Wash U's academics are incredibly flexible. Virtually every student I met was pursuing multiple, sometimes quite different, academic programs. Interested in neuroscience, dance, and Arabic? Fine - you can explore all of those. Students are offered lots of advising so that they don't get lost. It's totally possible to chart your own path, no matter how diverse your interests are. Additionally, there are some year-long seminar courses, collaborative classes, and service-learning opportunities. You can start the business curriculum in your freshman year, which is somewhat unique among highly selective undergrad business programs. This includes taking a business freshman seminar class in which you work towards creating a marketable product. The engineering college emphasizes creativity and imagination, along with problem solving. It offers a 5-year BS/MS as well as a 5-year BS/MBA. Students go on to business school, law school, and med school, along with those who pursue careers in engineering. If you're interested in design, visual arts, or architecture, you can study in the Sam Fox College of Art and Architecture while continuing to take classes in other disciplines.
To me, Wash U is a great fit for someone whose intellectual curiosity pulls them in different directions. Socially, Wash U's culture isn't dominated by sports or Greek life. It actually sounds like the DIII sports, though very competitive, aren't much of a draw. Instead, students seemed to have lots of varying social interests. They also come from all over the place - lots of different types of people from highly diverse backgrounds. The common thread was that they were all engaged in the Wash U student community in multiple ways, while at the same studying interesting combinations of majors and disciplines.
