WUSTL Class of 2017 Questions Thread

<p>Hello everyone! </p>

<p>Congratulations to everybody who has been accepted! Everyone else, don't worry; you will get into a great school by the end of all this! I decided to create this thread so that everyone can feel free to ask any questions they might have, and the answers will all be in one convenient location. I'll do my best to answer the questions to the best of my abilities, and I'm sure that other students will help out as well.</p>

<p>A little about myself:</p>

<p>I'm a sophomore biology and math major in Arts and Sciences. I play for the 3rd/4th in the nation club soccer team, and am partially involved in the gay community.</p>

<p>When I did an overnight back in October the students I stayed with said suite style housing was far superior to the regular dorms. What’s your take on this, specifically with regards to Wash U housing? Also, do we get to choose our preference for suite or classic style? And what’s the chance of getting your request?</p>

<p>I have had suite style housing for both years I’ve been here, and I’ve quite liked it. The suite dorms are newer, and I find the suite bathrooms to be much more convenient than communal. I don’t buy into the argument that traditional dorms are more social, I think it depends on the people on the floor. You get to rank your preferences for housing, 1 through 6 out of all possible combinations of single, double, or triple and traditional or modern. While the option you choose isn’t guaranteed, they try their best to accommodate your wishes.</p>

<p>I had traditionals in my freshman year and modern in my sophomore year, and I like them both. Modern does offer much better living condition (not sound-proof though, at least for South 40 House). I do feel like traditionals kinda forcing you to open your door all the time and hang out with everyone on the floor. Not saying modern doesn’t do that, but with the big hallway, I occasionally feel like I live in a hotel rather than a dorm. </p>

<p>But there are less and less traditionals available, especially after the talk about tearing down Ruby comes up again.</p>

<p>How is the workload?</p>

<p>Course load really depends on your area of study. Life sciences majors and engineers typically have challenging material and tests, but usually not much required schoolwork, just studying (engineers tend to have a bit more work, on average). Art students have to spend hours upon hours working in the studio to complete their projects. And business school students often don’t have the most challenging of classes, but do have more group projects than most others. Humanities students will, understandably, have more papers to write than everyone else.</p>

<p>All in all, it’s not horrendous - most people have some time to do what they want.</p>

<p>Is the gay community very prominent? Are people generally accepting?</p>

<p>It’s not extremely prominent, but it exists. There’s a fair number of gay students and there are gay events throughout the year, including a few gay parties, usually. Also, the Grove (gay neighborhood) is pretty close, so it’s pretty easy to go there on friday/saturday nights. Washu is very accepting - neither I, nor anyone I know, has been harassed here due to their sexuality.</p>

<p>Congrats to all. Also here to answer your questions. I am a Fr A&S majoring in PNP and premed. </p>

<p>I live in Moden double. I like it a lot. Will live in same next yr in Soph dorm. Modern dorms do cost a little more. I was surprised how many Singles there are in the suites (share two bathrooms for a suite of 4 Singles).</p>

<p>I too would like to offer to answer anyone’s questions. I’m a freshman majoring in Biomedical Engineering and am pre-med. I live in a modern dorm, and am involved in a sortof random grouping of activities on campus.</p>

<p>Do freshmen only talk to/hang out with/become friends with other freshmen (due to having dorms together) or are they often friends with upper classmen? I guess this is a stupid question because it really depends on who you are</p>

<p>(For the record: sophomore, art student, lived in modern both years, and am heavily involved in greek life and two other activities on campus)</p>

<p>I made more upperclassmen friends as time went on. First semester, I was mostly friends with my floor and then a few upperclassmen through classes/extracurriculars. Second semester I joined a sorority, and then made more upperclassmen friends through that. Now I’m putting in a lot of time with my sorority as well as another extracurricular I joined this year, and can probably say I have more older friends now than friends my age.</p>

<p>Basically, like anything else, it’s going to take time and effort to form friendships outside those considered somewhat “automatic”, so you’ll get out of it what you put into it. But I love my older friends and the new perspectives they always offer me, so I personally thought and still think it was entirely worth it.</p>

<p>what are the sororities like? is there any hazing that goes on in order to rush? do they take a significant amount of time away from schoolwork?</p>

<p>Speaking in generalities here because 1) I don’t want to reveal my affiliation and 2) each sorority has their own personality and what they look for in members so it’s hard to delve into each of those appropriately (our sororities follow an ideal we call “arete”, which tends to be looked at as all greek women looking out for each other and having loyalty to the entire panhellenic council rather than just to your own chapter):</p>

<p>Sorority life here is what you make of it. I love my chapter and everything it represents, so I choose to put a lot of time and effort into it. I show up for all events, always go to chapter, and hold a leadership position. But there are other girls who only go to required events. So it really depends. In general though, greek life here is much more relaxed than you would imagine from greek stereotypes (which are absolutely not true). We have sorority suites instead of houses, and they are basically password-locked living rooms in the women’s building here that have some couches, chairs, storage space, and a small kitchen. Many women choose to live with their sisters, but it’s completely by choice and not because they’re required to live in a house together. It can take up as much time as you want it to. As an art student, I have a pretty heavy courseload (and by heavy I mean a lot of work, maybe not as inherently hard as General Chemistry, but still a lot of work), but I’ve been pretty good at managing my time and do well in both my classwork as well as in the committment I made to my sisters.</p>

<p>As for hazing, all sororities have a strict no-hazing policy. During my new member period, I was showered with love and food and presents. So if making me fat (haha) is hazing, then I guess I was hazed? But really, I have friends across all sororities on campus and have never heard anything bad. You should know though that WashU has been really hard on greek life lately, so should hazing become a problem it is likely that the university will take action immediately (see: Sammy and SigEp earlier this year). </p>

<p>Also to note about greek life: a new sorority, Kappa Delta, is colonizing on campus this spring, so by the time you arrive on campus the Panehellenic Council will include 8 sororities, not 7!</p>

<p>How prominent is greek life on campus?</p>

<p>I think the best way to put it is that it’s there if you want it, but you can avoid it if you don’t. There’s no real pressure to join a frat/sorority if you don’t want to. Frat parties are halfway popular - probably more so for freshman than anyone else. There is a fair amount of philanthropic stuff put on by the greek chapters. All that being said, greek life doesn’t overwhelm everything else, and one is perfectly able to avoid all of it if they so desire.</p>

<p>The Greek Houses are kind of off in a corner of the campus all together. As a Fr I spend my time on campus around South40, academic areas ans tghe DUC. Haven’t been to a frat yet. Most off campus time spent at the Loop - some other time at the park and different metro stops (shopping areas).</p>

<p>So I was just accepted early decision a few days ago (YAY!!!) and I have some questions…</p>

<p>How is financial aid? I hear that it is excellent, but I am still worried that I might not be able to attend without enough financial aid. My family doesn’t have any money to send me to college, so financial aid is my only hope.</p>

<p>Do you know anything about the freshman summer academic program (fsap)? How it is structured, how well the financial aid for that is, and if it is a good investment for the summer?</p>

<p>Thanks so much! :)</p>

<p>Sorry, I have another question- I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, and in the ED acceptance letter it says that their offer of admission is contingent on keeping up the academics. I am on the verge of getting an A- in ap physics and ap calc… and I’m sure second semester I could get a B in a couple of harder classes…would this really put me in jeopardy? I’m nervous…</p>

<p>Financial aid is usually pretty good at washu, at least from what I can tell, but it’s not something that you probably have to worry about. Since they accepted you ED, they will almost certainly meet your required aid. I don’t know much about the FSAP, sorry.</p>

<p>No, a couple ** will not put you in any jeopardy whatsoever, nevermind an A-. That clause is there to prevent people from totally blowing off classes once accepted; it’s not a provision for students who take difficult classes.</p>