<p>Some differances between Wash U and its peers-
-Wash U is NOT need blind, while ever other top school is, meaning Wash U is more likely to reject you if you are poor.
-Wash U accept a lower percentage of students for financial aid than peer schools who apply
-Wash U has a lower matriculation
Why is Wash U so cheap when it come to financial aid? why does the school treat the less financially fortunate so badly? I do not think the school lacks money because:
-They can afford to maintain a beautiful campus
-they spend allot on academics
-they spend ALLOT on marketing
-they pay for accepted minorities to fly to their school, even if they can afford to on their own. My friend was offered a free flight to St. Louis becuase his parents are from another country, even though they make 4 times as much as my parents!
Why?</p>
<p>First of all, allot is a verb, if you meant to say "a lot", than maybe you shouldn't concern yourslef about getting into a school like WashU. LOL just joking....
I dont pretend to be any expert on the school but I think I can comment on a few of the questions...anyways I think any experiences you or someone else you know may have had with Washu should not constitute as a general depiction of the school. For instance, you say that they are cheap with financial aid, however in my experiences as well as with other people I know, they're not really that cheap at all.
With the matriculation issue, I believe there was a thread on here before about how the school underestimated this year's yield rate and they actually are having trouble finding room to house the new freshmen due to the large amount of students matriculating into the school next year. So while that may have been an issue before, it looks like that's already changing.
With flying students out...I don't know how they select people. I can say that they flew me out and I'm black, however when I visited they also flew out a number of other white applicants, including one of my best friends.</p>
<p>Yeah as with the above poster my experience with WashU financial aid has also been very good. I'm neither poor nor rich but washU gave me about 9-10K/yr in grants more than other comparable schools such as Cornell.</p>
<p>what I have heard is based on:
-What friend who got in there told me
-what my college counsler told me
-statistics i found from a well-known source online
60% of applicants for aid get 100% of need met, but 40% do not, which is much higher than peer schools (Northwestern had 87%, Vandy 93%.) </p>
<p>Also: I am aware this year's matriculation was great, but in most other years, it has been much lower. Maybe they have been more generous this year? or maybe their marketing and free fly-outs worked?</p>
<p>More likely increased prestige...more students are coming to know about WashU's apparent strengths, and therefore more are matriculating</p>
<p>Do you think that HYP are need blind? Think again!</p>
<p>HYP? obviously... if they aren't need-blind, i don't know who is</p>
<p>dont they say they are??? I know all the schools i have visited said they are (including chicago, northwestern). maybe I am just naive in thinking that lower-income students who often work HARDER for the same grades and score should have an equal chance at college admission.</p>
<p>some places may say they are need blind even if they aren't; after all, who wants to look economically elitist these days?
i could definitely not have afforded washu without the fabulous financial aid they gave me, and they flew me out and i'm pretty much one of the whitest people on the planet. well, i guess i was before i took up sunbathing.</p>
<p>I'm thrilled that Washington University gives some students merit scholarships. The schools that say they are need blind such as HYP do not offer merit scholarships. They accept a certain number of need based applicants. I think it is nice that these schools are generous towards lower income students, but do not kid yourself they are looking to admit many more kids from wealthy families. Harvard University has billions of dollars in the bank. How do you think they made so much money?</p>
<p>Alumni donations...</p>
<p>Exactly! I know someone with average grades who was accepted at Harvard b/c family has history with them and gives $$$$ to Harvard annually.</p>
<p>First off, I believe WashU claims to be need blind, but Im no expert, and who is to really know which schools actually are need blind and which are not. Regarding the matriculation..... WashU has come a long way in their recent past, and their continuing to go even farther. With this come prestige and selectivity, and consequently the matriculation is also going to go up. WashU suffered from low matriculation previously because students often applied to WashU only as a saftey school, when they really wished to go to HYP., etc. This is changing now, because now, there are a lot more qualified students that actually want to go to WashU and not HYP etc. Their image is progressing.</p>
<p>And now about the money, in particular the money regarding minorities. There are a couple reasons why WashU is more generous with money to minorities. One - Part of building a better school, is creating diversity. However, simply getting a bunch of minority kids wont do, you have to strive to get the elite minorities. WashU does this by offering money, and from what i've seen they are very successfull with this. Two - The reason why WashU can do this is they have a LOT of money for minorities. They recently received a HUGE donation from the Enterprise Rent a Car corp. The company however expressed a wish to the University that this money be used to help WashU's minority population. This is why in general they give better scholarships, fly out more students, and generally are more generous to minorities. Its not necessarily WashU policy.. though if it was i dont see why that would be too bad of a policy... but more is WashU honoring the wishes of a major financial contributor. </p>
<p>And aside from all that. WashU still gives money. Good money. When I was on campus, I spoke to so many people.. of all races... and the general consensus was WashU gave them good money. And they still fly out white students, and do a variety of things for ALL their students.
Im excited to start my relationship with WashU in the fall!</p>
<p>Wash U treats kids really well! Lots of $$$ for student resources + scholarships/grants + hundreds of clubs + quality ecudcation+ beautiful campus + school runs like butter + great food + dorms are like palaces + nice faculty & staff = happy kids that really LOVE Wash U= alumni giving. I think Wash U is a wonderful place to be! Once admitted, some top schools forget about the kids....figuring that name alone should make the kids happy (?) Maybe that is why Harvard, MIT, and Cal Tech want to hire Chancellor Wrightman (Wash U's chancellor)......b/c it is obvious that he is doing something right at Wash U.</p>
<p>a Wash U admissions rep. told me that Wash U is need-aware, not need blind, and my college counsler confrimed this.</p>
<p>"a Wash U admissions rep. told me that Wash U is need-aware, not need blind, and my college counsler confrimed this."</p>
<p>you are correct.</p>
<p>congratulations.</p>
<p>All schools are need aware.....!</p>
<p>i cannot believe that every school that says it is need blind is actually need aware...there are dozens of need blind school, and i just dont think that they have a whole conspiracy just to lie to us about being need blind...</p>
<p>Haha....I guess I'll give a constructive post.</p>
<p>Yes, Wash U is need aware.</p>
<p>But the truth is, I have a hard time believing that other schools are need blind. I applied to a few top LACs that said they were need blind, but I got far lower Financial Aid packages---by about $8-12,000. Now, if I were to factor in the cost of attending the colleges, Wash U still gave me a better offer by about $5-6000.</p>
<p>So what does this mean? I suppose it's all relative. While the fact that Wash U is need aware may scare you, I would take it with a grain of salt. They give out merit scholarships, relatively liberally compared to other schools (in my limited experience). </p>
<p>Really, how do you think a school like Wash U has risen through the ranks over the years and attracted some of the brightest students? Without good scholarship money, it would not have been possible for Wash U to be in its position.</p>
<p>Granted, I did spend some time working on those scholarship essays (and didn't win any), which I do think played some effect. I didn't do any scholarship essays for the LACs. I'll be happy to help you if you want it, as senior year was hell for me with all the worrying about college and whatnot.</p>
<p>It is not a conspiracy, schools have quotas and they fill those quotos by being aware and deliberate during the acceptance process. Yes, the schools that claim they are need blind are also extremely aware of students whose parents are financially able to pay their tuitions. They have to be because you can't run a school without money. Besides, the bottom line is: Wash U is a wonderful school!</p>