<p>hmm. i don’t think any students from my school who applied to WUSTL were overqualified at all to be admitted (all were hovering below the 50th percentiles for score, and 3/4 below the 25th), but i think the criteria they use to make decisions must be very unique (considering how many high scorers and big award winners are WL’d, at least according to this site). i’d love to sit in on an admissions session!</p>
<p>See, I’m really having trouble understanding what being overqualified for WashU really means. If we were to simply look at the admitted students profile–because we can’t really know anything about essays, ECs, etc.–we would see that their mid-50th percentile ranges exceed 750 in each of the three subjects, and over 90% of admitted students are in the top 10% percent of their respective classes. How much higher can you go than this, even if you’re an Ivy. Who in the world would consider a school like this a safety?</p>
<p>well, apparently some people with 2300+ and great EC’s (serious ivy contenders) consider themselves overqualified and say that’s why they were waitlisted. i definitely see your point though. i just think, we are all taught to think HYPSMDCC… etc. will reject us, so we aren’t surprised when it happens. but WashU? people don’t usually think of that as a crapshoot school, except on here where it has a reputation. high scorers are surprised not to get in.</p>
<p>Eeeexactly!</p>
<p>I dont really understand why people have a problem with the waitlist, if washu didnt have a waitlist sure maybe a few more people would be initially accepted but alot of “qualified” candidates would get outright rejections…and then what would they be saying “washu rejected me because i was overqualified for them”? The real problem is people have inflated views of themselves, people do not say they were overqualified when dartmouth rejects them and washu’s ranking is similar…</p>
<p>i actually think WashU should reject more people, because it seems a bit ridiculous to waitlist more applicants than you outright reject. why? is it letting them down easy?</p>
<p>What makes you think that WashU waitlists more applicants than they reject? If it’s because there aren’t that many rejections reported on the results thread, consider how many of the rejected students would even feel like posting their decision/stats… Also, I would say that the CC population tends to be pretty qualified on average. I may be wrong, but I remember reading on a related thread that WashU’s waitlist last year numbered about 1000-1500. Even if only 1 in 3 waitlisted students decided to remain on the list–just a wild guess–that would still mean that significantly fewer students got waitlisted than rejected (WashU tends to get 22000-25000 applicants these days.)</p>
<p>a misconception i had, i guess.</p>
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<p>This would be true of rejected students from ALL schools. But you don’t see multiple waitlist-related threads in the forums of any other schools.</p>
<p>Sorry, I fail to follow–what have waitlist threads at other schools got to do with this? I’m not denying that WashU may waitlist more students, percentage-wise, than other schools. I just don’t believe that they waitlist more students than they reject.</p>
<p>We’ll never know because WashU refuses to release its waitlist numbers.</p>
<p>Why don’t you try contacting the WashU admissions office? Let’s see what they (don’t) say. I bet if I call Yale, they’ll tell me as soon as the #'s come out. (Past #'s are widely available.) They were very helpful to me during the early admissions process when I had questions.</p>
<p>^oh, they don’t release the waitlist numbers? no wonder i couldn’t find them.</p>
<p>OK. I tried to find some quasi-official information about the size of WashU’s waitlist, but couldn’t. As a last resort, I read some CC threads from previous years and came across estimates ranging from 1000 to 10000 (sounds outlandish, I know). In said threads I also read that about 100 students got accepted off the waitlist–which, if accurate and given the small number, would indicate an attempt to use the waitlist to fine tune the number of enrolled students, rather than a concerted effort to boost yield. But again, I have no idea how reliable any of these numbers are, or even where they would have come from considering that WashU doesn’t publish that information…</p>
<p>My second post on Wash U and this is my last. The elephant in the room is $$$$$. The ivy’s don’t give merit aid, I suspect Wash U uses it to engineer (sounds better than manipulate) its numbers. I already complained that they solicited my son’s application with offer of merit aid that did not materialize. I suspect the complaints from people about admissions inconsistancies has to do with money. After they take the paying students at the top and cut the bottom, they probably decide what they can (will) afford and accept accordingly. School admission hasn’t been need blind for most schools in a long time. Sounds to me like this school applies a ruthless financial policy to admissions. Welcome to the real world, seniors! I went to my safety and never regretted it. This will pass and you WILL be fine. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>Haha. Ruthless Financial Policy? Need Blind? Cut the bottom?</p>
<p>Your son didn’t get merit aid by your own omission. Merit Aid has nothing to do with need, “the bottom” or anything like that. WashU isn’t fully need blind, which is regrettable, but it is by no means ruthless. I had a demonstrated need and they met it, but I said that I needed more - they met that too. We meet 100% of the demonstrated need of individuals. We raise financial awards each year for need based by amounts equal to the tuition increases. No loans for family incomes under 60k.</p>
<p>We’re not the best (though we are consistently ranked very highly in FinAid) but I think ruthless is a little harsh.</p>
<p>@Masra,</p>
<p>My family’s EFC is currently $40K+, but I MUST have this cut in half in order to attend WashU. Do you think there is ANY chance the finaid office would do this? (also, I will not take out any loans)</p>
<p>plumazul: So I want to make sure we’re all clear:
You want WUSTL to take financial aid away from other students who are taking out loans so they can give you twice the aid that you need so you don’t need to take out any loans?</p>
<p>Is that pretty much it? Because it wasn’t 100% clear to me.</p>
<p>plumazul - From Financial Aid FAQ page on the WashU site:</p>
<p>I heard that Washington University has expanded financial assistance for students from low- and middle-income families. Do I qualify?
Washington University has eliminated need-based loans as part of its undergraduate financial aid awards to students from low- and middle-income families. Entering freshmen and returning full-time undergraduate day-school students with parental incomes of less than $60,000 annually are not expected to take out need-based loans and instead receive grants from the university that will not have to be repaid. Families with parental income somewhat higher than $60,000 also may receive additional student loan relief based on demonstrated need and their financial circumstances. Please contact Student Financial Services for more information.</p>
<p>^^Since plumazul wants the $40K+ EFC cut in half, the aid would need to be more than doubled. On the other hand, I don’t think asking if there was ANY chance of this happening was out of line. It was just a question, albeit not tactfully worded. Masra did mention the finaid office was flexible…</p>
<p>JJParent:
What gets me is the “I will not take out any loans” bit.
Millions of students are taking out loans to finance their education and even after getting about 10K in aid (which I’m deducing based on the 40K EFC) s/he is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Asking for the aid amount to be tripled. (Going from an EFC of 40K to 20K would require the aid to go from 10K to 30K).</p></li>
<li><p>Refusing to taking loans, which others seem to be willing to accept as part of their “package.”</p></li>
</ol>