Right now we are in the phase of the year often termed April Welcome, an incredibly important weekend for Washington University to entice its newly admitted students to matriculate.
We decided for this issue to rerun an old staff editorial about April Welcome from April 9, 1996, seven years ago. We did this to highlight some of the differences between WU seven years ago and WU as it exists now. For example, the acceptance rate has decreased from approximately 50 percent at the time this article was written to just around 25 percent currently. Over the course of just seven years the acceptance rate dropped to half of what it was.
Also, 11,000 students applied to WU in the fall of 1995 for admission to the 1996 entering class. This is almost half the number that apply now; WU currently receives around 22,000 applications per year.
The writers of this 1996 staff editorial were apparently right in their assumption that increasing the caliber of students admitted will increase WU’s prestige. The U.S. News and World Report ranking of Washington University currently stands at #12, placing it alongside or ahead of several Ivy League universities. When this 1996 staff editorial was written, WU was ranked alongside more regional schools such as Vanderbilt and the University of Michican.
Like the writers of this editorial, we encourage students to host prospective freshmen. It is one of the best ways for a prospective student to learn what life is like at WU and how wonderful it is to be a student here. In addition, the financial incentives have increased substantially from the Blockbuster movie rental, among others, listed in the article.
“Greater selectivity will improve school”
Yellow tulips cover the campus and students, faculty and staff don yellow buttons to match. It’s not just April, it’s April Welcome, that time of year when high school students invade campus to decide if they want to make WU home.
This year the spring ritual has greater significance, since 2,000 more applicants have applied to WU than last year, bringing the total number of applicants to over 11,000.
In just one year, the percent of students we accepted has dropped from 56 percent to 50 percent, reflecting the overall declining rate for the past few years. In addition, there was also a 13 percent increase in minority enrollment from last year to this year and 60 percent more campus visits.
This is good news for two reasons. An increase in selectivity means the school admits higher caliber students. It also enhances our prestige, allows us to attract superior faculty members, and make improvements in many other areas.
Our selectivity is still a far cry from most Ivy League schools which average about 25 percent selectivity ratings. (Harvard’s rating is around 11 percent.)
There are certainly quantitative ways in which our school is not on par with schools with higher selectivity. Our selectivity rating cannot improve without also improving the quality of the academic program, the library, student-faculty interaction and living conditions.
But a better caliber student and an improved university go hand in hand; one spurs the other along. As students we can help the process along in one small way: by hosting a prospective freshman. It would be foolish to underestimate the importance of campus visits as a critical determining factor for a high school student. A prospective freshman’s impression is bound to be unfavorable if they believe that WU didn’t care enough about them to provide housing during their stay. It is our responsibility as students to provide housing for future students.
Even if you have no motivation other than sheer bribery, there are great incentives. For hosting a student for one evening, you will receive your choice of an AMC movie pass, a Blockbuster movie rental, or a St. Louis Bread Co. gift certificate. If you host on certain weekends, including the weekend of Thurtene, when fewer students are available to host, you will receive double the incentive.
It takes both personal attention during the application and visiting process as well as a strong overall school to attract ideal students. We must focus on improving both; our school’s increased success will follow.