Washington University in St Louis Top Questions

Most professors do know my name. My favorite class was taught by a graduate student - Formula Challenge Vehicle Design. Two least favorites - Engineering Mathematics, and Machine Design (could have been a fantastic class). Students study daily it seems. Class participation is average. Students do have intellectual conversations outside of class. Competition is very high. Most unique class was Personal Finance. My major is mechanical engineering and it's fascinating. The ME department is so so. No time spent with professors outside of class. Academic requirements are stringent, but should get more difficult so my degree is worth more after I'm done. Education towards learning for the sake of going to graduate school, not getting a job.

Yes --- --- Mostly nightly Oh yes Yes Partially --- Small, personal, friendly Not very much Just fine Depends on what you study

Tight.

all my professors know my name except for in my one large lecture class. besides that one, but next largest class is 17 students. i really like classes that are discussion based and thought provoking. the professors assign readings and guide the discussion to open up the students minds about new things or (more often) to think about things in new ways.i've learned so much in my 1 1/2 semesters here i feel like i've already learned more than in my 4 years of high school. students sometime participate sometimes don't. it really depends on the chemistry in the classroom and that depends on the personality and approach of the teacher and the relationship he or she has with the students. some of my classes everyone talks in others we're quiet. it just depends. i haven't decided on a major yet but i really want to take more African American studies courses. previously in my schooling i learned a little about their culture but now i'm more exposed to it and it seems interesting. WashU students always have discussions outside of class. i could go in the cafe and hear snippets of intellectual convos all the time. i think the requirements are useful because they force you to try things out that you might not have and discover something you like. in one sense but i do know someone who couldn't graduate on time because of one class and they were so similar but because they were part of two different schools he was stuck here. i think he eventually worked something out with his dean but still, thats bad. i think the education here in arts and sciences in more for learning to learn. in other areas its very obvious that its career oriented, but with the humanities and social sciences its not so cut and dry. that's for all colleges though, not just washu.

Most of my professors know my name. Class participation is common, especially in small language classes. WashU students have many intellectual conversations outside of class; sometimes I feel that everything is overly intellectual. Students are very competitive. The most unique class that I have taken is Physics 198 because it is a large lecture but is still based on class participation. I don't see professors outside of class usually. The academic requirements are not as rigorous as I had expected.

I think the most unique class I've taken at Wash U was called "Brave New Crops," and it was pretty much a semester-long case study about genetically modified organisms, the current debates around them, and the broader implications of using or not using them. The professor is a lot to handle in that he's pretty self-involved and constantly refers to his own work on the issue, but he also really knows what he's talking about and seems to have a pretty balanced perspective. He also invites you over to his house to have dinner and discuss the issues with guest lecturers that come in. These guest lecturers range from farmers to corporate managers to scientists, and they all have different things to say. While the class wasn't easy, I think about it a lot and have used it as a reference for other classes I've been in.

Professors don't know my name. There are some who do, but most of those aren't even professors, they're grad students or lecturers. I like the requirements at WashU because there is a lot of leeway in fulfilling requirements. The only issue I have with requirements is Writing I. When I took it, I felt like I was back in high school and I HATED high school. I also don't think that I learned anything from the set curriculum of the class. I got an A in the class, but I don't think I really took anything away from the class other than the "A" on the transcript. I think so far one of my favorite classes is Primate Biology with Prof. Rasmussen. I am having an amazing time learning about primates in the class. Prof Rasmussen often will share personal stories of his and primates, and he shows lots of videos taken of primates in the wild. One of the class assignments is to actually go to the zoo and study the primates there, which is tons of fun because you can see first hand the things that you are learning about.

It really depends on the class but my business professor and my theater professor both knew my name. Some of the bigger intro classes it's not that easy for professors to know your name but if your class is about 30 40 students there's a good chance that they will know your name. Students are competitive as you're taking some of the best and the brightest from around the country and the world. While students will have intellectual conversations outside of class, we also talk about some of the most random stuff ever. There's a spectrum of how often students study. Art and architecture students work the hardest out of everyone and it seems like those people in the business school work the least. Some people stay in the library all the time and study. Others go out and party almost every night of the week. The business school's requirements aren't that bad but the cluster system for Arts and Sciences is tough to manage. Some of what I learn is geared for a job while others is just for learning. My most unique classes would either be my theater production class where we designed actual shows or my story of murder class where we had guest speakers such as forensics scientists and police detective talk about their jobs and then we would write articles about them. My most favorite class so far has been theater production as the group of people was simply amazing. Though we would be working on a show late into the night, it was still a lot of fun. Class participation is common in smaller classes but not so in large several hundred student ones. My least favorite classes have been my math courses as they are boring and the teachers aren't that good.

-Professors.. there is certainly an ecclectic range of professors on campus, some more interested in getting to know you than others.. I'd say for the most part professors have known my name (except maybe in huge intro classes) and I've genuinely enjoyed a probably 80-90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of my professors -Class.. my favorite class was definitely Dinosaurs: Facts and Fictions.. I mean how often do you get to take class notes where the professor draws pictures of brontosauruses or T-rexes on the chalkboard? -Studying/Competition.. I think the amount of work equates to the high rank of WashU academics. you certainly have to do a lot of work and time management is key. Mostly pre-med is where the competition and largest amount of work come in to play. But campus has a lot of resources for students who are having troubles keeping up -Requirements.. the cluster system is phenomenal, it is easy to understand (other schools have for example 6 credit hours in section IX, part 5, letter a.. complicated!)

Euroean Intellectual History with Gerald Izenberg. Brilliant man. Unfortunately, too many kids here are pre-professional and not intellectual, though there's ample pockets of intellectually curious kids; you just have to find them...and hope they aren't cliche and anti-traditional fun.