Washington University in St Louis Top Questions

Although there is a large support for tolerance for certain religions or lifestyles, there is also a very large intolerance for Christianity or conservative lifestyles. The community is very liberal, and I along with many other students are very accepting of that view. However, being a conservative Christian myself, I often feel judged or unaccepted because of my conservative lifestyle. If I were to change it, I would want the campus to be equally tolerant of both liberal and conservative views, so no one feels excluded or persecuted.

Academics are highly stressed at Washington University in St. Louis. Being a top caliber school, sometimes referred to as the "Harvard of the Mid-West" academics are sometimes overwhelming to the incoming Freshman. However the resources provided to help the student succeed are numerous and the small class sizes allow for individual attention and help. A-average students in high school should be expected to be challenged for that ellusive 4.0. However through the WashU exprience students will be transformed into Scholars.

A lot of students, particularly those who are pre-med, tend to stress out over grades. A lot of people come here and don't do as well as they expect, so some of them just keep beating themselves up over grades.

Everything here is very expensive.

The worst thing would have to be the lack of athletic events. Many large schools division 1 schools have large football games or other athletic events that the whole school attends. These events form a point around which students can bond and get together to have a great time. However, this is something that WashU lacks. It has many nationally recognized athletic teams, but few students attend these competitions and there is a decided lack of school spirit.

The one thing that stands out about Washington University in St. Louis is its library. Or rather, its library closing time. As a prospective freshman, I visited various schools with tour guides professing their 24 hour long libraries. I thought, who would want to stay at the library for so long? However, as a freshman, I knew all nighters well. What escaped me during exams (Hell week) was the college tradition of holing myself up in the library. Since the library closed at 4, I continuously lugged my books back to my dorm, defeated by the early closing hours.

The location. While St. Louis ranks #1 in most dangerous city in America, WashU (as us students like to call our school) is luckily in one of the safest areas of St. Louis-near the upper-middle class suburbs of Clayton. Yes, living in the suburbs is safe... but it is boring. Also St. Louis is inconvenient to explore without a car, it's a small, deconcentrated city making the metro useless. Also if you are big on food, shopping, partying- it's a bit of a downer.

The lack of school spirit here at Washu is rather depressing. Coming from a high school that had it's entire student body attend all games against our rivale school, attending a college that has none whatsoever seems odd. I have absolutely no qualms wearing high shool paraphernalia yet I feel not as proud when I wear WashU and tend to only do so in the comfort of my room and within campus only.

Overprogramming. It's difficult to schedule events because it seems like there is always so much going on.

I think the worst think about Wash. U. is that it's fairly segregated and although there are cultural events on campus, there is a pretty significant lack of diversity, with no lack for upper-class, white kids.

Public Transportation system of St. Louis is slow, unhelpful, and badly needed for freshmen

worst thing about the school is that it is sometimes too much work and not enough play and there are a lot of wealthy students

The worst thing about the school is in fact what it is best known for; so many students are pre-med at Wash U. Because of the eminence of WUSTL's medicine program, the science classes are designed to weed out potential doctors, the exams are written so students will fail them, and most of the help and tutoring focuses is steered towards chemistry, physics, and other subjects guaranteed to appear on the MCATs. While no department is ignored, it is much more difficult to obtain help in the humanities than it is in any area of the sciences.

There isn't enough community involvement or socioeconomic diversity at WashU. The student body doesn't realize how priviledged they are. Everyone thinks they are "middle class" but the average student's family is quite a bit wealthier than middle class families where I grew up. Students often don't appreciate how lucky they are, and even when they do that knowledge doesn't often translate into action. This isn't to say that WashU students are selfish. They tend to verbally support social change, but this rarely translates into any actual action.

Sometimes the social atmosphere can promote distant and superficial relationships between friends. Sometimes it is common to have a huge group of good friends but not a lot of really close friends.

Very sterile, money focused environment

I think the racial divisions are tough. I am a black student and the majority of the people I know are black. I do everything with that small group of people and now that I'm a senior, I wish I chose to meet more people, because there are SO many cool people here.

St. Louis weather is cold, and I am from LA so it is the worst thing about WashU

The worst thing about Washington University is the cost of education. Because the school is so expensive, it is difficult to have a diverse socioeconomic student population. I also think that since students pay so much money, there should be better regulation of the quality of teaching. Oftentimes, Wash U hires professors with Ph.Ds, who are sometimes more interested in pure knowledge than in teaching their students in an organized, efficient manner.

How well a student does or how much they will learn in a class depends heavily on the professor of that class. While all of the professors here are very knowledgable in their feilds, some cannot relate to students or are not actually responsible people-they may take far too long to return papers or emails. These are the exceptions however, the the many great professors who do a great job and care about their students.