<p>Is anyone else struggling with that same issue? I've heard that lots of people are- what are your thoughts? Can anyone else give advice?</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by Washington and Lee + major scholarship, so I’ll assume the following: that you got a Johnson scholarship to W&L. I’ll also assume that Georgetown is not offering you anything near the same amount of aid, or else you wouldn’t have made it part of your post.</p>
<p>So for the purposes of this set of thoughts, I’m going to presume that you are considering turning down a four year/free ride in order to pay to go to Georgetown.</p>
<p>Frankly, if there is something so totally and completely superior to a Georgetown education over a W&L education, I am not sure what that could be. Granted, G’s location tops W&L’s, and it’s easier to get from G to anywhere else. The schools differ markedly in size, athletics, and class composition. If you can’t imagine yourself at a school with 2000 students in Lexington, then choose G. If you can’t imagine sitting in classes with over 30 kids (esecially in your first 2 years), then choose W&L.</p>
<p>W&L’s campus blows away G’s - the buildings are all awesome, the computers all work and are modern, the fields/gyms/facilities are better. We won’t even mention the library - G’s is a mess, and W&L is just finishing an awesome rehabilitation. These things might make up somewhat for the lack of location. </p>
<p>Students? They’re smart in both places. The question is, what type of student do you want to be? You’ll be able to flow thru G just fine without having to be an individual if you want. Nothing wrong with that, and many people imagine that as a perfect way to go thru college. If you want to be a leader, you can do so, as long as you do what it takes. With three times as many students, there will be more competition for those leadership spots. You’ll need to figure out how to climb to the top. At W&L, you won’t be able to hide - small classes, teachers who teach, small campus - you won’t be able to. The good news is that you will also have to work really hard to fail, because you won’t be able to hide.</p>
<p>I won’t spend a lot of time on the financial issues. A $200G scholarship saves you a LOT OF MONEY (or is it your parent’s money?) - and opens up a lot of potential opportunities. You’ll be able to afford a lot of fun, if you choose - or you will be able to afford a lot of overseas education - or you will be able to afford a lot of graduate school. Perhaps all three! There’s something to be said for leaving college without loans, as you set out on the rest of your life. Whether it’s out of your pocket or your parent’s pockets, the money has to come from somewhere. It is true that money doesn’t buy happiness. However, lacking money really sucks. One final comment on this, the area around G is VERY EXPENSIVE. Even a cup of coffee off campus is $3 or more, and most students don’t spend a lot of money there - mainly because they are spending it on tuition.</p>
<p>You never mention what you want to study - if you are planning to go into the government, G wins big on this score. Probably it has an edge on specialties too - like molecular biology, or quantum physics, or rare languages. G has more resources, period. If you are more interested in traditional liberal arts (History, Mathematics, Science, or even Business), W&L wins out, due to the fact that it focuses on those classes as its core mission. You need to think about what you are most likely to want to study, and evaluate each school against that goal. Although you may be like most entering freshmen, and change your major a few time before you finally decide, it is useful to use the online catalog to see what the requirements are, map a possible course of study, and see how it feels. If you can’t do that, you need to consider what type of student you are, and how you like to learn. Do you do better in lecture style classes, with tests and homework? Or do you prefer seminars where you have to participate in discussions and arguments with other students? Both schools offer plenty of classes in both forms, but I perceive G to be more of the former, and W&L to be more of the latter - mainly due to the number of students being served on each campus.</p>
<p>You have a difficult choice to make, as both schools are outstanding in many ways. Your goals after college might make you choose one over the other. If you plan to go to work, both schools have great alumni networks, and great access to the job market. If you plan to continue in school, both have great rates of acceptance - although, all other things equal, I think a debt-free W&L student might be more attractive to a grad school than a debt-laden G graduate, since $$$ for grad school is even tougher to come by than $$$ for college. Plus coming from W&L would make you a more unique candidate, since you can expect plenty of company from your G class when you start appyling for programs.</p>
<p>Finally, I know that you can’t win a Johnson without passing though one of the most rigorous evaluations in undergraduate education. Not only do you have to make it thru the paper application, you spent three days under the microscope on campus. The school picked you for a reason, and it went far beyond a file full of essays/SAT scores/transcript/recommendation letters. They evaluated you personally, and liked what they saw enough to offer you a spot in their class, free of charge. They rejected over 1000 other people to choose you - and all of those 1000 people are going to go somewhere great to college. Do not sell that selection short, and make sure you include it in your decision making process. </p>
<p>Hopefully these thoughts help you crystallize your thinking. Good luck. Let us know how you are coming along</p>
<p>What a wonderful post! Thank you very much! However, I did not win the Johnson, instead I was given a full-tuition scholarship for students from the New Orleans area, the John Minor Wisdom Scholarship. I also do want to study Government, which is what makes Georgetown so incredibly appealing given the strength of the program and the location. Financially, I am lucky enough to have a grandfather who has done well and who has offered to pay for my schooling no matter where I choose to go. Even so, being offered $38,000 per year is still not easy to decline! There would also be some other smaller “perks” for W&L: a single room, a new car (because of the money saved), among other things. Right now, I plan to go to law school after college though, and I am concerned with W&L’s ability to compete with Georgetown and others for law school placement. To be perfectly honest, I am totally torn between these two choices, and I really don’t know how I am going to come to a final decision!</p>
<p>First, just to reiterate what has been said, both of these institutions are phenomenal. I can tell you that over the past 5 years the W and L acceptance rate in to law school is well over 90 percent and that they consistently place their students in some of the most selective law schools in the country (Chicago, Harvard, W and L, Georgetown, UVA).</p>
<p>It’s hard to say that W and L would be better than Georgetown when it comes to politics/government since that is Georgetown’s forte, but it’s close. I would tell you to stop thinking about name recognition and law school placement (because both are some of the best in the nation) and start thinking more about what kind of college experience you want-going to a larger school in Georgetown where there are more off-campus activities, or going to a small town college with a stronger sense of school community.</p>
<p>Yes, thank you. Many around me are trying to get me to focus further down the road (law school), but I am trying to convince them that these next four years are important too! I visited W&L for the first time last September, and, when there, I had a meeting with Professor Rush, the head of the Politics Department. Basically, he told me that, growing up in a small town (I live in an area of 12,000 in southern Louisiana), I should highly consider NOT going to college in such a small town. He said that he would love to have me in the program but that I should consider the ramifications of moving from a small town to a smaller one. That is definitely one major aspect factoring in to my decision.</p>
<p>To summarize, I am going to try to evaluate the schools on the basis of where I want to spend the next four years studying, but, of course, all of these other factors do have to be taken into consideration, even if just minorly in some cases.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with Professor Rush at all. I grew up in a rural town, went to a great LAC in a smaller town, and don’t regret it one bit.</p>
<p>Of course, he was likely speaking to what he thought appropriate in my particular situation. I should have clarified that he wasn’t giving general advice- he was giving me advice.</p>
<p>“I am concerned with W&L’s ability to compete with Georgetown and others for law school placement.”</p>
<p>I’m not very concerned about this. People who get full scholarships get them because the school is willing to bet a lot of money that they’ll be excellent students. If you decide to work up to your potential, then your law school chances won’t depend on which college you choose.</p>
<p>I agree with Hanna. In fact, if you are one of the top candidates from a smaller, highly selective school like W&L or Williams or Pomona, you are often in a better position for law school (or business school, or grad school) acceptance than the numerous candidates from the large schools. In effect, you become the desirable candidate because you’re NOT from Georgetown/Duke/etc … It’s not much different than college admission: they want candidates of all types, from all types of schools. Even Yale Law rejects hundreds of qualified Yale applicants each year in favor of people from other schools.</p>
<p>As long as you perform at a high level, you will actually have an advantage as a W&L graduate. Check the placement stats, and I think you will come to the same conclusion.</p>
<p>If you wouldn’t mind a pretty homogeneous student body (where virtually everyone is in a fraternity or a sorority, most people are politically conservative, where only 30 students out of the 456 are first-generation students and where the student body is not racially diverse) then the obvious choice is W&L. </p>
<p>If you want to go to law school, Georgetown is the obvious choice. </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.law.georgetown.edu/Admissions/jd_general.html]Georgetown”>http://www.law.georgetown.edu/Admissions/jd_general.html]Georgetown</a> Law - JD Admissions Information (Admissions)<a href=“scroll%20down%20to” title=“early assurance”>/url</a> </p>
<p>If you have around a 3.8 by the time you’re a junior (difficult but def. doable), you just fill out a form, don’t have to go through the process of applying to law school (this includes not taking the LSAT) and you can have a guaranteed spot at Georgetown Law Center (a top-14 law school). W&L has a law school, but is no where near as prestigious as GULC in the legal field. If I would have known this little piece of information, I would have gone to Georgetown.</p>
<p>WahooMB,</p>
<p>You left out one thing that he/she has to weigh before choosing G … giving up the $40K per year scholarship at W&L.</p>
<p>Are you sure that guaranteed admission to G Law is worth $160K in tuition?</p>
<p>Given that money seems to not be a ~huge issue~ since her grandfather will pay for her education and she wants to study gov’t, this should be a no-brainer. Georgetown is in DC, where politics happen, the student body at Georgetown is very very politically active and if that’s what she’s interested in, the clear choice is Georgetown IMO.</p>
<p>Yes, I thank all of you for your comments while I have been away for a few days. I am actually fairly certain that I’ll be choosing Georgetown for the reasons expressed in that last post, but I’m still considering everything with an open mind (I still have two weeks to decide!). </p>
<p>I am a “he” by the way though.</p>