I didn’t see a thread for waitlisted applicants this year so I thought I’d start one so we can chat about what’s going on!
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Hope that WashU will start to release waitlist decisions before May 1st as they did for the class of 2026!
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Me too… does anyone know the timeline for when they usually start reaching out to people?
I feel like the majority of people who got off the waitlist in the preceding years were contacted in May. But I read that someone got off the waitlist on April 25 on CC WashU Waitlist Class of 2026 thread.
Has anyone heard from the WashU waitlist? I wonder if we will see any movement soon.
I know of someone getting off today.
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Thanks for the update!
In the Reddit post titled “Did I just get in?” on r/washu, one waitlisted student shows the email you receive when you get off the waitlist. From that thread, another person says that their friend got off the waitlist. So, they are definitely starting to accept people.
To get a look at the chances of being accepted, and to get an idea of how many people are currently on the waitlsit, we can check the Common Data Set that WashU has released for the past few years.
2022-2023 - 3,447 accepted a spot on the waitlist; 168 were admitted
2021-2022 - 3,981 accepted a spot on the waitlist; 0 were admitted
2020-2021 - 2,696 accepted a spot on the waitlist; 915 were admitted
*I don’t think this counts the amount of people who actually accepted the offer of admission, because on WashU’s Waitlist Information they say “The most active year was 2020, when we enrolled just over 250 students from the wait list.”
From the CCF Class of 2026 WashU Waitlist thread, someone said that “The classes of 2024 and 2025 were MASSIVE–like a lot of other schools, they overenrolled for COVID concerns for fall 2020, and in 2025 they miscalculated yield by around 5%.” We can see that through the high volume of students who got off the waitlist in 2020-2021, which seems to have had a ripple effect to the amount of people who got off the waitlist for the Class of 2026 (which was 0, so I am confused as to why people said they got off the waitlist in the Class of 2026 thread). I’m not sure if the “overpopulated” Class of 2025 will continue to have an impact on the 2028 waitlist admission rate.
The person who got off the waitlist in the Reddit thread claims to have been from the EDII round, which may increase the chances of admission. They also state that their family is well-off. On the WashU website, under “Common Questions - Financial Aid”, it states that WashU is NOT need-blind for waitlisted applicants. So, requesting financial aid will also harm one’s chances of getting off the waitlist. The college you applied to also impacts your chances, with Arts & Sciences apparently being the biggest and thus having the most people accepted.
I hope this information is helpful to someone!
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Oh wow I did not know about the need-blind thing thanks for sharing!
My daughter got an email today with offer of admission. She had committed to Berkeley/Cal. She hopes to major in cognitive science with minor in business/economics.
She has 2 days to decide. Any input on why someone would pick WashU over Berkeley. She is instate California, and WashU offered no aid.
Thanks and good luck to all.
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Yes, unfortunately that information was kept at the very bottom of the “Common Questions - Financial Aid” page. While I completely understand the policy, I could not help but be sad when I heard it, considering how much they emphasize their need-blind admissions when you first apply. I suppose we should lower our expectations of being accepted off the waitlist, unless admissions thinks our families can afford full tuition.
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Keep your money and stay with Berkeley. Both are great school why pay so much for the same education.
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Holding aside cost for a moment, I think the main reason someone might consider WUSTL over a top public like Cal is that WUSTL is a much smaller college, with much more financial resources per student. Just to do this quick and dirty, Cal in FY 2023 had an operating budget of about $3.6B, which works out to about $80K/student. Holding aside hospital stuff, WUSTL had about $2.6B, which works out to right around twice that amount, over $160K/student.
That difference typically shows up in a variety of ways including an exploratory curriculum structure where you can easily combine all sorts of different interests, small class sizes, ample lab facilities on a per student basis, really high end dining and housing (for a college), very well-funded activities, and so on.
However, in the real world the question is then how much that will cost you, and whether it is worth it to you. This is too crude, but it is sort of interesting that even if you are full pay at a place like WUSTL, there is implicitly still a large subsidy–something like $80K/year given the numbers above. If you are full pay in-state at Cal, the implied subsidy is more like half that. I note if you are OOS at Cal, the implied subsidy is almost gone–which makes sense, because once you account for other revenues like grants and such, as an OOS student you are actually supposed to be subsidizing the in-state kids!
OK, so either full-pay WUSTL or full-pay in-state Cal are ways of basically leveraging up your investment in higher education by 2X, but obviously you pay more at WUSTL to unlock this effect (holding aside aid, meaning assuming full pay). Is it worth it, or are there better things you could be doing with that extra $40K+ a year in costs than get $80K+ a year more in terms of your share of operating expenses? That’s a very personal/contextual question of course.
In contrast, full pay OOS at Cal is . . . a somewhat questionable choice if you have other options like these.
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IMO, for a top school, WashU is amazing throughout this application process.
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Fee waiver: we were offered one even though we don’t qualify and we didn’t ask. It was just S24 stalling in submitting an app, and that he had gotten into a 3+2 program with an affiliate, so WashU emailed him a code.
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The email notices and updates were non intrusive and constant. Super friendly.
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Once accepted, the free T-shirt offer is a nice touch as well as personalized, hand written greetings, stickers and small snail mail letters.
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Parent volunteer calling to speak to us as well as several regional meets.
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This is the big one: We didn’t apply for FA and WashU was the first to receive our FAFSA and we automatically got an “institutional scholarship” which covered their COA and our SAI difference. I thought it was weird and generous, especially we submitted nothing during application process. It’s as if they are saying, "we know you didn’t ask, but here is money for you anyways. "
At Big UCs, you swim or sink. Students need to be smart, proactive and tough. But from what I hear, WashU offers much more support if kid needs it. Our cost for WashU is 72k and Cal is 42k,
S24 turned down WashU because he just liked CMU that much more, but it would have been a great place to be for 4 years.
Tough choice for sure between CAL and WashU. Too bad two days isn’t enough time to fly out there if you have never been. Although if you can, I bet if you call them about extending the deadline so you have a chance to fly out, they may say yes.
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Thank you all
This is such a different take. Thanks for the insight. This generally answers the tradeoff between very good private school vs very good instate public school.
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Has she decided where to go?
My son received an email on May 1st and was given 2 days to respond.
I have a daughter at Cal (out of state) and my son just committed to WashU. My only complaint about Cal is that it is so hectic registering for classes each semester! Often times required classes are full and you have to have a back up. Sometimes, even needing a back up to your back up. It all works out and she is thriving! You can’t beat in state tuition at such an amazing school! It all depends on your daughter’s preference, huge public school vs smaller private school. Two completely different campus vibes with two completely different support system. She needs to be a go getter at Cal, for sure!
I just realized I’m late to respond. I’m sure she has made a decision and there is no wrong answer! Congratulations!
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Middle May already . No moving now…Looks like stopped ?