College Tour '10: Washington University in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, MO
Washington University
From a parent

This looks like the quintessential university. Everything looks pristine, almost like a movie set, and the admissions operation, flawless. Perfect, perfect in every which way. If Disney was going to build a campus, it might look like this.

The dorm rooms are beautiful. And a lot of buildings have opened in the past five years. Obviously they have a lot of money.

Their info session was the best we had, and we had seen a lot of schools. They had a dynamic professor who had been on campus for 30 years, and they had a student, and an admissions person. We hadn’t seen that combination anywhere else. We learned a lot about the school.

Our tour guide had a microphone, the only guide to have one on any of our tours. Eating must be a popular event, because the guide pointed out all the dozens of places to eat on campus. The food is really good.

There’s not a lot of emphasis on sports; the football stadium is a historic site and they aren’t allowed to make improvements. But the kids seemed really happy; a lot wore Wash U shirts, and everybody seems to be very psyched about the place.

This is one in a series of reports that parents and students are contributing about their campus tours this spring. If you have visited a school and would like to participate, email me a brief report at theanswersheet@washpost.com. You can find out more about College Tour ’10 and how to write about your college visit here.

Go to http://timespace.washingtonpost.com/project/college-2010/ to see more college posts in the series.