<p>I will ask my H who handles the college money. I think it is a plus that the tuition does not go up yearly. My other child goes to a private HS and it does go up up which is a pain.</p>
<p>thanks for the specifics shell. didn’t realize you were a parent too.</p>
<p>am really struggling with this decision - FSU will cost $10,200 with no real transportation costs. even with $41,800 in schol/grants, GWU is going to cost $15,200 a year in loans. plus transportation to/from FL. i know that’s not a lot of money in the lives of many, but it’s a lot of money in our little world. </p>
<p>just trying to see if there are hidden expenses that will creep up on us later, or if the money i’ve budgeted (tuition = 42,860, housing = $9,280, food = $3,400, fees = 295, and books $1,200) are the only school costs we’re going to see. </p>
<p>with a S who is a JR there - has it been worth the cost? is the education - academic, personal, pre-professional-experiences, urban-living - amazing? </p>
<p>in your S’s experience - was the $3,400 freshman year meal plan enough money for food for the year? were the requirements of how much money has to be spent in different locations a pain? </p>
<p>fixed tutition is a huge plus. </p>
<p>i had noticed that the housing increases quite a bit each year - one of the reason i’m budgeting for the middle of the road housing price rather than the lowest available housing.</p>
<p>1sttimemom: Housing increases more than you may realize. The upperclass dorms for the 2010-11 year are in the over $11,000 to over $12,000 range. So the expense of housing will creep up on you if you’re thinking it will be in the $9200 range past freshman year.</p>
<p>S was able to manage with the $3400 freshman meal plan, but lots of other students didn’t. We were warned at CI that it’s not unusual for students to run out of $. My son is good at watching the budget & managed to not spend more than was on the card from the beginning of the year. In fact, he had $ left over that rolled over to this year. So it can be done, but your child would have to pay attention to how much they’re spending.
Students can track what they’ve spent online, so it’s not hard for them to know how much they have to spend at J St.</p>
<p>You’d have to ask me after he graduates if GW was worth it. He’s focused on public policy & econ, so he really wanted to be in DC. We’ll see if it was worth it if, after all his time in DC, that helps him find a job. He likes the urban living & his internship. Could he have gone to another school with better academics? Absolutely, but it wasn’t in DC.</p>
<p>You have a difficult decision to make.</p>
<p>1sttimemom - there is also a $60 fee per semester for language courses we have seen - “language lab fee”, but other than that I haven’t had any surprises. Oh, there is a $50 “voluntary library gift” on each bill, but you can check a box to decline that.</p>
<p>I think university scholarships are listed as pending on the bill, but they eventually are credited to the account. My D has a scholarship from H’s employer, which arrives several weeks into the fall semester. I usually pay that in the fall, then we get a refund from the university (it is credited to my D’s account and she has to request a check). For the spring semester, the outside scholarship is credited much more quickly and I don’t need to pay it first. I hope I didn’t make that too confusing.</p>
<p>Freshman year D usually had breakfast in her room, and often made a sandwich for lunch too. She used her meal plan money on other things, some at the bookstore, grocery store, etc. Because she went in with AP credits, she was classified as a soph by the second semester of freshman year, and was able to get some of her meal plan money refunded to her, so she was paying at the sophomore rate.</p>
<p>This year she has a full kitchen and cooks more in her room. She was again able to get a partial refund of her food charges second semester because she now has junior status.</p>
<p>mamabear: S will have senior status by the second semester of junior year. Based on your D’s experience, did you (or she) have to request a refund of the meal plan money or did GW charge you the reduced amount for the second semester?</p>
<p>thanks so much for all the great information. </p>
<p>D is pretty good with a budget, so I think she’d be OK there - if others can do it, she’ll be able to… we’re pretty thrifty (right up until we considered going to a 15K school instead of a 10K school! 
)</p>
<p>shell - thanks for the warning about the upper-years housing.<br>
i didn’t expect it to stay at 9,280 - just thought it would be less of a shock to the system to creep from 9K to 11/12K rather than from 7K to 11/12K. :)<br>
Hoping for RA status at some point - if it’s feasible for her, maybe that would help. </p>
<p>we’ve been warned that if D puts any MV dorms on the preference list, she’ll likely end up there - but it sounds like they ask for a lengthy list of preferences - so there doesn’t seem to be a way around that? i wonder what happens if she only puts Crawford and Madison on her preferences?</p>
<p>1sttimemom: I don’t think S has ever put down more than 4 dorm choices when he’s selected housing. He’s never filled out the form with as many choices as they ask for since he didn’t want to end up on MV. On the other hand, I’m not sure what would happen if your D only put down 2 choices.</p>
<p>thanks v much!
</p>
<p>Ya’ll are fabulously helpful!</p>
<p>How is the food situation at GW?</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen it seems like it’s all fast food. Are there any ‘traditional’ dining halls on the FB campus?</p>
<p>Octopod: We have l"dining-hall like" called J street. There are a few food vendors, but it is not the traditional campus dining hall. Most people end up using Gworld elsewhere. Other options include Trader Joes, or Safeway market at Watergate. Food is not cheap anywhere, so when our parents come to see us, instead of going out to museums, etc, we end up in Costco, for the basic needs.</p>
<p>are there cooking facilities in the freshman dorms?</p>
<p>I think in the M. Vernon they are, and in some of the dorms they have a floor kitchen.
Thurston didn’t, nor did Madison. Every year they change so the best to do is to go to gwhousing.com and check the freshman residence halls. Floors plans are detailed in there. Sophomore facilities, I would venture to say that all have kitchens, because dorms become apartment style.</p>
<p>There are microwaves in each room.</p>
<p>and minifridges</p>
<p>Hi It is so nice that you answered this many questions. </p>
<p>I am a foreign student from China and I was accepted by the Columbian School of Arts and Science. I applied Pol sci but it seems that I am more interested in poly sci combined with international affairs. </p>
<p>Do you think it may be possible for me to transfer to the Elliot school of International Affairs after enrolling? Or is it very hard? (and according to your knowledge, between Elliot at GWU and SIS at AU, which is better?)</p>
<p>So, as a student in the school of arts and science, can I take classes in the school of business, or other schools in GWU?</p>
<p>Thank you in advnace!</p>
<p>Sanduo: This question was asked last Friday at an April visit. When GW admits you they are admitting you to the University not just your school in the university, so transferring is semi-possible. The advice was given that if you are pretty sure you want to transfer let your adviser know right off the start and then go talk to an adviser in the other school so you can work your way to meeting the minimum requirements of that school. </p>
<p>I hope this helps a little, I am not a current student but I will be attending in the fall.</p>
<p>Zach</p>
<p>mttallaczach: Hey, Thank you! Oh, I want to go to every school I got accepted physically so bad! But I can’t it is half the world around. Thank you for your information and it really helps!!</p>
<p>Thanks to all you guys. Two questions: First, I am not particularly political - are there others like me? Second, is studying abroad for a semester during the junior year commonplace? Thanks again.</p>
<p>octopod: Honestly, the lack of dining choices is one of my least favorite aspects of GW. The food is predominantly fast food (Wendy’s, Chinese food, burritos, pizza, etc.). It is certainly possible to find healthier food to eat at the J St. Cafe within our main dining area, but the choices can become monotonous. I agree with Multitasker, in that students try to use up their J St. money (meal plan money) as fast as possible, and then depend on their Colonial Cash to get them food afterward, whether it’s from restaurants or supermarkets. In terms of cooking areas, I do not believe that any of the individual rooms have their own kitchens in freshman residence halls. However, residence halls have kitchens in their basements, and House Proctors often have kitchens in their rooms as well that residents can use with permission. As was mentioned above, each room does come with a refrigerator (some are mini-fridges, some are full-size) and a microwave.</p>
<p>fbl0504: GW is definitely a political campus, but it doesn’t dominate every facet of life. I am personally surrounded by political discussions almost all the time, but then again, most of my friends are either International Affairs, Political Science, or Political Communications majors. If you want to discuss politics, it’s not hard to do, but if you don’t want, it’s not difficult to find people discussing other topics as well. You should have no problem finding a niche. As for studying abroad, I am under the impression, based on numerous presentations given by the Study Abroad office, that junior year is the most commonplace time period for students to go abroad, whether for a semester or a full year.</p>
<p>A question to any GW student…</p>
<p>If you transferred colleges within the university, how easy/hard was it?
I still have no idea what to become and what I want to do with my life (although I hear that GW is not a good place to find yourself since it’s more like a professional school), so I want to try out a bunch of things.</p>
<p>Also, am I starting on a wrong foot if I don’t choose a major right away and enroll as an undeclared major student? I know GW puts heavy emphasis on hands-on experience and internships, I just am not sure what my future is going to look like.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance!</p>