Living in St. Louis

showmethedata
Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:28:52 +0000

RuskiBear-Many STL kids attending WU are “faculty brats” or kids of WU staff. I don’t have the exact % that falls into this category, but wouldn’t be surprised if its as high as 30% of the entire STL region cohort. This estimate is based on data I’ve seen from the last 4-5 graduating classes from Clayton High, which with Ladue and a couple of other high schools, places lots of kids (~8-12/year/school) at WU. The % of WU enrollees who are kids of faculty/staff is high for two reasons: 1) Such students attend tuition-free, which means that their enrollment “yield” (% of accepted students who actually enroll) is high; this significantly boosts the overall yield figure for the incoming class, a key statistic colleges use to compare themselves. 2) There is an economic incentive for WU to admit faculty/staff kids, which has to do with where the $ comes from that is used to pay the tuition for these kids (too hard to explain in detail, but that’s the gist of it).

Soooooo, if you are a faculty/staff kid, you’ve got a better chance of getting in than if you are not, all other factors being equal. If you do not fall in this category, does being from STL hurt your chances relative to everyone else? Can’t say. Maybe you are a quite different “package” than the typical STL WU faculty/staff kid. If so, emphasize that. What unique characteristics, interests, perspectives, achievements do you bring to the table? Good luck!