<p>I completely disagree. Is anyone really choosing Michigan MBA over Wharton, or chicago law over Harvard and Yale law? The best grad schools are on the east coast and WashU flat out is well below its peers at placing its grads at the BEST graduate schools. Its SO FAR below that no level of rationalizing can compensate for that.</p>
<p>There are so many other reasons why WashU is overrated. (ex. for a research school a 4.1 peer assessment rating is pretty poor, yet you see how WashU games the system to get highly ranked (is it really more "selective" than Stanford!))</p>
<p>If you look between the lines its not close to a top 10 school.</p>
<p>Yes, they are. How do you know any different? Why should a kid from Michigan pay huge $$$ to go to Wharton when UM is just as good according to many surveys. There is no law job in Chicago you cannot get from NU or Chicago or Michigan Law. Chicago is a much nicer place to live then NYC in so many ways. Same for medical school.</p>
<p>That's a load of crap. Michigan is the only public with highly ranked grad programs in the midwest. Are you saying that the percentage of kids from Michigan at WashU who PREFER michigan MBA over the real top 5 (my hguess less that 20%) is compensating for WashU's DISMAL placement at ANY top graduate school that publishes its lists??? That is a worthless argument. I can pick apart any of those arguments, just not worth the time.</p>
<p>I think I agree with the ones saying it's underrated. The Ivy League is quite overrated, and as far as undergraduate is concerned it is a fairly strong school.</p>
<p>And I agree that the WSJ rankings sound like TOTAL crap...they are ENTIRELY basing this stuff on who wants to go to specific schools? That will obviously favor any schools located in the Northeast, since the people who choose to go to Undergrad in the Northeast will likely (though not for sure) choose to go to Grad in the Northeast.</p>
<p>WashU is a true midwestern school...but another thing that one should consider is this: WashU has a program where they garuantee admission to Grad school for many of the students who apply there Undergrad. So, many of the students interested in Medicine and Business end up staying at WashU for Medicine and Business. Since WSJ doesn't consider WashU a top Grad school, it makes the rankings meaningless.</p>
<p>Ultimately, WashU is a great and underrated school. People need to get off it's back.</p>
<p>Even so, the link you gave was from 2003...I'd be interested to know where WashU stands now. If I recall correctly, more are now getting accepted to Harvard grad schools.</p>
<p>I truly don’t understand why some people are so angry with WUSTL, everybody who goes there loves that place and every year more and more seniors are applying to the school. The big problem that WUSTL had this year that they expected less enrollment than they had, if it were an overrated school, nobody would spend that huge amount of money to send their kids there considering that most kids have their home more than 500 miles away. The school has a nice size, a gorgeous campus (except for the construction sites) and good academics with opportunities to do research.</p>
<p>WashU does a tremendous job of marketing themselves and they have gamed the USNEWS rank to drive applications. But they have not gotten recruiters on board, and they haven't had close to the success of the other top 12-13 schools in terms of graduate placement. Its a great school, but its not as strong (yet!) as some people are led to believe. Perhaps recruitment and placement will catch up with its peers, but my guess is that it will take a few years. High selectivity is only one piece of a top ten school.</p>
<p>For one thing grad school includes far more than the professional schools. There are far more grad students in Masters and Phd programs than in professional schools and there are many top ranked GRADUATE school programs at many midwestern publics. Wisconsin has a number of Top 10 GRADUATE programs. So do Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota. Northwestern and Chicago are top business schools along with Michigan. Pick that.</p>
<p>We're comparing professional school placement not regular grad placement and WashU is below its peers in that regard. The fact that Midwestern schools do well in non professional areas has nothing to do with its lack of success in the professional realm. Your argument is flawed. </p>
<p>We have no data on non-professional school placement, but we do know that Wash U's peer assessment is a 4.1, which is lower than all the other schools in the range. Since WashU DOES have grad schools (unlike a place like Brown or Dartmouth with limited grad schools) that makes a 4.1 even worse. It means. "yeah we're playing in the grad game and we're not doing as well as our competitors."</p>
<p>Once again Wash U is a great school, but its overrated by many.</p>
<p>Slipper, I think the argument presented to you is that the WSJ rankings and your perception of what makes a school "great" is flawed because it assumes that going to a professional school on the east coast is worth more than going to a grad school in the midwest. Peer assement scores can also have the same bias. </p>
<p>I think the point is that WUSTL students may not enroll in the "best" professional schools(although they are admitted but may choose not to go); however, this says nothing about how they place students in other grad areas.</p>
<p>You are comparing professional school placement because of one east coast biased study in a business newspaper with no academic credentials that favors your bias. I call that BS.</p>
<p>
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WashU has a program where they garuantee admission to Grad school for many of the students who apply there Undergrad. So, many of the students interested in Medicine and Business end up staying at WashU for Medicine and Business.
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<p>Really? I would like to know more about this, especially the guaranteed admission to WU Med School. Can you post a link?</p>
<p>A great majority of the top 5 schools are on the east coast, call it "bias," I call it the truth. Every top professional school that publishes an undergrad school list (including schools not on that survey) has WashU well outside the top 10, usually around 20 or worse. If you find a counter example please show it otherwise I rest my case as every single relevant stat shows WashU not in the top fifteen.</p>
<p>There's a combined med "program" at WashU and it started not long ago. It doesn't really have "many" students like kevin63138 put it. In fact, I haven't seen anyone on CC admitted to that program. It also requires one to score at least 36 on MCAT and to maintain a GPA of 3.8+ or he/she will lose the spot. Students in other combined programs usually don't have to worry too much about the GPA/MCAT (the requirements are much more reasonable) and can truly enjoy their ug education. To have that pressure off is one of the very main reasons most try to get into those programs. But whoever in WashU's program is hardly "gauranteed" admission to the med school and has all the incentive in the world to find the easiest major to get that 3.8. I can't help thinking if such oddity is just another manifestation of a game to attract the best students.</p>
<p>With a student body that this year produced 2 Rhodes Scholars (WashU was one of only 4 schools in the nation to win more than one Rhodes this year and has produced 8 in the past 8 years) and also a Marshall Scholarship winner, the educational opportunities offered for exceptional students cannot be denied. Edit: exceptional. WashU offers opportunities for ANY of the students who choose to attend. Being a student at WashU opened the door for D to a summer internship at a genetics research institute after her freshman year. That the director of the institute was familiar with WashU allowed D to progress past the resume' stage to an interview and on to the internship offer. People who claim WashU is overrated haven't experienced the benefits of the education they provide. (With the exception of Sam Lee who attended WashU for a while many 10+? years ago.) Even WashU can't be all things to all people. A school is either right for you or it's not, but a blanket statement by people with no personal experience is like free advice..it's often worth what you've paid for it.</p>
<p>Oh, you're talking about THAT program. Well, that's not exactly much of a guarantee. See below.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There's a combined med "program" at WashU and it started not long ago. It doesn't really have "many" students like kevin63138 put it. In fact, I haven't seen anyone on CC admitted to that program. It also requires one to score at least 36 on MCAT and to maintain a GPA of 3.8+
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Exactly right - and the fact is, if you can get at least a 36 on the MCAT and a 3.8+ GPA, you stand a pretty good chance of getting into a top medical school anyway. After all, those are cracker-jack stats. </p>
<p>Couple that with the fact that it isn't even really a 'guarantee'. You still have to do well on the interview. And that's their excuse to ding you, because interviews are inherently subjective, so if they don't want to admit you, they can just say that you didn't do well on your interview and there isn't any way to challenge that assessment. </p>
<p>So the upshot is that this 'guarantee' really doesn't add much additional value over what you would have probably gotten with those kinds of statistics anyway.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong. She's an amazing person. But I think it should be clear that she has nothing to do with the WU undergrad program. Nobody disputes that the WU Medical School is a great medical school with amazing students. It should just be made clear that the WU Med School is separate from the WU undergrad program.</p>
<p>Fine Sakky. WashU produced ONLY one Rhodes Scholar and a Marshall scholar this year (to name only two of the awards won by WashU UGs) from the UG program. Exceptional results from an exceptional student body from an exceptional school. Thank you for verifying that WashU has programs that attract amazing students AFTER they have completed their UG degrees elsewhere.</p>