What does Georgetown do, if anything, to ensure that new students find friends and a niche on campus?
What is the student body like (competitive? collaborative? preppy? casual?)
Is there a strong on-campus community, or does having DC nearby draw a lot of students away from the campus?
Hi! I don’t have a lot of recent info since I graduated in 1993, but the one thing I would highly recommend is buying season basketball tickets freshman year. It was pretty much THE social center for students during my freshman year, including the long bus ride out to Landover (which you don’t have to do anymore, thankfully). The student tickets were the best you could get – right on the floor – and the energy was off the charts. I wasn’t a huge basketball fan going in but I absolutely loved getting to have that experience with my classmates. Getting the chance to see Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo up close before they went into the NBA was something I’ll never forget!
“Is there a strong on-campus community, or does having DC nearby draw a lot of students away from the campus?”
My DD is an incoming freshman. I am very impressed with how strong the on-campus community is at GU, particularly given all of the off-campus opportunities in the G’town neighbourhoood and DC in general. My son goes to a Uni with a poor on-campus atmosphere (UMiami) so we were very focused on campus life at the schools that DD toured. We made multiple visits to GU and we consistently saw kids hanging out on the lawns chatting or walking in groups of 2 - 4 engaged in animated discussions. Also, the requirement to stay on campus for 3 years is somewhat unique for schools of GU’s size so that helps keep a strong campus culture past freshman year.
Having the neighborhood of Georgetown steps away from campus can be a diversion for students and it does move some of the social life off campus as well as some meals. Clubs can also be competitive and harder to join then at other schools. For this reason, it can be harder to initially find your niche/build community at Georgetown, but it does happen over time. The administration is also aware of this and has in recent years tried to address it. And of course being in DC does have many benefits in terms of internships, cultural activities and access to a lot of great on campus programming.