<p>From another thread, posted by AcceptedAlready, what is this about? </p>
<p>"WUSTL has money through its med school and its recent tricks have been caught by Us News after much criticism (Us News 2007 ranking of WUSTL)."</p>
<p>learn how to read. wustl is overrated and now us news is gonna drop it. stop trying to defend ur overrated school and live with the truth.</p>
<p>That person attends Northwestern. Your rudeness is funny though. :)</p>
<p>Why you guys get so angry when WUSTL is mentioned as one of the best universities? Students there love it; you won’t find unhappy people touring the campus (that is also gorgeous).</p>
<p>I've been annoyed by the amount of mail WUSTL sends me. :/</p>
<p>lol, Sternman, chillax.</p>
<p>Cressmom, students at PSU are also incredibly happy, and the campus is gorgeous - does that make it a top 15 school?</p>
<p>I've googled and haven't found anything about "tricks" being "caught". But I admit I lost interest in this after a few minutes. I asked AcceptedAlready on the other thread to provide his evidence.</p>
<p>Sternman87, about reading ability -- a post about caught tricks doesn't explain what any tricks were, which was the question. It also doesn't mean that WUStL is being dropped. If you have a link to provide that would show that US News is dropping the school, please provide them.</p>
<p>lilybbloom, what DOES make a top 15 school in your opinion? In what respect do you find WUStL lacking and what is your evidence?</p>
<p>The school has been highly rated for some time now. So it has had years of being hot and having lots of applications as a result. I don't think you can attribute the selectivity number (one factor among a number of others) to the amount of advertising. My son, a satisfied senior at WUStL, received a multiple flyers from other schools as well -- none of which caused him to apply. The average test scores of those enrolled are comparable to those at schools of similar selectivity.</p>
<p>WUStL had a good reputation in the Midwest even before US News HAD ratings. The fact that it has been trying to publicize itself to those outside the area does not, by itself, make it any less of a good school. Frankly I don't understand the antipathy. I do know it has some strenuous college enemies.</p>
<p>Not that WUStL is perfect -- I think it should release its waitlist figures, if only to put to rest the suspicions that it is waitlisting an unrealistic number in order to encourage future applications. (I don't know if this theory makes much sense, but it is kicking around.)</p>
<p>I am willing to change my opinion with some evidence. But conclusory allegations aren't evidence.</p>
<p>Diane I suggest you look up the huge WUSTL thread a while ago. The school year has started and I don't have the time nor will to spend hours searching up the sources again. Not releasing information, like you mentioned, is one of these reasons/sources. </p>
<p>Like I said in the previous thread: It's very easy to look at WUSTL as a college and try to defend it. But look at what it is ranked above (especially 2005 rankings). Look at the strength of its overall programs. Does it make sense? Personally I'm fine with the rankings now and I have always offered my own opinion (which should be taken as such). </p>
<p>Btw: You could've just sent me a pm if you wanted my opinion.</p>
<p>Its all a load of crap, whoever posted that makes it seem as if WUSTL actually did something wrong and was under investigation. No one else in the world cares that much about mailings and rankings besides certain losers on CC (im not calling everyone on CC a loser, just the ones who base their lives on rankings and whether WashU sending them a piece of mail means the school should burn in hell or not)</p>
<p>this is the thread acceptedalready was talking about</p>
<p>lol this is hilarious:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.freewebs.com/enemigox2/%5B/url%5D">http://www.freewebs.com/enemigox2/</a></p>
<p>AcceptedAlready,</p>
<p>I asked the question publicly because a public discussion of the topic was underway. Your public comment is what started it. If you don't have anything new to report on the subject than what you've already said in that other thread, that's fine. I thought perhaps you had something new, given Sternman87's reaction. Since there isn't, there doesn't seem to be a need for any further discussion. It doesn't even sound like we really have a disagreement!</p>
<p>I don't have a specific opinion on what the precise rankings of any particular schools should be. I don't know that the US News ranking system is "right" and anyway, what's right for one or isn't right for another when it comes to education. Students should do the research on specific programs and just the feel of schools and try for the best fit.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck on the school year.</p>
<p>Nope, reading the thread I don't think we disagree that much either as your quote : "Students should do the research on specific programs and just the feel of schools and try for the best fit." is definitely right on the money with respect to how I feel.</p>
<p>"I think it should release its waitlist figures, if only to put to rest the suspicions that it is waitlisting an unrealistic number in order to encourage future applications. (I don't know if this theory makes much sense, but it is kicking around.)"</p>
<p>I think the theory is that it waitlists like crazy rather than outright offer acceptances in order to maintain an artificially low "official" acceptance rate which makes the school seem more selective than it really is. Additionally, this practice boosts yield by weeding out applicants/cross-admits not interested in attending (ie those who don't accept a place on the waitlist).</p>
<p>The operative word being "theory."</p>
<p>This canard is several years old since USNWR stopped including yield data in its ranking methodology. If you're going to criticize, do so with facts or personal experience instead of repeating old gossip, rumor, and innuendo.<br>
People seem to believe another "theory" that WU rejects or waitlists superior highly qualified applicants to accept less stellar students. Nobody can compare candidate A to candidate B unless it's in the context of the total applicant pool for that college for that year. Something as simple as whether an applicant is male or female can result in a different admission decision; WU does seem to strive to keep enrollment at 50-50 for gender. You'd also have to know what applicants are indicating for a course of study. WashU probably gets far more pre-med interested students applying -- all with impressive stats I'm sure -- but can't take all of them so seemingly excellent candidates might get turned away in favor of other students who indicate they want to study art or literature or languages. </p>
<p>And in regard to the mailings. In my house, we are glad we got them. Wash U is not well known in CA, except among the prep school counselors and students, so it was important for us to receive the informational materials. One of these, a description of a combined major in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science caught my S's eye and put the school on the visit list. He also liked how the school stressed flexibility in double majoring or changing majors since he is undecided. That's what the mailings are aiming at. WashU knows it has a great school and a gorgeous campus; it advertises to get kids to visit and CONSIDER applying. Nobody makes anybody apply. </p>
<p>Really, which school within a narrow ranking range is "better?" After S got into Wash U and Northwestern and Cornell, he debated among the three and came down to WU versus NW. At the accepted students visit, he called to say he was "just not feelin' it" for Northwestern and said "I'm going to Wash U." (Not sure what "feelin' it" means, but I'm sure you students do.) Others may have had the reverse reaction on their own visits and picked NW over WU. Minor ranking differences are a ridiculous thing to be so competitive about.</p>
<p>DianeR and Jazzymom, you two are enchantingly feisty and write beautifully. Where did you two go to college? I would want you two on my side if anyone ever disagreed with anything I wrote on cc. If I wasn't already taken...(lifts right eyebrow).</p>
<p>Writing schmiting. Call me "enchantingly feisty" again. I'd rather not be too specific, but I attended a flagship state U and got an education that was superlative in terms of training me for my chosen profession, but perhaps not as deep or broad in terms of erudition as many others who post on CC. Thanks for the kind words and the cocked eyebrow.</p>
<p>However, from past discussions on the WUStL forum, it seems like people rarely are taken from the waitlist. (No way to know, however. But reports of waitlisted people actually getting off the list and into the school are seemingly rare.) The anger seems to be from the fact (?) that people are waitlisted when there is no reason to believe they need to have that many on the list to be able to fill the class. In other words, the waitlisting is really a rejection in disguise.</p>
<p>Of course, without the figures, who knows what is going on? I'm sure this year there will be a bunch of kids on CC upset about their waitlisting (who never seem to report back that they made it off the list). For all I know, Wash U could be waitlisting the same percentage as other schools and the whole thing is a myth ...</p>
<p>Any school in Missouri isn't worth being in any top ranking whatsoever. I'm from Missouri.</p>