<p>Georgetown- Yes, it IS in a league of its own. You would be pretty daft not to see that.
However that being the case…everyone I have ever met from there either slightly terrified me or had no social life (was purely into academics). It is an AMAZING school and I’m sure going there would drastically change your life and benefit your career, but I feel that GWU would fit you better if you enjoy a mix of social life AND academics. But it depends on who you are…</p>
<p>American…not bad, but after having stayed at the dorms for a couple of weeks, I will never return there again.</p>
<p>My sister is going to DC soon with a school trip and is interested in American also. She will also see Howard, GW, Georgetown, and Catholic U. I heard American had some new dorms, but I don’t know who they are for, maybe upperclassmen.</p>
<p>some links
college ******* .com/american-university/campus-housing/</p>
<p>I actually just got home from visiting GW and AU (I didn’t even consider georgetown, sorry).
My impressions (and they are just impressions) are as such:</p>
<p>American:</p>
<p>pro:
-beautiful campus (national arboritum) with real campus-y feel
-the IR school is second only to one is Moscow and they are building an expansion of it to be finished in April
-I got a very friendly vibe from the campus</p>
<p>con:
-there is a 40/60 guy/girl ratio (due in large part to the lack of an engineering program)
-it’s distance from center city (while it is easily accessible - you have to take the bus to the metro station and then switch metros which can take upwards of 45 minutes) which is a disadvantage when you have an 8am internship</p>
<p>George Washington:</p>
<p>pro:
2 blocks from the white house (aka in the middle of DC) which is a huge plus for me at least
-more renowned of the two
-reallyyy nice dorms (only 4 to a bathroom w/ housekeeping freshmen year!)</p>
<p>con:
-It seemed a little more cold and competetive compared to AU
-From talking to other people I know that go here, they gave the impression that a lot of the students come from wealthy families and are somewhat pretentious and one even warned that if you’re a middle-class public-school kid you’ll be very out of place.</p>
<p>I loved aspects of both and wish I could combine the two!!
Hope I helped a little!</p>
<p>Thanks Ilovelife. Your descriptions are great - you and my D are looking for slightly different things. Like you, she won’t be happy about the 40/60 guy/girl ratio at American. I think every other school on her list is closer to 50/50. She will be happy about the distance from the city as she doesn’t want a campus quite as urban as GW. I don’t think she’d mind the travel for the internship. I was really interested in knowing what the problem(s) with the dorms at American are though. D is most interested in Georgetown, but I think American is worth checking out while we’re in DC. We’ve stayed in Foggy Botton before, so she’s already somewhat familiar with GW’s surroundings and she doesn’t think they’re what she’s looking for - the dorms might make her change her mind though. </p>
<p>BRJ-CT - I believe you’re right about the new dorms at American being for upperclassmen. Hope your sister has a great time in DC, and I’d love to hear her impressions when she’s finished her tours.</p>
<p>I’ll ask her to post or I will.
When I googled new dorms at American, posts from college review sites and others came up and they had some photos, nothing spectacular but not bad. The North side seems to be the party ones and they have quieter dorms.</p>
<p>I’m the OP and I don’t live in Virginia, so that’s irrelevant to me. I was trying to get perspectives on those 3 schools, not compare them to other schools that others might choose for various reasons.</p>
<p>BRJ-CT - thanks. That was helpful. It didn’t sound like there was anything too awful about the dorms, but maybe Ilovelife can explain what the problem was?</p>
<p>gwsenior (or anyone else with experinece with gw):
I heard a lot of people saying that gw is full of really rich kids and there is a really competetive nature.
I’m definitely going to need finaid for college as well as work a paying job during school - would I be out of place?
Also, as far as the competetiveness: I think I’m going to love school and internships and everything I really want to be able to enjoy them. I would be uncomfortable in a school where everyone is super-competetive.
How much truth is there in these stereotypes?
Thanks!!</p>
<p>I am not a student at GW. I’m nowhere near as qualified to speak on this issue as GWSenior is. On the other hand, GW is by far my first choice and so I have done a lot of research.</p>
<p>GW does have a lot of rich kids. To be honest with you, most expensive private schools have a LOT of rich kids. This is certainly true at GW as well. However, GW has some of the best financial aid in the country. Lower and lower-middle income students are probably fairly represented. GW has 9% of its student body receiving Pell grants. So, roughly 1 in every 10 students at GW has a family income of $41,000 or less (low to lower middle income). This is only a few percentage lower than top tier schools, but those schools have fewer students. Harvard is only at 6.8%, Princeton is only at 7.4%, WashU is only at 8.0%… etc. So GW isn’t that great there.</p>
<p>I have never heard of GW being particularly competitive. Some majors, like engineering and common pre-med track majors (biology, biochemistry, etc.) are naturally competitive. This is the way at most schools. However, I can’t tell you much more there.</p>
<p>As for a paying job… well, I don’t think you’d be out of place. I’m willing to bet a good number of students do work study. Many students do internships - which is essentially a job and people will understand where you’re coming from if you do have a job, they just have cooler jobs. DC is an expensive place to live and GW is an expensive school, so many middle class students (probably the majority at GW) will have or will have had a job.</p>
<p>My son will be a freshman at AU this fall. He is very pleased with the 60/40 ratio on campus! Although he admits to being a little worried about enough guys to play intramural sports…</p>
<p>It’s funny how kids respond to campus vibes. This S would not look at GW because he wanted a campus with a quad. Nonnegotiable.</p>
<p>Set foot on AU’s campus, loved the urban vibe with a real campus with a quad…applied ED and done.</p>
<p>The last time I looked–which was not this year–GW had a far lower % of incoming freshman staying to graduate. This may no longer be true, but is definitely something to check</p>
<p>I will be a senior this fall and plan to major in international relations and possibly also economics. I’ve looked into each of those three universities and prefer George Washington University. Georgetown and American university is also great with the majors. George Washington University has a more community feel as told by many, and active. Georgetown and American University is more religiously based, and smaller student body.</p>
<p>D headed to AU. GW was too big and impersonal and G’town just didn’t fit her. Disliked campus, too. The dorms at AU were nicer than many we saw (BU, Wellesley, talk about closets there) and she liked the smaller size. Also much more personal. I don’t see how GW with its large size has a community feel but each to his own. She much preferred the more traditional academic quad of AU than either of the others. But it is very individual. Read around on CC and you’ll see that for sure!!!</p>
<p>I have only anecdotal evidence, but I have taught students from all these colleges at our local community college over summers.</p>
<p>From the admitted small sample I saw G’town kids were more preppy, the GW kids more competitive, the AU kids more laid back.</p>
<p>The G’town kids were very money focused in their career choices. Less so the other two. Many of the young women from GW loved the school (academics, professors, location) but did not like the other kids, particularly the women, finding them rich and designer oriented.</p>
<p>All the kids were good students.</p>
<p>One reason G’town is such a reach in terms of admissions is that it does favor kids from Catholic schools. I am not saying that’s a problem, but it is something to be aware of going in. D’s BFF in high school got her heart broken with a rejection from G’town. She ended up happy at NYU, so all’s well that ends well.</p>
<p>We visited all three schools last week, having considered AU a safety and GWU a match. Georgetown is not on DS’s list, so we just did a quick walk-through on a Saturday. Here are a few random observations.</p>
<p>AU –
• I was hoping this visit would make DS fall in love with his safety, and it turns out he likes AU well enough. As he explained it to me, he doesn’t “love” any school, even those that are his top choices. In a way, that’s probably good, although he’s probably going to have to generate some “love” in his application essays.
• Being 20-30 minutes away from the heart of DC was a slight negative for DS, especially compared to GWU where the State Dept. was across the street and the White House was a five-minute walk down the street. In AU’s favor, it’s an easy trip into DC since there is a shuttle bus to the Metro station and the Metro seems very reliable and clean. (We’re used to NYC subways.)
• The 62/38 female/male ratio bothered me for reasons I won’t discuss here, but I see it as a potentially significant issue for DS.
• Someone mentioned the AU campus felt like a big high school, and somehow that resonated with me. DS wants to get away from the atmosphere of his somewhat bland suburban high school, and I got the message that some students chose AU over GWU because it seemed more safely distanced from the intimidating hustle and bustle of the big city.
• The fact that only 15% of seniors live on campus bothered me. I don’t know how this number relates to other colleges, and the fact that so many AU students take a semester abroad may be a factor. Our tour guide, who lived her senior year off campus, commented about how this affected her sense of community with fellow students.</p>
<p>GWU –
• DS loved the location in the heart of DC.
• Although the campus is similar to NYU in that it is “a bunch of buildings in the middle of a big city”, there was more of a campus feeling to us than what we felt at NYU.
• Off campus living usually seemed to mean an apartment building that is within the “campus” but was not owned by GWU. Therefore, I think those students living “off campus” feel very much as part of the college community.
• The stats and the vibe make me understand how GWU is more academically rigorous, and I think would be a better fit for DS.</p>
<p>Georgetown –
• The campus is lovely, with a nice mix of old and new buildings.
• It is also away from the heart of DC, with no Metro connection. While we didn’t investigate, I’m sure there’s good bus service into the main part of the city.
• We’ve heard about the preppy reputation GT has, and by coincidence there was a group of high school students and parents visiting who definitely fit the look. We speculated that they might have been from some Catholic prep school.
• This would be a reach school for DS, and just didn’t make the cut for his list. Some of his reach schools are Rice, Columbia and Univ. of Chicago.</p>
<p>A few people asked so I thought I’d comment again regarding GW’s student population…</p>
<p>Yes, there are a lot of rich kids, but I honestly don’t think there are more than at other private schools in cities. GW gives VERY generous financial aid (it ended up being cheaper than my state flagship school for me). I am from a middle-class family in the midwest, so it was a big culture shock when I first got here. Not going to lie, I did feel out of place for the first few months. But by second semester freshman year I found a group of friends with similar interests, and while some of them may be wealthy, you wouldn’t know because they are not “snobby.”</p>
<p>College is supposed to be about being exposed to new things; you’d be missing out if you went to a school where you were surrounded with people exactly like you. Also, if you go to ANY school in the DC area, there is absolutely no excuse for you to only be interacting with the other students at your school. You should be getting out in the community via internships and community service, and seeing all different parts of DC.</p>
<p>Oh, and I did work my way through school via work-study (freshman year) and then a paid student position at a government agency. Lots of people do the same, or have an unpaid internship but work in retail/restaurants/on-campus to make money.</p>
</p>