@rosebudd21 freshman year is pretty frustrating when it comes to registering, so don’t fret if you don’t get everything you want. The key is the be flexible. As far as “specific time slots”, 5 classes shouldn’t fill-up your schedule so you should be able to find somethjng that fits. In case you weren’t aware, GWeb has an “advanced search” function that lets you search for classes on certain days and time frames. You can try that to see what else you could take between two classes. It might be something you haven’t thought of and happens to fulfill a general requirement.
Does anyone know what Mitchell Hall is like? I know it’s single rooms so do people usually take a while to make friends or because it’s singles people have lots of open door policies?
@NHuffer Thanks! I didn’t know you could search for specific times, that should help a lot! My AP credits have covered a lot of gen eds so I’m trying to focus on my major requirements and other prerequisites that I need so I don’t have a whole lot of variety of classes to choose from. And some of the gen eds I need to do have already had upperclassmen fill up the most of the courses that I could take in the 1000s. I would never have thought scheduling would be this stressful lol
@Kd6410 Mitchell takes a little more effort to make friends since it’s just you in a room. In other situations, you can always befriend your roommate or your roommate’s friends. Yes, there’s an “open door policy” and it’s wise to use it. Some recluses go to Mitchell and will keep their doors closed, but if you keep yours open it’s much easier to meet other students.
@rosebudd21 Yeah, stressful indeed, lol. Don’t worry too much this first year, though. If you’ve got a lot of gen eds covered then just take what’s interesting to you. There’s always slack built-in to schedules, plus you can’t take all required classes as most have prerequisites.
What are the nicest dorms to live in as an incoming Junior? Excluding cost and only considering factors like location, amenities(A.C, bathroom set up, etc), and privacy.
@msport Excluding cost, Amsterdam, Shenkman, and District are the best.
@msport I agree with @liveyourlife26 's choices, but I also like 1959 E St as it’s got a really sweet roof-top terrace.
@liveyourlife26 @NHuffer It looks like district is really nice! @NHuffer I can’t seem to find any pictures of the 1959 E St. housing and the rooftop terrace on GW’s website. But that sounds awesome and i’ll look into it more!
Thanks
What are the Politics & Values and the University Honors programs like, and how selective are they?
I’m trying to make mock schedules for my classes and I can really only fit UW in at 4:10-5:25 unless I want an early morning class (which I don’t). I’ve looked at how long it takes to get to and from the vern with traffic at that time and it looks like it could take 30 min or more. That means I probably wouldn’t get back to FB until 6:00. Should I just wait until next semester to try to have it at a time where there is less traffic? Or is it not that big of deal?
@rosebudd21 it depends on what you want. You’re right in that traffic at that time will make the shuttle ride closer to 30 minutes. My suggestion? Use UW days as an opportunity to eat dinner at GW’s only cafeteria, which just so happens to be on the Vern. It’ll also be a chance to meet more students, and us Vernies are pretty cool people
@NHuffer Will you please discuss GWU’s Student Association? I’m transferring this fall, and I’m really interested in continuing my involvement with student government. Further, in general, what is your perspective on transfer students at GWU? Do you find that they express any kind of struggle that is abnormal from those who attend GWU as freshmen? Thanks!
@Yellowstone307 To answer your second question quite frankly, it really just depends where you’re transferring from. First and foremost, if you’re wondering whether there’s like an overall stigma against transfers at GWU like at some universities then rest assured nobody here really pays attention to that. Nobody will know you’re a transfer unless you tell them so it’s not as if that’s something you have to disclose. Now, some transfer students might struggle depending on which or community college they attended and what courses they took. If you have to take upper division accounting or economics classes, for example, the curriculum at a community college course may lack certain prerequisite content or concepts included in GW’s structured curriculum. In other cases, you may really not find the class to be easier or less difficult particularly if you’re very engaged or interested in the course. Speaking to my experience at George Washington, there were certain upper division business courses that I thought were pretty brutal because my community college prerequisite courses didn’t really cover certain prerequisite material in great breadth. In other ostensibly difficult courses, such as one of my upper division political science courses, I performed very well because I was really interested in the subject matter and had a great professor. Overall, I wouldn’t really say that transfers experience any abnormal difficulties though I would be lying if I said I haven’t met any that haven’t. I think if you have both realistic expectations about the relative difficulty of classes and study habits then you should be fine; I will also say that some classes at George Washington have also been of the same difficulty as any other community college courses I’ve taken.
@Yellowstone307 I was in the Student Association for a few years. What specific questions do you have about it?
Thank you, so much! I really appreciate your perspective! Your points about the classes are quite sobering, so I’ll make sure that I allow myself time to appropriately study to ensure that I’m absorbing the material. I’m looking forward to this experience!
@liveyourlife26 I’m really interested in knowing if you believe it’s difficult for students who didn’t begin at GWU as freshmen to be successfully appointed or elected to various positions in the SA. I’ve been involved in student government for approximately six years, so I definitely want to continue my passion for student governance and representation, but I also understand that the university is larger than my previous one. Further, as a transfer student, what are the opportunities to get elected in the fall/spring? I will be classified as a junior, based upon my number of transferable credit, so possibly there are elections in that regard? Additionally, do you find that there’s a negative perspective of the SA? I’ve been reading through articles published by the Hatchet, as well as the SA website for information, but I believe that it’s also important to hear from students who were members or directly involved in another way. I hope my questions make sense and are not too numerous! Thanks!
@Yellowstone307 No worries at all! I am happy to help.
There are two components of the SA: the Cabinet and the Senate. People obtain Cabinet positions through appointment and obtain Senate positions through elections. I began my involvement with the SA during my freshmen year, but there are definitely plenty of opportunities to get involved after freshmen year. In fact, it is much easier to do so because there are only three freshmen Senate positions (along with committee aids and a separate freshmen advisory group).
Senate elections are always held in the spring, but there are usually a couple vacancies for positions in the fall. There are sometimes vacancies for Cabinet positions in the fall as well. In the beginning of the year, make sure you read your weekly emails that are sent automatically to every student from the SA. If there are vacant positions, it will have the application on there with deadlines. For the Cabinet, vacant positions are set by appointment. For the Senate, I believe they select their top applicants and then the Senate debates/votes on the candidates.
Frankly, everyone hates The Hatchet, so I would take what they say with a grain of salt. The stereotype is they believe they are real reporters and thus, try to dig out every detail of XYZ and make XYZ look bad. It is hard to say what the average student’s perspective is of the SA as I have always been involved in the SA during my time at GW, and thus, I am biased lol. However, I will say people get pretty into election season when it comes. During the school year, I would say some people pay attention to the SA and some people do not. Overall, being a very politically active school, I feel as people within the SA take it pretty seriously and have made great improvements to the school especially within the last couple of years.
@liveyourlife26 Thank you for your explanation! I hope you don’t mind if I ask a few more questions! Would you be willing to discuss the Class Council? Is that separate from the elections within the executive branch and the at-large senators? Further, I’m going to be a student in the Elliott School, are school-specific seats elected in the spring, as well? What are your thoughts about the requirement of candidates – or candidate-hopefuls – to collect signatures? If my interpretation of the available information on the SA website is correct, one must obtain a specific number of signatures to even be a candidate, so what’s that process like for you or in general? Would you argue that it’s a pretty challenging aspect or are people open to signing your candidacy petition without knowing you too well?
@Yellowstone307 Class Council and the SA are very different. Class Council’s duties consist of planning fun events for students whereas the SA is focused on adding/removing/improving university policies. The former is more equivalent to what one’s typical high school student government consisted of.
I believe Class Council elections take place a couple weeks after the SA elections, but do not quote me on that. There are not school-specific seats in Class Council elections, although there are for the Senate. There are “at-large undergraduate” positions, along with school specific positions. Basically, if you are an at-large senator, you work for the student body as a whole. If you have a school-specific position, you are supposed to work on policies specifically in whatever school you are in. I do have to note that Elliott and at-large positions tend to be competitive, so I am not sure if they will have vacant seats, but definitely check for that. You can also check for vacant Cabinet seats, although Cabinet and the Senate positions are pretty different.
For a similar organization to Class Council, there is also the Residence Hall Association (RHA) that you can check out. They basically plan events specifically for the dorm that they are in. Elections for positions are done in the beginning of the school year and you get votes only from your specific dorm building.
I would say the requirement of candidate signatures is pretty important. At the same time, the requirement was the same for me in high school, so I have never known what it would be like to not have that requirement, if that makes sense. I have signed multiple peoples’ petitions without knowing them well, so I definitely say it is easy to accomplish. I believe the requirement is more so to have people run who are actually serious about running. Some people say they do not have “enough time” to get them (aka procrastinated), but that makes me question why in the world they then think they have enough time to do well in the position.
As a parent of GW student, I am very displeased with the SA, and mostly the censure of Brady Forrest and how that was handled. .Also that he was a much older graduate student also disturbed me. There have also been other issues in the past as well. They have raised some good issues though. I am hoping that this spring’s elections will shake the apple tree. This is just my opinion.