<p>stocktrader: Quite a loaded question! I hope I do GW justice. To start with, I feel as though it’s useful to point out that GW was ranked as the nation’s number one “Most Politically Active” campus this past year. Besides the obvious advantages of being more “in the city” and substantially closer to the Metro system (allowing for much easier access to internships), the campus itself is always buzzing with political discussion, and political debates between the College Democrats and the College Republicans are popular spectacles. It’s very difficult to be politically apathetic at GW; everyone seems to have an opinion. I always joke that there’s no need for GW to have a football team, since the frequent protests and counter-protests happening on campus provide enough excitement (and usually have very high turnouts!). In terms of academics, I will say that both our Political Science and our International Affairs departments are very strong and very comprehensive when it comes to the curriculum offered. I think it’s also worth noting that if your son is interested in international politics, we are one of the few universities in the country to have an entire school devoted to the study of International Affairs. I hope this helps, but please let me know if there are any other specific issues you would like me to address that I may not have touched on.</p>
<p>imadad: Most kids have their own laptops. Both Mac and PCs are supported by the university, with an equal degree of quality. The majority of students have to pay for printing (I say “the majority” because engineering students get free printing at the engineering school) if they use a school printer. Many people have printers in their rooms, and those who don’t often use the printers of those who do. I would highly recommend that when your son or daughter finds out who his/her roommate(s) is/are, that they work out a system that allows everyone to use a printer that one of them buys. For example, one of my roommates brought a printer to school, and in return for being able to use it, I buy the paper and cover half the cost of the ink. Having a printer in your room is very, very convenient, especially if you live somewhere on-campus that is far away from a printing center.</p>
<p>Imadad: I would add regarding the computer issues, not to buy them at the GW bookstore. They will end up being twice as expensive. MAc it seems to be the computer of choice around campus. I am stuch with a Lenovo and I always have problems with it. As for the printers, agree with Carly, I don’t know one person that at least shares a computer per room. so much easier than going to the Gelman library in the middle of the night. Besides, most computers now come with a printer if you get them for example at Best Buy or the like.</p>
<p>autumnchocolate: Hello! The only placement tests I know of are from the language department and the mathematics department. The tests themselves are not for a grade, but merely to place you in the correct level of either the language or mathematics course you’re taking. I myself only took the language placement test. It was very straightforward and not terribly time-consuming.</p>
<p>rebeccalee247: The majority of engineering students tend to be isolated from the rest of the school, but it is self-imposed. In some regards, it makes sense, as engineering majors take many of the same classes together and often elect to live together in whichever dorm has been dubbed the “Engineering Dorm” for that year. This isolation does not have to be the case, however. I’m not an engineering major, but three of my closest friends here are engineers. The isolation is very much on an individual-by-individual basis. If you want to hang out with primarily engineers, then you will. If you want friends who are in the engineering program, but also friends outside of that discipline, then you will.</p>
<p>@octopod: You take them on Blackboard prior to coming to Colonial Inauguration. You will not be penalized if you haven’t taken them by that point, but it will make forming your first-semester schedule more difficult, since you won’t know what level language or mathematics (or both) class you should be looking at.</p>
<p>1stimemom: 1. I am under my parent’s insurance and opted not to use GW’s, I used their services during the flu season, and I had no problems with my own insurance. It’s really a matter of choice. Not necessarily a downside to either.
2. The chances to get to Crawfors as just as good as to get into any of the other dorms. They do a lottery where they match the student’s preferences, and they look then at the dorm choices and tha’s how they do the selection. If your kid knows whom he wants to dorm with and both select the same dorm, who knows, that maybe increasing the chances.</p>
<p>1sttimemom: I’m still on my parents’ health insurance plan, as are all of my friends that I talked to, and as far as we can tell, there is no downside to not opting for student health insurance. I’ve had to visit Student Health Services a few times, and having “regular” health insurance did nothing to hinder my treatment or the resultant paperwork. Statistically speaking, it is easier to get into Thurston (solely because there are more beds available in such a large dorm). However, if your son or daughter wants to live in a smaller dorm, he or she should make sure to preference them higher on their housing list. I would just warn you that unless he or she would truly not mind living on the Vern, they should not put any of those dorms on their list. There is a much higher living demand for the Foggy Bottom campus than the Vern, so if any of the Vern dorms are on his or her list, it’s more likely that they’ll be placed there, even if there are six Foggy Bottom dorms listed before it.</p>
<p>i have a few questions about money - if anyone has any answers, that’d be great!</p>
<p>just to let you know where i’m coming from:
D is a potential in-coming freshman from out of state - FL. accepted to SMPA and rcvd a Presidential Arts Scholarship. also accepted to several state schools - less expensive in cost and travel.</p>
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<p>thanks so much for any light you can shed!
we have a big financial decision to make and your input would be helpful, i’m sure! :)</p>
<p>Firstimemom: Many of the FA questions I will not be ablle to answer and will defer to the other students. My parents are handling that, I help from the periphery. </p>
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<p>I think if you take off the cost of books bought at the bookstore rather than at Amazon, and buy mor ate Safeway than at the Jstreet cafes, and buy tickets online rather than traditional travel agent companies, the cost will drop about 1500 dollars or so.</p>
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<p>Fees show up for “sneezing the wrong way” THe funniest fee is the 'will charge you for dropping a course and adding one after the 1st week of classes, at 80 dollars each"
It’s Washington and yes, fees are present at a constant rate.</p>
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<p>Not easy at all. My sibling is a junior there, and she is constantly studying or doing outside, field work. Yesterday she was shooting at midnight. Work study if administrative, it may be doable. the other issue, which GW is working on, is that for study abroad, for SmPA, they aren’t many choices, so unless you can take electives overseas, SMPA courses will not easily be transfered, which is a bummer. My sibling is forced to stay in town because of that.</p>
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<p>Student Account office is well run, but the FA kind of slacks on it, sometimes you have to go 3 times before they can help you, or wat 45 minutes on the phone listening to Tonny Bennet ad nauseum!</p>
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<p>registering is not difficult at all, but you are at luck during the first semester, because you may have to take courses you hate but meet the general curriculum.</p>
<p>i’d be interested in hearing anything more you can tell me about specific fees you know of. </p>
<p>at some schools there seems to be a fee-paloosa, at others, they’re all pretty much packaged into the tuition. sounds like GWU is the former?</p>
<p>have you experienced many “surprise” fees? (other than the drop/add fee?)</p>
<p>if she attends, GWU is going to be a financial struggle, to say the least… surprise expenses - like frequent fees - won’t be easy to manage ya know? </p>
<p>do you end up spending much money out of pocket on school stuff (non personal spending/eating)? </p>
<p>thanks for letting me know about smpa and study-abroad… if she goes to an instate school, study abroad is a posibility, if she’ goes to GWU - it’s not even in the realm of possibility. </p>
<p>i’d be interested to know if your sister knows of anyone in SMPA who also has the arts scholarship requiring them to participate in productions.</p>
<p>a list of dorm possibilities - can freshman live in all of these? how many do you have to put on the preference list? is it first come first served? when do you register for a room?</p>
<p>1 - Schenley - $8,300
2 - Fullbright - $9,280
3 - Crawford - $9,280
4 - Building JJ Hall - $8,300
5 - Madison - $9,280
6 - West End - $8,300</p>
<p>what happened to Layfayette? It’s missing from the price list but is on the website.</p>
<p>and do they actually cost the amount given on the pricelist?<br>
there are multiple floor plans for each building - do all of them cost the same amount (if that’s the only price listed for that dorm - unlike, say Thurston which is on two pricelists - depending on number of roommates)?</p>
<p>The Freshman Housing site opens April 20th - online. The hurry - site closes may14th. Then prioritization starts with ED1>ED>RD in hat order. It’s best to list the preference by Dorm name.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Crwaford & Madison are freshman dorms; the others you listed are soph dorms, I believe.</p>
<p>If you’re in CCAS & have to take 3 lab science course, GW also charges a lab fee for each course, usually aound $70 per course. </p>
<p>S is going to be a junior & we have never seen our COA decrease in his time at GW. Even though tuition is fixed & “meal plan” charges have decreased, the costs of housing not only increase around 3% per year for each dorm, but the dorms that are available for each grade level get progressively more expensive. </p>
<p>DC is an expensive city, but it’s S’ responsibility to pay for books, eating out other than on GWorld, movies, etc. Even ordering books online, he’s spent as much as $400-500 in some semesters, depending on what classes he’s taking & how many books are required.</p>