elsewhere for more money, etc).</p>
<p>As far as the recruiting, well WU has been working very hard to improve its presence amongs the elite firms. I can attest to the fact that it is doing so(i.e., several of our seniors this year have been offered positions at Goldman Sachs and other firms). </p>
<p>All in all, whether WU is overranked depends on how much stock and meaning you put into rankings. It being overrated is another story. Its reputation is of a great instution that was a hidden jewel for so long and is no becoming nationally known and improving by leaps and bounds every year. Is this inaccurate? The past few years have seen WU shift to doing a number of innovative research projects and improving the undergrad expeirence (implementation of rescolleges, undergrad research opportunities, etc). Since WU has been improving so quickly, data from 10-15 yrs ago, heck even data from 6 years ago might not necessarily reflect that. The school is on the rise, there is no denying that. No one is saying its a rival to Harvard and other ivies now, but people are saying that it soon will be...and that is a fact</p>
<p>Watch out for engineering! The plans to the new school of engineering will be a surprise for many. It’s not jus a new building and labs, but the whole curriculum “century XXI oriented”.
College seekers don’t realize how important is being around huge companies, and WUSTL has that in its favor for internships (Boeing, Monsanto, Purina, Budweiser, etc)</p>
<p>yeah, watch out for econ too...WUSTL just revamped the department and got some all stars, it will be Top 10 soon, no doubt</p>
<p>Recruiting is like a ship, and old habits die hard. In spite of WashUs rise, WashU isn't on the radar (I know, I recruited for a top 5 consulting firm). The recruiting and placement list is unimpressive, and if you take the time to look at any of the published figures for undergrad placement (I know Harvard Law, Yale Law, Columbia B-school, and Wharton publish lists) WashU isn't in the top 20 schools when size is factored in for grad school placement either. </p>
<p>Its overrated.</p>
<p>Maybe midwestern kids prefer to go to Midwestern schools like Northwestern, Chicago, Michigan etc for law and medical school. Not everyone thinks the east is the best. If you plan to stay in the midwest you are just as well off going to a good midwestern school. The WSJ rankng is totally focused on people going to east coast professional--not even real graduate--schools.</p>