George Washington U. Rip Off?

Parents Forum
1

<p>I was looking at the GW site and found out the total cost is now $46,870 per year with the six-year graduation rate being only 78.2%.</p>

<p>50% of students graduate with debt while the average debt is $27,041!! Any comments on this? I think this is rather steep for a school at GW's level. Why is it so expensive and aren't there more prestigious schools that are less expensive? </p>

<p>Moreover, it seems as if there would be minimal opportunity difference generated between GW and staying in-state and attending a strong public institution. Any comments?</p>

2

<p>You are correct.</p>

3

<p>It's in a nice part of Washington, D.C., what do you expect? It is a few thousand more than comparably-located schools (BU, NYU) but if someone really wanted to go there, it's a great school. The biggest advantage GW has is the political/D.C. connections.</p>

4

<p>If you have to pay full freight, then yes, you should think about the cost v benefit.</p>

<p>But GW is also very generous with the number of students receiving scholarships, and the amount given. For our S, for instance, GW ended up being much cheaper than our state university. And he loves it!</p>

5

<p>small nit: the full COA for next year's frosh exceeds $51k. IMO, GW has increased in stature only bcos GTown has become so selective....GW also has a high rate of part-time profs (moonlighting federal employees) for a private school.</p>

<p><a href="http://gwired.gwu.edu/adm/financial/costs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://gwired.gwu.edu/adm/financial/costs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>btw: don't know much about their merit aid, but need-based aid is not generous. A neighbor's kid, who is eligible for need-based aid at the a UC (efc <$20k), recieved mostly loans in the finaid package from GW.</p>

6

<p>For merit based, the most that they give out is $20,000 a year. Which still leaves a $30,000 tuition.</p>

<p>Which is why GW is off my list...</p>

7

<p>when I applied (which was about 5 years ago--eek!) to their school of media, they actually tacked on a several-thousand-dollar surcharge. When I asked why (surely the equipment needed for journalism is no more expensive than what's need for, say, physics, which had no surcharge) they said it was to get their tuition in line with more prestigious journalism programs like Medill at Northwestern. Not to get the QUALITY of the program in line with Medill's, but to price it the same, seemingly in the hopes that prospective students would assume that an expensive program was a good one.</p>

<p>It got crossed off my list pretty quickly after that conversation.</p>

8

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<p>Sure, but if you want Washington DC and you didn't get into Georgetown, there are only a few options.</p>

<p>But, frankly, the private colleges (prestigious or not) are getting more expensive--in the high 40s if not the low 50s (factoring in all of the $$ outlay).</p>

9

<p>GW has a level tuition policy. That is, the list price the year you enter will be the amount you pay four years from now. This actually makes it cheaper than much of their competition, where tuition rises 5-6% a year (and, often, need-based aid does not rise with it.)</p>

<p>GW has an endowment a little under a billion, less than Wellesley, Smith, Wiliams, Amherst, and Swarthmore, for an undergraduate student body 3-4X their size, then plus the graduate schools.</p>

<p>Part-time faculty? Same at Georgetown (hey, how many Jesuit faculty members do you think they could find?). For most students attending these schools, this is a PLUS, not a minus - you'll get someone like Tom Daschle, who makes his big living now as a Washington lobbyist, teaching American politics to undergrads part-time - AND they will help open up internship possibilities year-round, not like those summer xeroxing jobs you might get from one of the Ivies. </p>

<p>GW is not particularly generous in aid - their endowment could never allow it. Fortunately for them, there are plenty of folks prepared to pay full-freight without it.</p>

<p>Is it too expensive? Well, I think they're virtually ALL too expensive - but then I would never pay it. GW offers some things to undergrads (namely, the possibility of year-round internships and connections in DC) that other schools (Ivies, etc.) can only dream about. If the classroom education is one's be-all-and-end-all, GW (and Georgetown for that matter) are poor choices. But I doubt that's why most students choose it. In short, they offer a product that is relatively rare, and unobtainable at virtually all other prestige institutions, and they've decided that their customers should pay for it.</p>

<p>Note that amount of debt data is misleading. It doesn't count parental debt. But more importantly, if most students are paying full-freight, and there are lots of folks who are nearly able to afford full-freight but take on debt, the amount of total debt might be lower. Low debt loads may simply reflect less diverse student bodies, and, in some cases, less generous need-based aid.</p>

10

<p>GW is W-A-A-Y-Y-Y too expensive for our family, even though it's choice #1 for D2. I love the place nearly as much as D2, and can see why the university has NO trouble filling its freshman slots, even at a COA north of $50K.</p>

11

<p>My college (Bard College) is at $45,488 for next year... It's definitely not only GWU.</p>

12

<p>mini's points are well taken. And believe me, the idea of having a level tuition & room/board number is important. Once we could pay for the first year, we were very comfortable, knowing there would be no surprises in the subsequent years.</p>