<p>My sentiment on Wash U being overrated has nothing to do with admissions. I personally don't understand what Wash U has over a school like Rice. Wash U isn't undergrad focused like a Dartmouth, Rice, or Princeton but as a research university its not broadly competitive. As far as I'm concerned the biggest takeaways after college are job placement and grad school placement and WashU lags considerably at both. Its a top twenty but not a top ten.</p>
<p>Slipper, </p>
<p>Not really off base. Stupikid has 2 premises - that he accurately can determine the most qualified students...and presumptively those who put together the best application package...from his HS, and that their waitlist status is based solely on yield mgmt. Either assumption is a valid point of discussion.</p>
<p>p<em>hp</em>fan,</p>
<p>I agree with you 100 %. This is totally the self-esteem age. WashU has an admit rate ~20 %. It seems ludicrous to attribute waitlist/rejection for any competitive school to "overqualification."</p>
<p>Some schools try to measure the level of interest a student has for their school and factor that into the admissions process. WashU likely does this. While it's unlikely that students are waitlisted because their credentials are sterling, that practice might yield some inverted results where a "less qualified" student (who visited, interviewed, and was exceptionally convincing in explaining "why WashU") might get admitted while a great candidate who just sent in an app gets waitlisted.</p>
<p>While you can say what you want regarding WUSTL's admissions policy, ANY top twenty school will reject students with top scores or grades. Schools aren't looking for students with 4.0s and 2400s. Theyre looking for intelligent students who are a whole package and will contribute to a school more than just a high test score. Admissions is arbitrary at any school, but for some reason people zoom in on WashU though EVERY school is doing the same thing (other than the waitlisting). I see no issue with the waitlisting- how does that affect the quality of the students? Its a good way for WashU to see who really truly wants to be there if they have any extra room, which they typically don't.</p>
<p>Admissions are just a TINY aspect of a college. Past admissions, WashU is an excellent school with happy, laid-back, intelligent students, and I have a hard time imagining anyone arguing otherwise.</p>
<p>"Yield management" is almost irrelevant for post-HYP tier 1 schools. It's impossible to say who HYP will accept and reject. The decided randomness of HYP admissions makes it impossible for schools ranked #4-15 to determine which students are "obvious HYP admits"--there is no such thing as an "obvious HYP admit" anymore--so who are they going to try to keep out using "yield management" techniques? No applicant I can think of.</p>
<p>WashU isn't worried about HYP, its worried about Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, Duke, Amherst, Williams, Brown, Caltech, Swarthmore, and possibly Northwestern and Chicago.</p>
<p>Why would you compare Wash U to HYP? HYP don't need yield management - their yield rates are in the 70s, but Wash U desperately does.</p>
<p>I agree with slipper, Wash U loses against Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, Duke, Amherst, Williams, Caltech, etc., etc. in yield percentages. </p>
<p>And why does Wash U lose? Because significantly less people want to go there. What does that say about the school?</p>
<p>
[quote]
There's no way this would've happened if it weren't for washU's obsession with yield.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm sorry, maybe I have this confused...Wouldn't a school want to admit students who were going to matriculate? Why admit 4000 students who were qualified, if 2000 of them weren't going to matriculate? That doesn't make any sense. If I was a school, I would be obsessed with yield as well.</p>
<p>I really can't understand the whole "Cornell is better than WashU" gist
Cornell being a "fake ivy" aside, most people in my school would consider WashU as a better college.<br>
People should really stop disregarding schools they "never heard about." I never heard of Columbia until my senior year of high school and considered UPenn and U of Chicago as second rate schools</p>
<p>No I disagree. Overrated.</p>
<p>someone bring some facts and statistics in here. quit *****ing.</p>
<p>To the people inanely citing WashU's MEDICAL SCHOOL... yes you're absolutely correct. WashU's medical school is phenomenal. But last time I checked, the kids here are applying to the UNDERGRAD program, right?</p>
<p>Also, by the way, the Ivies are grossly overrepresented at WashU's medical school and any of the Ivies including Cornell and Dartmouth and Brown have more students at WashU medical school than WashU undergrads.</p>
<p>HTH.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, my Naviance plot concurs with ThisSideUp's observation.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I edited out personal information.</p>
<p>oo..I like that. My school's...ha...not that "advanced," shall we say.</p>
<p>Anyhow, can you do one of those for Harvard? I'm curious.</p>
<p>Also, maybe I'm analyzing that wrong but it looks like the diamonds and squares are fairly equally spread out. Which ones are the accepts? The boxes I assume? Either way there are a few way above and way below the average line...I don't see what you're proving here.</p>
<p>Here is the key I forgot to include:</p>
<p>Key:
Accepted: Green Squares
Waitlisted: Blue Diamonds
Denied: Red X
Deferred, then denied: Red Diamonds
Deferred, then accepted: Green Diamonds</p>
<p>I didn't know it was possible to be this confused about a school. My son went to a presentation over a year ago and liked it and applied. That's it. He didn't do anything special to demonstrate interest and he was admitted. He's still waiting to hear from a few schools but it is obvious that we need to fly out and give Wash U a very close look. But the more I read, the more conflicted I am. Is it a fabulous place that would be a mistake to turn down? Is it overrated and not worth the extra money it would cost to attend? I don't remember ever seeing another school so hotly debated in terms of its value and it's somewhat disconcerting.</p>
<p>oh crud...didn't realize they were different colors...color blind. Although, it looks to me like many of the admits are coming from the upper right...?</p>
<p>mimk6...I know, seriously. It's kind of put a small damper on my excitement. However, if you look deeper, no one's really denying that WashU is an incredibly great school. Whether it's overrated or not, I don't think anyone's saying it's not a fantastic place to go. I think people are just getting a little on-edge because WashU is at kind of a vulnerable juncture, lingering between the upper and lower ivies, no one's really sure what to make of it. I dunno, that's my two cents.</p>
<p>^ yes, agreed!</p>
<p>Plus, there are all these great students out there who were waitlisted and are now venting on CC. No doubt you'd get some biased reports</p>
<p>My dtr is a freshman at WashU. She applied to 7 schools and got in at all of them. She chose WashU because of excellent faculty, very supportive campus overall, friendly, smart people, size (mid-sized with 6000 undergrads), and beautiful campus. The city has much to offer. She is completing her first year and has worked VERY hard and is VERY happy there. She speaks to her friends at other places and feels that she is in a perfect fit for her. The school has excellent academics, an approachable, supportive faculty, flexible curriculum, and very happy, hardworking students.</p>
<p>Another point: no offense Slipper, but the purpose of college is NOT job placement, but education. If I go to BigStateU and you go to Harvard, then your job placement (translation: first job) may be better, but if I'm better educated, then 5 years out, you'll work for me. In a 40 year occupational career, your starting job is rarely where you'll end up doing your best work.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I really can't understand the whole "Cornell is better than WashU" gist
Cornell being a "fake ivy" aside, most people in my school would consider WashU as a better college.
People should really stop disregarding schools they "never heard about." I never heard of Columbia until my senior year of high school and considered UPenn and U of Chicago as second rate schools
[/quote]
</p>
<p>"Fake Ivy?" Let's just ignore the fact that that statement makes no sense.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Another point: no offense Slipper, but the purpose of college is NOT job placement, but education
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The purpose of college is education in addition to job/grad placement. One without the other makes ones time in college pointless.</p>