Maybe I should have written that WashUStL was not a first choice school for many applicants rather than using the label “back-up school”.
Agree with not labeling as a back up school. Any school that received 33,634 applications and accepted 4,374 (rejected 29,260) to yield approximately 2,000 this year (they targeted 1,795 but yielded more than they expected) really can’t be labeled back up. Maybe a back up or not the first choice of those with extremely high stats but not for the vast majority of high school students.
I think the level of stress might depend on the major or school. We know three families who have multiple kids at WashU so if the first one had not been happy then I am sure the siblings would not have followed.
Perhaps part of the recognition problem is the varying shorthand forms, like “WUStL” versus “WashU” etc… For comparison, there is only one common shorthand for the school referred to as “UCLA”.
For what it is worth, the school has used the wustl.edu domain name since 1987. .edu Whois Look up (put wustl.edu into the search box).
Note that WUSTL offers both ED and ED 2. I expect it is not the first choice of most students applying ED 2. I expect a more common scenario is being rejected from a first choice ED 1/REA/SCEA school, then applying to a different college in the ED 2 round.
Yield has a lot to do with how large a portion of students are admitted from the ED round. For example suppose 3% of applicants to a theoretical college apply ED, and 97% apply RD. The college admits 100% of the ED kids and 0% of the RD kids, resulting in a near 100% yield. Does that near 100% yield mean the college is a first choice of all applicants?
This relates to why I listed yield for RD applicants earlier. Both WUSTL’s yield for RD applicants and % of applicants who apply ED are notably lower than the overwhelming majority of colleges that I’d expect WUSTL to consider peers.
Yield is also closely related to selectivity since kids who favor the less selective college rarely apply to the more selective college as a backup in case the less selective college rejects them. For example, suppose a kid preferred U Missouri to WUSTL. He probably wouldn’t apply to WUSTL as a backup in case U Missouri rejects him. That wouldn’t make sense. So the kid who favors U Missouri over WUSTL does not impact WUSTL’s yield stats.
Yield also relates to other factors besides ED/REA/SCEA policies and selectivity. An important one is for lack of a better word uniqueness – whether the applying student thinks there is a good substitute for that college elsewhere. For example, BYU usually has a high >80% yield – roughly the same as yield as Harvard or Stanford, even though BYU does not have binding ED or restrictive early action. BYU doesn’t need such policies to have a high yield because there is no other college that is a good substitute for many Utah residents who want to attend a nearby college sponsored by the Mormon church. I expect many BYU applicants would choose BYU over HYPSM if they were accepted to both, but they don’t apply to the more selective HYPSM as a backup in case BYU rejects them, so they don’t hurt HYPSM cross admit stats.
Frankly it feels like you’re manipulating the data and then comparing apples and oranges because you’re comparing Wash U RD data with Ivy overall data. That’s not a legitimate comparison. ED applicants are by definition naming the ED school as their first choice. So, why would you eliminate them just for Wash U and then not compare then to the same RD data for other schools? It just fudges the results.
You make a great point about BYU and schools like it. Notre Dame might hold a similar status among Catholics. The applicant pool is self selective.
It’s hard to straight up compare yields with colleges having different early plans especially ED to EA or SCEA. Especially now in recent times where ED doesn’t suggest first choice as it used to, but the more strategic reason, i.e. I really have three top choices and if two have EA or SCEA the ED option seems the best to get into one of them and I’ll be fine with any of the three. You could compare colleges that have the same early program but RD yield, or what someone called open market yield is the best way to compare.
Wouldn’t stressfulness have a lot to do with whether the person in question is a pre-med, or in some other highly competitive path (e.g. competing to enter a limited-access major)?
Yes, and since WUSTL has reputation for a strong pre-professional bent, that means a lot of of pre-med and pre-law kids aiming for highest gpa possible. People argue about whether it is as pre-professional as it’s reputation suggests, and I have no knowledge of that, but it would make sense that kids would be stressed if there were a high percentage of pre-med and law-school bound students.
This is what I’ve heard about WashU, as well. But, it doesn’t sound as pre-professional as Penn. I still remember that one thread by the girl at Penn who just couldn’t find her people. She resorted to hanging out with kids who did drugs in an off campus apartment. I haven’t heard anything like that about students at WashU. They seem pretty balanced on the whole.
I have to think it does depend on the major or career path. The students we know all say they work hard and it is very challenging, but all have found time for a sport (varsity, club or intramural) and other activities. I have no personal experience with WashU - just started following this thread when I saw “why is it such a secret” (not in our area) and referred to as not a first choice or a back up school (not my impression of WashU). FWIW the Princeton Review lists WashU as #14 on the list of “Their Students Love These Colleges” and #11 for “Best Quality of Life”.
No Greek life? There are 26 frats and sororities at Wash U. When surveyed by Princeton Review, Wash U students were #2 in the country in rating the popularity of fraternities and sororities on their campus.
oops! Sorry about that. I stand corrected. Not sure how I got that wrong. Even our D21’s friends who are headed there seem to think the social life will be lame so I just assumed there’s no Greek life. I’d love to hear someone chime in on what Greek life is like there!
Any idea what majors/schools those young alums were in? My guess would be pre-med or engineering – that level of stress doesn’t sound like a common experience for most humanities/social science majors, or for the business or art schools. I think pre-med and STEM are pretty tough anywhere, but I had plenty of friends in those programs at WashU who enjoyed themselves and still had time for fun campus activities, study abroad, etc.
One was gunning for law school. The two with connections to the university both majored in something like environmental science and are now in grad school. They all thought it was stressful and overall vibe of the school included a lot of wealthy kids. Not a lot of diversity either. None of them were Greek as far as I know. When talking to them, it never came up.
Thanks. CDS says that their latest numbers are for 2020-21. I assume that means for the admission cycle just completed, the high school graduating class of 2021?