<p>I was really interested in Georgetown but after reading some student reviews and such the overall sentiment seems to be that the classes are too large, many are taught by TA's, the dorms aren't great, and there is major grade deflation. I wanted to know what you guys have seen/heard and if these things are true.</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>Personally, everyone I know who attends Georgetown LOVES it. If the site you’re referring to is stud-ents-rev-iew (sorry i think they censor that), take what it says with a grain of salt. Read reviews on other schools and you’ll see they’re all particularly nasty!</p>
<p>As for large classes, with any university Gtown’s size or bigger, intro-level classes will be large and possibly sectioned into TA groups.</p>
<p>Thanks for your opinion. I actually read it in the princeton review which is what freaked me out because its usually pretty credible. It sort of scared me from looking at Gerogetown more which is a shame cuz its really highly ranked for what I want to major in.</p>
<p>My S is a senior in SFS. As I recall, some of his early required classes were large and the discussion sections were lead by TAs. Professors were still easily accessible and willing to help. The class sizes decrease in the upper level courses. Last semester, S took 4 classes with enrollments of 30, 11, 8, and 4 students. </p>
<p>As for the dorms, there are many different types of housing available to the students and the conditions vary. Nothing is horrendous. S lives off campus this year and I’d say all of the dorms are in better condition than what he’s currently living in!</p>
<p>Interesting. I honestly had never heard Georgetown criticized for large classes and TAs. As for the dorms, they’re not great, but they’re really not bad either - I’d say they’re fairly run of the mill for an urban campus. Grade deflation? Well we’re certainly not Princeton in that regard - again I’d say it’s fairly run of the mill.</p>
<p>Back to large classes and TAs. I haven’t had a single class since sophomore year with more than 30 people in it, and I’ve only had one class ever taught by a TA (an intro econ class). Thinking back to my first year (I’m in the SFS by the way): I took Problem of God (20ish with an excellent professor), Intro to IR (60ish people taught by a professor, but two TAs graded papers and led discussion sections), an SFS proseminar (12 people, maybe 11 actually), Micro (pretty big - maybe 100 people? Still taught by a professor though, but once against with TAs leading recitation), and a language class (15 people).</p>
<p>Second semester first year, I took Macro (this was the one and only class I had taught by a TA). Comparative Political Systems (60ish), a history class (25ish), Political and Social Thought (80ish? With discussion sections of 10-15 led by TAs), and a math class (20ish). I also took map of course (enormous).</p>
<p>First semester sophomore year, I took a government seminar (15ish people), International Trade (60ish), a math class (20ish), a philosophy class (20ish), and a language class (7).</p>
<p>Second semster sophomore year I took International Finance (70ish?), and four seminars in the SFS (one had 25ish people, two had about 15, and the final one had 12). Since then, like I said, I haven’t had a single course with more than 30 students, and most of them have had closer to 15. Your experience may vary, but I think this is pretty typical. From the beginning, you’ll have at least a few classes that are very small, but in your first 2 or 3 semesters when you’re taking intro stuff, you’ll also have a few that are fairly large. Once you get into the upper levels, you’ll have very small classes and get to know your professors well.</p>
<p>How does this compare to other schools? Well, obviously, it blows state schools out of the water. I have a friend at UVA (a senior like me) and there are literally only three professors there who know her name. Her intro level classes had hundreds of people in them (several times larger than anything at GU) and her upper level classes had 60 or so people (about the same size as intro classes at GU). What about Georgetown’s “peer” schools (the Ivies, Chicago, Hopkins, etc.)? Georgetown does better than most. Harvard and Yale are famous for large classes taught by grad schools (which really are a rarity at GU) but other schools like Princeton and Cornell have, as I understand it, a fairly similar size breakdown.</p>
<p>thanks guys! anyone else care to chime in???</p>
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since when are these G-town’s peer schools? I think of Villanova, Fordham, Santa Clara, maybe ND etc…</p>
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</p>
<p>Haha, I think not.</p>
<p>Accoring to USNWR:
20. Vanderbilt
21. UC Berkeley
22. Carnegie Mellon
23. Georgetown
24. UVA
25. UCLA
26. Michigan
27. USC</p>
<p>Even from that list i think Gtown is really really ranked too low on USNWR so ya its peer schools are probably ivies plus MIT and Stanford, same level as Cornell, Brown, Duke in my opinion</p>
<p>Agreed with Georgetown1 and Robert92. Santa Clara and Fordham? Surely you jest.</p>
<p>I must agree with Georgetown 1. Alot more selective of a school than Santa Clara. My D got rejected from GU, and accepted into Santa Clara in honors program with a 10k merit scholarship (no FASFA filled out). Ultimately went to Northwestern. For someone with the grades to get into Georgetown, Santa Clara is a safety school.</p>
<p>Back to the original poster’s wondering about Georgetown, I have heard Georgetown is a little cold – both in terms of the camarderie of students and administration towards the students. I hope this is just a few peoples’ opinions so any input is appreciated.</p>
<p>By the way, I believe it is much, much more selective than Villanova and Fordham – and probably somewhat more selective than ND.</p>
<p>^ I would not call the students cold at all. It’s a very friendly and fairly close student body (particularly on basketball days), and Hoyas really help each other out in ways that don’t happen at other schools.</p>
<p>Is the administration cold? In my opinion, absolutely, but that is my opinion. In general, though, it’s shared, but only so far as the top people go. President DeGioia is known for his attitude of seeming indifference to the student body and is the topic of constant criticism in the student media. Todd Olson (VP for student affairs and Dean of Students) honestly appears to think that Georgetown would run better if the pesky students weren’t around messing things up, and a lot of people have a pretty negative opinion of James O’Donnell (the provost). I have, however, interacted with O’Donnell once and I found him very helpful - he gave me his home phone number and told me, sincerely, to call him if I needed anything. </p>
<p>The people at the lower levels who you interact with the most (e.g., the assistant and associate deans) are very nice people. My (assistant) dean is someone I would call to bail me out of jail; seriously. But it’s up to you to develop that relationship. Some people only go see their dean when something has gone wrong and they’re already angry; it’s small wonder they’re not happy with the results, but if you’re nice to these people, they tend to be nice to you. Dean Gallucci, the former head of the SFS, once took me and 18 other students out to lunch and picked up the tab, at what I believe was his personal expense.</p>
<p>So, yes, the highest-level people all have very bad reputations, and I think that, to some extent, those reputations are justified. But let’s be honest, does it matter if the President of your university is a cold jerk? No matter where you go, you’ll probably never speak to the man/woman.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughtful response. I’m glad to hear you find the students warm and friendly. I think that is the most important thing.</p>
<p>Someone whose son (and daughter previously) had gone to Georgetown said there is very little offered for the students there compared to Boston College where her other son attended. Any thoughts on that? I’m not referring to academic offerings or clubs, but things for students to do on campus. Thanks for your input.</p>
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<p>I’m not a student, so I can’t say for sure… but I would imagine that if a student is bored on campus, there is plenty to do off campus being in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>^^ I’m not really familiar with Boston College, so I can’t respond to that directly, but I can give you a general idea.</p>
<p>Compared to most other schools (and particularly considered to classic college-town schools), Georgetown has relatively little on campus activity. There are a phenomenal number of what you might call “educational” activities (e.g., speeches by everyone from Barack Obama and Condi Rice to Niall Ferguson), but in terms of campus-based “social activities” Georgetown is weak. We don’t have very many concerts (there’s a decent one every spring, but that’s really about it), student plays/musicals/performances are few and far between compared to other schools (but do tend to be of good quality), and there are almost none of the visiting comedians, etc. that you see at other schools.</p>
<p>Some people end up doing a lot of off-campus activities, but a lot of people stay on campus on the weekends and just do things with clubs, go to parties, etc. There are, of course, some very popular campus-sponsored events each year (e.g., the Diplomatic Ball), but there really is a dearth of such activities compared to the other schools with which I am most familiar. As a matter of fact, I grew up in a small town with a small college (~1500 students) and I would say there was more going on that campus than at Georgetown in terms of interesting, school-sponsored activities.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned that this means that you’ll end up sitting around doing nothing at Georgetown, then don’t be. Georgetown students find plenty of other ways to have fun on the weekends, but it is a bit different than other places.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. It is a good one. It sounds like kids hang around with friends or do club activities or parties on the weekend.</p>
<p>I know with the Obama speech only about 50 kids chosen at random were allowed to attend. Are the other speeches open to the larger student body? </p>
<p>I was hoping that the Georgetown/DC area would be an adjunct to campus life not the main campus life. It sounds like it depends on the student whether that is the case or not.</p>
<p>^ Yes the Obama speech was atypical. Generally, the speeches are just about all students. Most of them are held in Gaston which holds a good-sized crowd. Not everyone who wants to get into the really popular ones does, but most people who want to can get in.</p>
<p>The role that the DC area plays varies from student to student. I know people who literally only do things “in DC” (e.g., downtown) once or twice a year. Other people are downtown all the time. A lot of 21 and up students also frequent the bar scene on M Street, but again there’s a lot variance.</p>
<p>I’m at Georgetown now and it’s pretty damn miserable. There is not sense of community… sure Hoyas love their men’s basketball games but besides that during OTHER seasons, there’s absolutely nothing. The campus has a major sense of disconnect. This is the school for some people who have no care for a tight-knit community… I want to transfer, can you tell?</p>
<p>oscarsaddict is wrong. I go to georgetown as well and there is an incredible sense of community. If you walk around campus, everyone is wearing some kind of georgetown sweatshirt, hat, etc. Sure, if you sit back and try to make people come to you, you arn’t going to make any friends. But, if you put yourself out there, get involved and have an open mind, this is truly an incredible place. And that goes for any school, but I got in early last year, withdrawling many of my ivy league applications, and never looked back. The best decision I ever made.</p>