<p>Hey all I was wondering how the reputation of George Washington University is? I have talked to a few people who talk about it like it's pretty darn nice and hard to get into when talking about my potential college interests. It seems to be an "upcoming" school just from what I've heard from a few professionals, most of whom are my parents friends. For instance, one of them said that his niece chose it over Notre Dame and Vanderbilt, which I thought were some of the most elite universities in the country.</p>
<p>I was just wondering how GW is seen by most people? Is it a respectable school?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a very respectable school, highly thought of for its graduate programs and law school. It’s u/g education is not particularly vibrant, although the opps for internships, networking, and volunteering are excellent. I am ready to be shown that it is a good place for undergraduate education, but I don’t think it necessarily is compared to its professional schools and grad schools.</p>
<p>Depends on the area. I have heard that many people in the northeast consider it a party school, but to my knowledge everywhere else it is decently respected. I would say it is on par with schools like Northeastern and Tulane in terms of academic repute. It is not extremely difficult to get into but does require above average stats. Not so sure if I would agree with the “upcoming” school part because I don’t see what it is doing to become upcoming. I think people just say that about schools they think should be ranked higher. </p>
<p>I live near GW and from my experience it is mostly a school where rich kids go. It is very expensive in a city with a high cost of living, and its FA is notable stingy. The academics are good, I won’t refute that. Many people call it the school for Georgetown rejects and I would have to say although that isn’t the case for most of the students, it probably is for a lot. IMHO opinion Georgetown will always overshadow George Washington, so if you want to go to the school because you hope it will get better and eventually saying “I went to GW” will be the same as “I went to Vanderbilt” or “I went to Notre Dame,” then that’s never going to happen. GW will probably stay the same as it is. It is neither highly regarded nor disgraced because there are both better and worse schools.</p>
<p>The fact that his niece chose GW over Notre Dame and Vanderbilt can mean little to nothing if you don’t know why. ND and Vanderbilt are two very conservative schools while GW is very liberal. Maybe she’s studying political science and that mattered a lot to her? Also, doesn’t necessarily mean she chose the SCHOOL over the others, the location could have been what sold her. DC is a great city. And lastly, but probably the most obvious, it could have ended up being the cheapest school after financial aid or merit scholarships.</p>
<p>This post sounds cynical about GW but that is the reality. I live very close to GW and can you believe that many people don’t even know this school exists? </p>
<p>@sumobats Wow thanks for all that information! I am kind of surprised that you say it doesn’t have good financial aid because if there is one thing from my (albeit small) research of the school is that they are very good at financial aid packages/scholarships in countering the crazy tuition to make it affordable to less affluent students. And yeah I see where you are coming from, maybe the only reason it is regarded somewhat highly with the people I talk to is because the school is relatively close (Virginia). Thanks again for the input!</p>
<p>Well, tbh, GW’s reputation was artificially inflated for a while because they were falsely reporting data about their students. But yeah, GW has a reputation as a rich kids school.</p>
<p>In terms of undergrad reputation, at my D’s public semi-urban Northeast high school it is “respectable” but not “impressive”. It is considered a good school for B+/A- sub 2000 SAT students.</p>
<p>If a student chose GW over Vanderbilt I would guess there’d be other factors at play: location, specific majors, etc. </p>
<p>If you want to understand GWU’s current reputation, look no further than the presidency of Stephen Trachtenberg. He was a bit of a blowhard and self-promoter who has become fairly common among university presidents. A lot of GWU’s improvement was due to his putting a face on the University by going on a large-scale building project and increasing the “colleges” within the school. Money flowed in and the endowment is now a healthy 1.5B. Tuition skyrocketed of course, but the quality of students also improved. Whether the cost increases were worth the improvement to undergraduate education I’m not in a position to say.</p>
<p>@vikingboy11
No offense but that article seemed really really biased and pretty much described any private school. “The number one thing that makes you popular at GW is money." I haven’t even applied to any colleges, and don’t even know if I will apply to gw yet so I’m not particularly biased, but that was a horrible read. I did just find out about them fudging the numbers (along with schools like Claremont Mckenna and Emory), which is indeed not too appealing for an applicant! I’m confused why only GW out of 3 or 4 schools who were caught lost their rankings…</p>
<p>@jkeil911 I’m trying to get a feel on how the new president is being seen? If you have any information on how he’s leading the school i’d really appreciate it!</p>
<p>I am sure that there are plenty of people that got their full FA and were able to attend the school, but many others are not that lucky. It is like a lotto. It is not as good as HYPS and not as bad as NYU in terms of FA. Maybe I am slightly bias because I live in VA and x amount of money seems like so much when it’s to live 30 minutes away, but same x amount of money to live somewhere else seems reasonable to me. </p>
<p>But other users are right in that it has many amazing opportunities to intern or for co ops. If you are a career orientated person who wants to major in something government related, doesn’t mind a large-ish school with no real campus and can pay for it, then GW is perfect for you. I don’t mean to steer anyone away from GW but I just think only a specific niche of people would be happy there, and if you’re going just for the reputation or prestige, then you will be dissatisfied. </p>
<p>Would also like to mention that the scholarships are sometimes misleading. Average scholarship is 18k. That seems like a lot of money, but considering the school is 64k total, you still have to pay a ridiculous amount of money. Let’s say your family can afford 40k. What colleges like these will often do is just give you about 20k in merit, no need based aid, making you think you got this awesome merit scholarship at the school and that they really really want you, so it goes up higher on your list of which school you want to matriculate at. In reality you are paying 4k extra and would probably have gotten better FA had you gotten no scholarship at all.</p>