<p>@gunit5</p>
<p>If WashU cared about “demonstrated interest,” they would have a supplemental “Why WashU” essay. Since they don’t have that, there is no way for adcoms to determine a student’s commitment to WashU.</p>
<p>People begin suspecting Tufts Syndrome when less-selective schools routinely waitlist Ivy/Stanford/MIT admits, as WUStL does. So far I haven’t heard a reasonable explanation of this problem.</p>
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<p>Yes. When my child was choosing among schools in April, that was what pushed WashU to the top of the list–the students we talked to were so happy to be at WashU. And as a current student, my child has found that the school has lived up to that reputation.</p>
<p>Considering WashU’s rank actually dropped 1 place this year, how can someone say WashU play the ranking?</p>
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<p>Most other top schools play the rankings, so it’s possible for a school to decrease its acceptance rate and still decrease in rank.</p>
<p>I completely agree with the comments that Karen and a few others have made, regarding how the data does not prove, or even demonstrate, that Wash U uses the wait list to game rankings or lower an acceptance rate. </p>
<p>Nearly all my high school friends that applied to Wash U were at the top of our class. Unquestionably, the majority of Wash U’s applicant pool is similar in that regard. I went to a private school that sends a lot of students to elite colleges every year (a couple end up at Wash U each year; somewhere over 10 applied my year); usually the higher GPAs got in over the lower ones, but not always, and it’s not like kids with straight B’s were applying anyway. You can’t explain decisions by valedictorian or non valedictorian or a certain test score… as long as your GPA and test scores are in the competitive range, it comes down to a million other factors. “tufts syndrome” being one of those factors just doesn’t make sense – not for Wash U, and I also don’t think it makes sense for Tufts either, honestly. I think Wash U does a really good job at figuring out if a student is a good fit for the campus, and I’d bet that Wash U’s applicant pool is probably more self-selecting than a fair amount of other top colleges. At least in my school, while most people that applied to Wash U also applied to a couple ivies and similar schools, there were quite a number of people that ONLY applied to all 8 ivies and a couple more schools on the east coast, completely disregarding the midwest and the west coast. Most (not all, but most) of the people I know back in high school, and other high schools at the time, who applied to Wash U were more adventurous and less name-driven in college applications – and that is definitely true for those that were actually accepted and wound up attending Wash U. Again, I think Wash U does a good job at figuring out fit when reading an application and by virtue of where it’s located and the laid-back/nice reputation inherently attracts a slightly different mix of people than other colleges might. </p>
<p>Also, I actually did not visit Wash U before I applied, but I was accepted and given a free trip to campus for accepted students moth. I also know more than a few people at Wash U who also didn’t visit campus before being accepted. Most students I know did visit before applying, but I’m sure you’ll find the same thing at any other top college. </p>
<p>I know these are just personal anecdotes, but I’m just trying to get across the point that it doesn’t seem from a theoretical standpoint nor from practical experience does an immense wait list have anything to do with the poorly named tufts syndrome or interest or somehow being “too” qualified (honestly the silliest thing I’ve ever heard on here). </p>
<p>Finally, to the original poster, this topic has been beaten like a dead horse if you just use the Search feature on college confidential.</p>
<p>Somnambulant- there’s an old saying that actions speak louder than words. Those “why” essays are stupid, anyone with Internet access can craft a why essay that is meaningless. That WUSTL places importance on visits and interviews is a good thing and much more indicative of interest.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Exactly. Give a decently intelligent person a school and an internet connection, and they’ll give you a good “Why School X?” essay. Anyone can go to any school’s admission site, look up things that the school likes about itself, and regurgitate that information in essay form.</p>
<p>Also, I truly believe that WashU looks for certain attributes in the students that it admits. Everyone here is a hard worker and intelligent, but it is rare to run across someone who is cutthroat and doesn’t like to help other students. </p>
<p>Even in pre-med classes that are stereotypical havens for students sabotaging each other, it doesn’t happen. After each chem lab, students congregate in the hallways and work together on the lab reports. Heck, even in bio, a class graded entirely on a curve, students still study together and happily answer stranger’s questions when crunch time hits. </p>
<p>Admissions is about way more than just numbers.</p>
<p>“Those “why” essays are stupid, anyone with Internet access can craft a why essay that is meaningless.”</p>
<p>“Anyone can go to any school’s admission site, look up things that the school likes about itself, and regurgitate that information in essay form.”</p>
<p>And such applicants would therefore be rejected. The adcoms can see through that garbage even better than we can!</p>
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<p>Interviews are only offered on-campus. Therefore, if the adcoms give preference to students who visit or interview, they are favoring two types of students:</p>
<p>a) those who live in/near St. Louis.
b) those whose parents can afford to fly them to Missouri for ONE college visit.</p>
<p>It doesn’t reveal anything about the commitment of the student; anyone with money to spare can visit. At least an essay requires knowledge of the school and writing skills.</p>
<p>Also, as vossron said, adcoms have read through enough essays to sort out the genuine ones from the fakes.</p>
<p>^^Not to be rude, but just about everything about your post is wrong. </p>
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<li>Alumni interviews are offered in several major cities around the country. My parents volunteered at one of the West Coast sessions. Therefore…</li>
<li>(In reference to a) Preference is obviously not given to local students as evidenced by 90% of students being out-of-state.</li>
<li>(In reference to b) WashU’s admissions department offers travel grants. Before I applied, I sent an e-mail asking them to fly me out and during my senior year, they paid for me to visit campus.</li>
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<p>I believe that WashU does hold demonstrated interest as an important factor in admissions. There are many ways for a student (from any socioeconomic background) to do that if they are truly motivated to attend.</p>
<p>This topic arises every year; it comes into CC with the tulips. It will soon be followed by the “How could Wash U waitlist me?” thread. As the grass turns greener the new posts appear: “I was waitlisted by Wash U, and I got into Princeton!” This thread (it’s usually Wash U and Stanford or Wash U and Princeton) generally involves an athlete who was rejected or waitlisted at Wash U and accepted by the other school. </p>
<p>Each of these threads is misleading—Wash U looks for more than statistics. We all know that. People get into one school and denied from another for lots of reasons. One school might value athletic ability more than another school. That’s okay. Schools get to do that. Brown rejects students with stellar scores who are valedictorians all the time. We understand that Brown looks for quirky kids. Can we also understand, or at least try to understand, that Wash U gets to do something similar?</p>
<p>WCASparent’s post (#10), on the other hand, is something I can’t figure out. I have no idea what he/she means by “upper academia” (I don’t know what the poster thinks upper academia is), but I’m probably in upper academia. I’ve never heard any nonsense about gaming the system, except on CC. The only things my friends in academia tell me when I say that I’m visiting colleagues or friends at Wash U is, “Wow. That’s a great school.”</p>
<p>This talk about interviews and visits, has some logic to it, but I’m sure that Wash U accepts many students who didn’t interview or visit, because they do understand that most students in senior year have a large time commitment to activities and school so they simply do not have the time to “demonstrate interest” (if that’s what you would like to call it…). We are all passionate about Wash U on some level, and it would be extremely unfair if the admissions decision would be dependent on attending an interview on the day when the student was out of town (damn…)</p>
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<p>I wasn’t just throwing that out there as a theory. I used that strategy last year, and for me it worked. Did I actually want to go to the school? Of course I did, but I didn’t have enough reasons other than “good academics, I like the location etc.” Those are boring on an essay so I just looked through some application materials I had from a visit, and I concocted my essay. Did the trick for me.</p>
<p>^ I suppose that someone could be otherwise so highly qualified that such an essay could be excused! :)</p>
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This topic is a perennial favorite for WCASParent (WCAS=Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University). Hey WCAS, has your daughter graduated from Northwestern yet?</p>
<p>Ah, that clears that up. Thank you Gatsby11. I always enjoy your posts.</p>
<p>^Likewise.</p>
<p>I personally got waitlisted, but i rly dont agree with the fact that WashU rejects kids just because they are overqualified. EVERY TOP UNIVERSITY rejects kids who are equally qualified to those who are accepted. A school cant get them all in.</p>
<p>My D got accepted at MIT, Yale, Stanford, Duke and multiple BS/MD programs. The only two schools she applied that waitlisted her are Harvard and WashU. She did show a lot of interest in WashU in her application 'cause at that time she did not know that she would be accepted by so many top colleges, but the fact is she has perfect GPA, SAT and SAT subject scores, top national science awards, siemens, as well as national and international awards in music, etc. We know of at least 5 other top students in our area that got accepted at multiple HYPSM level schools and other top schools such as Duke and Dartmouth but have been waitlisted by WUSTL - so it does seem strange, but then again, the WUSTL admission guys are pretty smart, 90% of these students probably would not have chosen WUSTL as their final destination.</p>
<p>This line of thought needs to go away, it’s frankly insulting to people who go to the school. Plenty of valedictorians do go here, but I’ve found that when you’re at the upper levels in terms of GPA and tests, its hard to predict success between the 3.85 and the 4.0. Plenty of top 10% students do great, and a fair share of valedictorians don’t continue the trend. What I have found is that, for the most part, people here are smart, but not completely stuck up about it, and that works for me. Clearly, admissions is doing something right.</p>
<p>Also, don’t revive a two month old thread covering a pointlessly contentious topic.</p>