Incoming freshman rank their housing preferences — From my understanding, it would be very rare not to get one of your top 2-3 choices. So as long as the student ranks only Foggy Bottom options highly, they should get Foggy Bottom.
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That was most definitely not many students’ experiences last year. Very few students opt for The Vern but they have to place approx 1/3 of the freshman class there.
My son and most of his friends got their almost last choices. I have heard that though most students are disappointed when they are placed on the Vern, the sense of community built there seems to make it a positive experience.
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Thank you for sharing- this is exactly my son’s concern. Ugh.
Remember, anybody in the honors program or any of the other special programs automatically go to the Vern.
So after you remove all the honors program students and other students, it’s really only about 1/6th of the remaining freshman who get placed on the Vern.
I’m sorry your son got his last choice.
Freshmen should assume they will more than likely be on the Vern. Not a certainty, but a strong likelihood, no matter how they rank their dorm choices (including if they don’t submit any Vern dorms as options as many FB group parents report their child as having been placed on the Vern despite ranking none of their list.)
The Vern is not horrible. Sure, FB is preferred over the Vern but…:in terms of socializing and making peer groups it works pretty well. They have multiple opportunities to interact with each other and many kids appreciate the green space quite a bit.
The shuttle will always have its issues. You deal with it by preparing in advance and giving yourself extra time.
Son lived on the Vern (West Hall Honors) and feels it was a bit like “rite of passage”.
He much prefers FB but he made some good friends during Vern year. 
Learning flexibility, patience, etc is not a bad thing. Helps promote resilience and problem solving.
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I have a current freshman at GW. For fall 2022, you were required to include MV choices in your ranking. Some students got MV although they wanted Foggy Bottom.
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Oh he’s totally happy in Mitchell!!!
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I’m so excited that my daughter got in, but so anxious that she’ll be on the Vern. It’s really deterring me from the school all together. Am I over reacting? (I have some baggage of my own from getting a similarly bad dorm assignment freshman year 30 years ago at a different school)
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What does your daughter think? My D did end up in FB freshman year, and despite that had a vad roommate situation. The vern tends to create a great community and its easier from what I understand to make friends. Also if its that awful your D could try a room swap . The bigger question is not what dorm. Every college has less desirable dorms, but if they want to attend the school itself
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She did not choose it. Would not have chosen it. Didn’t hate it, but was glad to be in Foggy Bottom the next year.
I liked the Vern…it’s quiet and very peaceful. A little respite from the bustle. Very pretty. But it does add time to the day to shuttle back and forth. Honestly, it’s not ideal but the place isn’t objectionable outside of being a bit out of the way from the main action. The dorm hall itself was perfectly nice.
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I should add that while I liked the Vern…I didn’t have to live there. My daughter liked it but would have preferred to live in Foggy Bottom and was happy to move there the next year.
I don’t think it should be a deterrent if she’s game for the rest of the experience. There’s really nothing like the GW experience. Lots of freshman live on the Vern. It’s lovely. It’s just not IDEAL. Housing is a real problem on most campuses now and this is not the worst solution I’ve seen.
This was not my daughter’s experience and she was a freshman in 2017 (I think…thereabouts.)
Can you say more about this? We’re trying to decide whether to keep GW in the running, and though we know the area and the program she got into (theatre), we don’t have much of a sense of the GW experience. I’d love to hear more!
We live in Seattle, and though we wandered around GW on a visit to D.C. last year, we didn’t get an official tour or talk to any staff or students. We already have a week of other school visits planned over spring break, so I’m trying to decide whether to somehow (QUICKLY) arrange a trip out to GW in the next couple weeks as well.
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Yes! I’ll type something up later today but also feel free to message me.
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I should say right off that I LOVE DC so I’m not without bias. It’s swampy (and I mean the weather) and hectic but I still think it is spectacular.
The campus at GW is an urban campus and as such lacks a classic enclosed campus space. I think this becomes its advantage, not its disadvantage. It really is just so incorporated into the city that you can be walking through campus and not even realize it except for the dozens and dozens of students milling around. The student is fully immersed in the city. At the same time, GW does a good job of maintaining a campus culture that feels a microcosm within the sprawl.
Students get involved. My daughter was arrested her first semester at school. I watched on a live feed while she was frog marched out of a senator’s office at the U.S. Capitol. My daughter is a biomedical engineer…involvement in the world of government and policy isn’t just something that poli sci kids do.
Many (most?) of the Smithsonians are free. My daughter would go spend a free hour at the National Gallery to cool off and look at art. Going with friends to tour the monuments at night was a highlight of her experience. The afternoon that Macron visited and spoke at the school was unforgettable. But he was one of many such guests.
Waiting for the Presidential motorcade to pass never got old. The cherry trees never got old. A graduation ceremony on the National Mall was magnificent even though it was very delayed due to Covid.
Just a few of the “only at GW” type things my daughter loved. My student that was just admitted is pretty familiar with the campus having visited their sister there a number of times and is just in love with campus.
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Thank you for all these details that cannot be found without firsthand experience! We are planning a campus visit this month, what do you recommend we check out ? ( other than the campus tour).
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DC is also a “college town” in many ways. I went to Georgetown (way back in the day) and there was always so much to do throughout DC and surrounding areas. D23 loves the “directly in the city” feel of GW. You definitely feel like you’re in the thick of everything at Foggy Bottom. We loved the architecture of various buildings.
GW is blocks (city blocks) from the White House and you have easy access to museums. If you like shopping, the Georgetown area has a lot to see and is close to GW. My daughter is partial to the Zoo as well.
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All the Smithsonians are great, just find the ones that suit your interests and pop in…you don’t have to see everything and won’t feel pressed to b/c it is free. Definitely visit some monuments. National Mall. The MLK Jr. monument is experiential and the setting is so beautiful.
A place off the beaten path a bit that I really like is Hillwood Museum which was the DC home of Marjorie Merriweather Post. It’s now a museum. You can tour the estate with the vast gardens. She had a wild collection of pre-Soviet era Russian art and artifacts, along with the usual sorts of treasures you see at estates. There’s a cafe…it’s all lovely if you like that sort of thing.
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