Great call. Wash U is a far better academic experience to USC. HERE’s your daughter a great 4 years!
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Washington U is known among those in academia, those interested in academia, recruiters – people who would care about educational quality and the strength of a school’s outputs.
I think Washington U presents across-the-board undergraduate academic quality in a beautiful atmosphere with great food and housing. Aside from the lack of major sports, what’s not to love? Lack of beaches maybe? Snow? It does very well at the things it can control.
In my mind it is grouped with Vandy, Emory, Rice, Georgetown, Notre Dame very closely. I would include CMU in that group academically, but we hear all the time of how brutal the school is. Like those schools, it doesn’t have the international name recognition of HYPSM, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, JHU, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell… but I wouldn’t bat an eye if a kid chose it over one of those.
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A similar statement could be made for nearly any not-giant private college in central states that does not have a well televised football or basketball team. There are certain subgroups of the general population that are especially familiar with all of these colleges, as well as WUSTL. And WUSTL does get plenty of name recognition among certain subgroups. If you mean, why isn’t WUSTL heralded to the same extent as other schools with similar USNWR rankings, like Brown or UCLA, location and sports are key factors, but there are many other additional factors.
One is WUSTL’s history of need aware admissions. At the time of the Chetty study (published in 2017), only 16% of WUSTL students were not among the top quintile income, which was the lowest among the ~2500 colleges that were reviewed by a good margin. Chetty ranked WUSTL as the worst college in the United States in terms of SES distribution, with more students from top 1% income (22%) than bottom 80% income (16%) . This history has limited WUSTL’s popularity among students who are not high income. I realize WUSTL is much better today and gets a significant number of lower income kids, but this history still influences reputation and popularity among large subgroups of students. For example, in the recent thread at Help the world's pickiest girl correct her misconceptions and build a college list! , a student lists various stereotypes about different colleges and why she shouldn’t apply to them. For WUSTL, her reason was “autorejected for not being rich.”
Another is WUSTL’s lack of appearances in general media among students who are not directly searching for colleges. For example, I can’t recall any fictional character in media ever attending WUSTL or even mentioning WUSTL. I’m sure it has appeared it some media that I am not familiar with, but WUSTL is mentioned far less often than HYPSMC… type private colleges. This reduces the number of kids who are introduced to the college at a younger age, as well as parents of kids.
That said, WUSTL is an excellent college, with numerous great characteristics. I am not surprised by the OP’s decision, and expect she will be happy with the college choice.
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Of course colleges like WashU and peers on that level (like Vandy and Emory) aren’t referenced in Pop Culture Land, because only roughly 10 colleges exist in Pop Culture Land.
I’d put it at closer to 100 colleges, although Ivy Plus colleges and flagships tend to get mentioned far more than most others. I can name a few shows that mention Vanderbilt including one with the word “Vanderbilt” in the title. I also see Emory mentioned from time to time, including being pictured/discussed in a movie I watched last weekend (Into the Wild). Emory has also appeared in Marvel superhero movies, among others. However, my only reference for WUSTL is being a key inspiration for Animal House, although WUSTL isn’t directly mentioned at any point in the film, so few viewers would be aware of that connection.
Whoa. WashU was name dropped twice in The Office S7 Ep 9! 
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Funny! I always thought Dartmouth was the inspiration for that movie lol!
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Here are the schools in Wash U’s athletic conference, the UAA:
Brandeis
NYU
Rochester
Carnegie-Mellon
Case Western Reserve
Chicago
Wash U/St. Louis
Emory
Is there a common theme here?
I noticed their sports conference and the members as well. What do you make of it?
That’s how most people remember it, and how it is usually stated in books and new stories. However, Ramis’ experiences at WUSTL were also a key contribution to the screenplay. For example, the scene in which they hit golf balls at ROTC troops is based on Ramis’ experiences at WUSTL .
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lol I can’t believe my post is getting quoted now 
I do think that a valuable part of the college experience is meeting people from different backgrounds – including economic backgrounds. My post was a little dramatic, but WashU has always been really unappealing to me for that reason alone.
“I noticed their sports conference and the members as well. What do you make of it?”
This is a Division III (non-scholarship) league, so all have eschewed big time sports despite the fact that some members like Chicago and NYU were at one time big time sports schools. As a result they don’t gain the recognition that comes with big time exposure.
All are research universities of varying sizes who put an emphasis on academics. They are each other’s peer institutions.
I guess you’ll have to rule out pretty much every single elite private and stick to certain state schools, then, (probably directionals) because none of the top privates bring in the lowest 60 percent or lowest 80 percent SES at numbers anywhere proportional to their representation in the US.
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To add to what was said, the UAA is comprised exclusively of private AAU member schools. Private AAU schools:
8 Ivies
8 UAAs
5 Power 5 D1s: USC, Stanford, Duke, Vandy, Northwestern
Others: CalTech, Rice, Tulane, JHU, MIT, and BU
The UAA is probably the second strongest D3 conference in the country across all sports behind the NESCAC. Hopkins was originally a member (outside of D1 lacrosse) but they dropped out to reduce travel. UAA athletes tend to come from either the Ivy athlete recruiting pool or a notch lower academically/athletically.
Even at the Ivy level in D1, there is a much greater time commitment, which can be a turn off for some potential recruits. Overall UAA schools probably perform at a bit below the D2 school average despite the lack of scholarships. Facilities tend to be nicer though (outside of maybe football) because $$$.
But athletics is not a huge cultural factor at UAA schools. Not even compared to Ivies or the NESCAC.
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Tufts is also AAU. Syracuse is worth mentioning because it was a member but withdrew about 10 years ago
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Good catch on Tufts. I didn’t realize they were admitted this year. The next 10-15 years will be interesting with respect to NCAA reform. At this point, an FBS breakaway seems inevitable. And with that, the Tulanes and Rices of the world may opt out of D1 altogether. I can easily see a future 10-15 years from now where the Ivies, UAAs, and 6 of the 7 other non Power 5 private UAAs (excluding CalTech due to geography) form their own little non-scholarship division. Maybe even a Vandy or NU as well if the FBS breakaway is limited to 48 or so teams. I would have thought that was crazy a couple years ago.
Yes, it’s all gotten very crazy. I know how it evolved this way, but it really makes no sense for an institution of higher learning to be involved in the minor league sports business, much less giving scholarships based on athletic ability. Or paying football & basketball coaches more than the university president or top professors. Or firing the president because he didn’t hire the right coach or fire the wrong coach and the team lost to rival State U as a result.
What’s even worse is for universities to be sponsoring football in the 21st century when any member of their neuroscience faculty will tell them that it causes irreversible brain damage and shortens life expectancy. Sponsoring such a sport directly contradicts the school’s mission, which is to enhance and even maximize brain development, not to destroy it. But alumni don’t want to hear that and fund raising might suffer. So . . . 
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In other countries, soccer clubs that started as part of a uni but then professionalized were spun out to be their own standalone entity. The NCAA (that is to say, the colleges) probably have little interest in that, though, as they want to keep on not paying the labor.
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I have not read any posts in this thread, but I do have a question about WashUStL & St. Louis crime rate.
Just finished reviewing published FBI crime statistics for 2020 regarding another matter. East St.Louis & St. Louis were #1 and #3 respectively for murder rate in the US. St. Louis was among the top 3 for violent crime.
My thought: Maybe WashUStL is less well known due to concerns about the violent crime rate in St. Louis.
Although I have driven through St. Louis many times, I have never stayed in the area. I did visit the WashUStL campus and it was beautiful & appeared to be in a safe area. Do WashUStL students express concern regarding violent crime in the city ? Or is WashUStL far enough removed from dangerous areas that crime is not of much concern ? Thank you in advance for any responses.
P.S. I ask because–in the context of this thread–it seems like St.Louis, Memphis, & Detroit have been the top cities for violent crime for about 2 decades now,maybe longer. This type of long-term reputation for a city may have an effect upon prospective students & their families.
Another concern might be the weather–cold & damp winters and hot, humid summers.
FWIW I think that WashUStL is an outstanding school from an academic viewpoint.
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Wash U is ranked #7 on the Princeton Review student survey of Quality of Life for which safety was one of the criteria. I would have to assume that the crime issues in St. Louis and East St. Louis don’t intrude on student life in the immediate campus neighborhood.p or they wouldn’t have ranked so high.
I really don’t think that Wash U is a secret any more than Tufts, or Carnegie-Mellon, or Case Western are secrets. Sure, there are people who haven’t heard of them, but that can be said for a lot of colleges that don’t play big time college sports. The best free advertising a college can get other than sports is the US News survey and Wash U has consistently ranked in the top 20 or so of that survey throughout its history. Plenty of people have heard of them.
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