<p>I said "it seems", suggesting speculation already, not "generalization". My estimation is based on the fact there are more kids on CC saying they got off WashU's waitlist than NU's, despite the fact NU board has higher thread/post count. </p>
<p>By the way, you made a speculation yourself:</p>
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The number they are looking off WL is way way below the number you are quoting.
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</p>
<p>What was your speculation based on? You think it's way lower than 400? Like 100? And out of those 100, we have over 20% as CC members that told the news here (more than 20 kids said they got the offers in a WashU's waitlist thread)? Out of ~2400 admits at Stanford, probably no more than 100 posted their acceptance on CC. Somehow WashU admits are a lot more inclined to do that?</p>
<p>As to "Why not call the admission?", they aren't even done with the process yet. Also, even if they give me a number, I wonder if I should even take that as fact considering I already have two kids telling me their status remain unchanged. By the way, # of people off the waitlists is one of the data shown on common data set but WashU either doesn't make it public or doesn't have one.</p>
<p>Those are mid-50% ranges for those <em>enrolled</em>, as shown in NU's common data set. So the mid-50% range for admits will be somewhat higher. The <em>enrolled</em> SAT averages for different schools in the past few years goes something like this:</p>
<p>McCormick: 1420
Weinberg: 1405
Journalism: 1390
Communication: 1380
Education & Social Policy: 1360
Music: 1330 (musical talent is more emphasized)
Overall: 1400 or so</p>
<p>I am too lazy to find the link and pull the exact numbers but they are what I remember and should be close.</p>
<p>Bala, regarding NU's "transparent" admissions. Where could I find that data? Also, how heavily would they weight both parents being alumni (one parent WCAS, the other parent WCAS and Kellogg)? And within that, how heavily would they weight parental donations? (not significant ones, as in dorms, just general year-to-year giving)</p>
<p>Be careful of listed median SAT 25-75%s for colleges. Northwestern, to its credit, posts medians of Enrolled students on its admissions site. These numbers tend to be lower than those for Accepted (AKA Admitted) students. Most colleges typically make available the latter. Be careful to compare apples to apples when assessing potential admission competitiveness. I have not seen Wash U make any of this information available.</p>
<p>With regard to legacy, the admissions office is quite open in stating that it does consider this in your favor if applying ED. They are also quite clear that it will not be considered in an RD application. Again, they tend to shoot quite straight in this regard. How much will it help? It will take an already qualified applicant and solidify his/her chances. At NU, and most top tier schools, if you have grades/standardized tests/ECs solidly in range for accepted students, legacy offers a measurably greater chance of admission. If any of these factors, especially grades and test scores, fall outside that range, don’t expect miracles.</p>
<p>Legacies aren't considered at all in an RD application for NU? Wow. Is that similar or different from other similar top tier schools? What is NU's rationale?</p>
<p>I have heard through the grapevine that NU is more "into" its alumni than other similar schools, but I don't know if this is true. Any perspective from anyone on this board?</p>
<p>If that's for NU.. I would venture to say that you'd find that NU's SAT score ranges are higher this year.</p>
<p>Also as for WUSTL.. it still must be accepting a lot of great applicants if it's 75th percentile is 1520.. unless WUSTL accepts 10-20% of its class off the waitlist.. something I doubt. However, WUSTL does waitlist a lot of kids who get into places more prestigious such as Duke and Dartmouth.</p>
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[quote]
Rest assured that other schools do it as well. Until WashU has a yield comparable to its peers (on USNews) and has a higher preference among the applicant pool in general, I don't expect their practice to end.
<p>washu's admissions process is a total joke, just go around on CC and look at student's posted decisions, washu waitlists everyone who is accepted to cornell, brown, northwestern, etc. because they know they are so far down on the "revealed preferences" list that those students will never end up actually attending.</p>
<p>it's acceptance rate is so low because it artificially increases its yield via the waitlist (which, by the way washu is the ONLY SINGLE school that does not release data for)</p>