Washington University in St. Louis

Love this place. Olin Business School is fantastic. Support around every corner. Beyond Vet friendly with Yellow Ribbon and scholarships. Honored to be apart of a great program.

I was never a student at this university, but I have visited a number of times. The campus is beautiful and well maintained.

Been here since 2010 in UCollege & I like it! My advisor (Carl Williams) is a God send who has guided me along the way with EXCEPTIONALLY GREAT advice!!! There are some great perks WASH-​U offers its students that I’m just now finding out about and overall, this has been a pretty decent experience and UCollege is affordable… something that shocked me!

Academically excellent. Monetarily a money making machine run like a large for profit corporation. Unlike any other college I’ve ever heard of, Wash U charges a fee for on campus dining even when you live off campus. They charge everyone $ 620 for the student health center, IN ADDITION to the REQUIRED health insurance which went from $ 800 to over $ 1350 for basically 8 months coverage. Classes start at end August, Xmas break is 2 – 3 weeks, academic year ends early May. The dorm rooms are tiny doubles and expensive with bathrooms and showers down the hall.. I can’t tell if you pay for on campus housing when you live off campus but if they find a way to do that, I’m sure they will. If you are extremely wealthy, it’s a good school; but you pay fees that are unheard of at other colleges and universities. If you are reading this after academic years 2014 – 2015 I’m sure the above fees are higher.

Came here for family graduation. Parking was plenty so there shouldn’t be a problem during the school year. Lots of decorations and art scattered around campus. The Mudd Field has very patchy inconsistant grass. Most buildings have bags for your wet umbrellas. Weather here isn’t normal but that’s not the school’s problem.

This looks like a gorgeous campus. Came here for a wedding and WOW. You clearly see the difference between public and private universities. They had gas bonfires, a hotel on campus, built in BIKE PUMPS! I know my college couldn’t have afforded that. But at roughly $ 48k/​student I guess they can.

More than 60% of undergraduates perform research in this school. The university helps students discern their own research paths, and they provide financial support for undergraduate research on campus or anywhere in the world. Last they facilitate the presentation and publication of student research.
Typically students choose a major area of study by the end of the sophomore year. Students have ample time to look into subject areas that they may not have touched on before. Advisors meet with students each semester, and more often if desired, to discuss academic and career goals.

Gorgous university! Very competitive to get in. Also very liberal. Shocked by student newspaper — NR rated!

Universities really require more than A visit to rate but if you’re exploring universities, there’s a few things you should know about Wash U.
1) It’s the real deal. Sure, there are some impressive numbers you’ll find — only 17% of applicants accepted, 14^th in the country behind the likes of Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Duke, Stanford, MIT (according to US News and World Report), but what you don’t see are some things that only become apparent during a visit. There’s a mix of competitive motivation and collaboration that may just be a thing you only get in America’s heartland.
2) The campus is beautiful. This is no sleeper. And no façade-​deep beauty. Once you pass through the arch into The Quad, you get the feeling that you’ve arrived. There’s an immediate feeling of wanting this place to live up to all that you’ve heard so you can end your search.
3) You seem to get what you pay for (It’s Not Cheap). My daughter is still a high school senior and is planning to apply this fall to Wash U so I can’t make any factual representations of the quality of education except for the exhaustive research we’ve done but everything I’ve seen makes me feel like Washington University is an Ivy League quality school in the midwest. That said, I’ll update this over the next 12 years as she makes her way through undergrad, med school, and residency.

Definitely a great school. The Law School isn’t too shabby either.

beautiful campus!!!

WashU is where I spent the best four years of my life. Yes, it is a private school and pretty expensive, but I made the choice that I was willing to pay for my happiness. It was well worth it.
What I LOVED about WashU was the ambition of the students there. Being around other intelligent & hard working students pushed me to become one myself. Unlike other top Ivy League schools, WashU is competitive but not cut-​throat. Students study together and help each other out with homework, and it is that friendliness and ambition that I miss.
RANKING
— #14 by US News and Report for overall top university for undergrad.
— #4 Medical school
— #18 Law school
-# 20 MBA
— # 8 BSBA (represent!)
— #4 Architecture
ACADEMICS
Really well rounded schools. WashU has solid programs in medicine, business, engineering, architecture, art, English, politics, public health, social work, etc.
It’s easy to switch your major. If you decide at the end of freshman year you don’t actually want to be a doctor, it is as easy as signing a sheet of paper to switch to say… the business school :)
FOOD
WashU’s campus food is consistently ranked among the top 10 in the nation. It is delicious and sustainable. Bön Appetite tries to use fresh local produce, organic, and cage-​free when possible. There’s a wide variety of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options as well. As a foodie, I highly value this :)
DORMS
Dorms like palaces. Two words — tempurpedic mattresses. As a freshman, you have two choices of dorms. Traditional or modern. Traditional buildings are a bit older and made of concrete, have 2 communal bathrooms on each floor (one for guys, one for girls). This really helps to build camaraderie. Modern dorms are newer and almost seem like hotels. They have really thin walls, but are usually two doubles connected by a bathroom. I lived in a traditional and loved it, and those from moderns love it as well. There’s also cleaning service to come clean the bathrooms and replenish toilet paper.
BEAUTIFUL CAMPUS
Has what I consider happy gothic architecture (Pink stone instead of grey). Everyone who visits the campus falls in love with its beauty. Fall colors are freaking amazing and so are the blooming cherry blossoms in the Spring. WashU spends a LOT of money maintaining landscaping, so you can betcha it’ll be gorgeous.
SIZE
Mid-​sized school. Undergrad class of 7K makes it small enough where you know someone everywhere you go, but big enough to be able to meet new people.
CO-​CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Freshman yr orientation, they explained that WashU doesn’t call it «extra-​curricular activities», but «co-​curricular activities.» The idea is that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. Being involved with clubs and making decisions in leadership are just as important in a student’s preparation for the real world as what they learn academically. Programming for student groups are run by students for students. If you can’t find a club you like among the 200+ clubs there are, it is really easy to start your own club. I was involved with Asian Christian Fellowship, Delta Sigma Pi business frat, and a Residential Advisor.
CAREER PREP
Solid career center. If you are proactive and diligent in utilizing the career center as a resource, it will do you wonders, especially the Weston Career Center in the b-​school. I’ve gotten all my internships and a job coming out of college from my connections through the career center.
DIVERSITY
There is literally someone from every state, and so now when I try to travel to all 50 states, I know someone from each state that I would be able to visit. There are also people from all over the world, like a handful of Nigerian princesses. My professional network is also huge because not only do I know other business folks, but I also have friends who will be future doctors, architects, designers, engineers, and politicians.
LOCATION
St. Louis, MO is not as dangerous as ppl say. Like in any other city, just be smart. Also, because STL is in the middle of the country, I’ve covered most of the US by road tripping to LA, Houston, Atlanta, and New Jersey. STL is also the best place for fun free things to do. Forest Park across the street has a free zoo, free art musuem, free science center, free history museum, Shakespeare in the Park, etc. The Missouri Botanical Garden also has free jazz concerts Wednesday nights in the summer.
CONS
— People always thought I was either in Seattle or in D.C. NO FOLKS. It’s St. Louis, Missouri, which is in the middle of the US.
— Price tag. Like all other private schools out there, tuition is getting into the $ 50K/​year range. Yikes! Though WashU is really good about giving financial aid to those who actually need it.
–People study a LOT
–Lack of sports school pride. Don’t get me wrong, WashU is BALLER at sports and consistently makes it as National Champions in Division III for basketball, volleyball, tennis and soccer. But it is no D1.
I would do it all over again here :)

Recently, I had the pleasure of taking a 14+++ hr drive that started out in Houston, to Austin, helped pack up the U-​Haul, and trek to STL.
Why? You might ask, because one of my good friends and pledge brother got accepted to WashU on basically a full ride to their Law School!!!
I was so proud of him, that I wasn’t thinking straight when he asked for help moving in. Looking back… I would have probably still done it but I would of at least hesitated. Upon dropping him off for the first time for orientation I couldn’t grasp the beauty of this school.
It felt like all of the buildings were small castles. This campus is one of the best I’ve seen nationwide.

Amazing campus with great staff members on every level! They have the best dinning facility and food that I’ve encountered thus far and I work on college campuses. Easily one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation. A green campus that is state of the art in function, service and education. Wash U is noted as one of the top institutes in the nation.

Ok, so for my 100^th Unilocal review, I had to find something that I REALLY loved, and hadn’t reviewed yet. My alma mater, you say? My love knows no bounds.
Obviously, reviewing a college on Unilocal is a bit non-​traditional (and probs non-​Elite), but bear with me as I celebrate my special moment.
I love you Wash U. And I miss you. I’m ready to go back to college now.

I visited the campus during a Ph.D. recruitment event.
I stayed at the Knight Center and it was great. The campus itself is beautiful and it’s hard to describe the aesthetics.
The only school that is prettier is perhaps Duke’s campus, but they really aren’t comparable to each other. They have their charm. Their own beauty. Both are really indescribable.
I would have had a ball photographing the entire campus if I came here!

I am a bit surprised to even find Wash U on Unilocal.Go somewhere besides Unilocal if you are deciding what college to go to. If you are visiting St. Louis and looking for a nice walk however, Wash U has a beautiful campus and some interesting architecture. There is also a pretty good art museum associated with the art school. A visit might be a good way to kill an hour or two.
If you are hungry, all the restaurants are open to the public. Holmes lounge is a great bet for lunch. Just ask a student and they will point you towards it. They serve excellent sandwiches and wraps with freshly carved roasted meat (varies by day).

I recently completed my MBA in the professional program at the Olin Business School. My experience is specifically about the business school and my time on campus.
Yes, WashU is expensive, but you will get an experience like no other school in St. Louis. Some of the smartest people I have ever met were my classmates and professors. The staff are a great group of people and truly care about your success.
The campus is gorgeous. If you get the chance, spend an afternoon exploring the campus with its amazing architecture and varied scenery. My favorite memories of WashU are being on campus on cold snowy evenings. It is so peaceful and the perfect setting to walk around and to watch the snow fall.

If you’re trying to decide on undergraduate or graduate school, I hate to break it to you, but Unilocal is not the tool to be using.
On the other hand, as a tourist destination, Washington University (known as WashU or WUSTL) is not a bad place to be. The campus is absolutely beautiful, so it’s definitely worth parking and walking up to the main quad at least once. You’ll also find the Kemper Art Museum here, too, which has been separately reviewed on Unilocal.
There are at least two bookstores where you can buy WUSTL and St. Louis apparel, and there are a lot of options for lunch, too: the food court in the Danforth University Center (DUC; the student union), a Subway, and Ibby’s, a table service restaurant also in the DUC.
Go Bears!

Since this is my alma mater, I think I’m pretty much required to give it a good rating.
Positives:
–Beautiful campus. There are hardly any better looking campuses around. When I was an undergrad, there were still a few ugly buildings but the university was wise and got rid of them
–Excellent academics. World-​renown for its medical school, it is also very strong in the sciences and poly sci (kinda like where I am now for grad school– UCSD). Personally, I avoid the sciences, but I still received an excellent education in the humanities.
–Its size. Besides one class with 250 students, nearly all my classes were under 100 students. Upper-​level classes generally had 30 or less. I had a handful of classes with under 10 students. Good luck finding that at a public university. There are around 5,000 undergrads. That’s big enough where you don’t get sick of seeing the same people every day but small enough where it feels like a small community.
Negatives:
–Too many people from NY & NJ. Wash U is like an island of New Yorkers in St. Louis. And while I love NY, I don’t love every type of New Yorker.
–It feels like you’re on an island. Students really don’t explore St. Louis much beyond the Loop and maybe the Central West End. Granted, St. Louis ain’t exactly heaven on earth, but there are some cool areas worth exploring.
–If you’re wanting to party a lot, Wash U probably isn’t for you. I transfered there after my freshman year and was amused at people thinking partying from Thursday through Saturday was a big deal. Umm isn’t that what any studious college student does?