Washington University in St Louis Top Questions

this place is awesome, seriously. if you can handle more work than the majority of the population and having your soul crushed every once and then having to just keep working more than i would suggest washu, it's totally worth it.

No, I just love wash U, except the Metero, because they wont run in midnight like 1 am. because I have to leave olin before 11 or I will miss my metero to get home. Blah.

Housing at Wash U is really nice. I think it's better than any other campus I've seen. The old fresman dorms are kind of small but they still have a great atmosphere and you can still have plently of room for all your stuff without bunking beds. Upperclassmen housing on campus is super nice. There are suites with common rooms and balconies and apartments with common rooms and kitchens. However, most students move off campus by there senior year because on-campus housing can be pricey. The food at Wash U is also really good. The on-campus subway even takes meal points! There is a lot of variety.

One of the big plusses of this school is the scholarship policies. First of all, there is merit based aid available which was a big factor for me. If you apply to the university, make sure to apply for the scholarships! There are a lot of scholarships available, and so apply and do a really good job on the application. For me, it certainly paid off; I've got a full scholarship here with a stipend each year. Then, the policy for outside scholarships is great too... if you're a National Merit finalist, the school gives you money depending on what type of National Merit scholarship you get; I got a $2500 one-time scholarship from NMSQT, but Wash. U is continuing that for my sophomore, junior and senior years. Additional outside sholarships are also yours to keep; financial aid doesn't just sink your scholarship money towards your need based aid at all! That's huge. In fact, this semester the university wrote a check to me because I had more money scholarship money coming in than the semester 's tuition, room and board were costing. Of course, I have been very lucky and I worked very hard. I don't want to give the impression that everyone here has full scholarships or anything. All I mean to say is that need and merit based aid is very very reasonable at Washington University relative to other universities and that you should apply for scholarships!

Now, I hope I do not sound falsely positive about Wash. U... I just am enjoying being here so much and I really haven't found anything bad about the school. I never expected college to be so inspiring, full of so many good smart people, and so beautiful. The academics are extremely challenging, but it helps to be in a place that constantly reminds me that I am getting an excellent education.

My only gripes are that everything here is very expensive; in addition to the whopping tuition, the University charges students extra money for in-room Internet service and cable TV. Food is also very expensive; you pay a premium for the good quality. Another problem is that there's so much construction. The University is bringing up two new buildings right now on main campus, and that means there's two giant holes where there were once either an old building or grass. Finally, St. Louis isn't the most hopping city. There are some good museums in Forest Park and excellent shops and ethnic food on the Delmar Loop, but besides that the city is not safe to be in by yourself. Thankfully, the University isn't located right in St. Louis city, but rather in University City and Clayton, the latter of which is a rich, up-scale suburb of St. Louis. On the whole, campus itself is very safe, and I never feel unsafe walking around campus at night. Still, on the whole, my experience here has been very satisfying. It's a challenging but cooperative academic environment with great professors, excellent quality of life, and good social atmosphere.

The biggest thing is to plan out your 4 years, as some classes are only offered in the Fall, or in the Spring, and have prerequisites, which are only offered in the Fall, or in the Spring. Figure out what class to take in which semester, or you'll cram it all in Senior year. I took the Intermediate Financial Accounting class at the same time as the Introduction to Managerial Accounting class so I wouldn't have to take any Accounting in the Spring of Senior year. I was one year ahead of people in my grade level, in terms of Accounting classes, but I made friends with the class of '04 and stayed ahead of the curve.

Sadly, WashU is a very unattractive campus...I come from a high school with a very attractive student body and I have been shocked to see the amount of unattractive people here. However, people get "WashU goggles" and pretty much disregard any previous standards, so there is plenty of hooking up and dating going on...

I HATE how much waste there is in the cafeterias! but the food is pretty good.

I LOVE WASH U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!