Sure, I’d be happy to take this question. So Foggy Bottom is actually a pretty safe campus- anything within a 2 mile proximity of campus is very safe. You have to remember that George Washington is right in the middle of Washington DC, a government town. This means that there’s usually a lot of security guards patrolling the area since you have high security infrastructure such as the World Bank and IMF. Anything relatively close to World Bank or IMF is pretty safe. Now, there are definitely some poor beggars and deranged homeless citizens from time to time but the trick is to just not make eye contact with them or engage them. There’s always a few beggars standing outside of the Whole Foods on campus…just don’t engage them and put your head down and walk by. In terms of areas you want to stay away from, you want to stay away from the Georgetown Waterfront later at night if you’re not a pothead. The spot has become a really popular lowkey smoking spot. Also, I would avoid Columbia Heights, Brentwood, Deanwood, Stadium-Armory and definitely stay away from Hyattsville, Maryland. Everything along New York avenue is also pretty safe since you have a lot of upscale restaurants and bars such as Echostage.
There are multiple methods of transportation that you can take such as campus shuttles, DC connector, Uber, Lyft, and the metro. A lot people take Ubers on weekends to go out and party at Echostage or nearby bars. That’s definitely one thing you’ll notice on Friday and Saturday nights…lots of dressed up college students coming back in Ubers punchlights drunk or stoned. There’s also the Ubereats app if you’re fancying some late night cuisine. Overall, you should be very safe and if anything don’t forget there are campus security buttons located around campus. The frat life here isn’t too big since GW is a private school; the trade off is that you get a more open sandbox experience when it comes to the nightlife partying. On a Saturday or Friday night you’ll meet plenty of Gtown, American and Howard kids which is definitely a huge plus. Don’t forget there’s also lots of corporate workers here so there’s really an opportunity to get to know people and make connections.