<p>I posted this on a really long American University thread. What do you guys think about GW and other GW schools? Do you agree or disagree with my opinions? I think this could be of service to people weighing the positives/negatives of going to GW.</p>
<p>"Hi I am a GW student and am snowed in today and happened to read through this thread. I must say that people are way too touchy about criticism of AU on this thread. Ryan was simply being honest, and if anyone has a right to talk about the negative aspects of AU, it should be a current student there. There are disgruntled students at virtually every college in the country, but that doesn't mean that their complaints are unvalidated.</p>
<p>I have noticed that there has been some discussion over the differences between GW and AU. As a student at GW, I will be the first to tell say that GW is way overpriced. Being overpriced, however, doesn't make GW a bad school. It simply means that GW's exorbitant tuition compromises whether it is worth it to actually come here.</p>
<p>Out of the schools in D.C., Georgetown definitely has a better reputation. It has a better ranking, more of an endowment to spend on its students, and a more successful range of graduates. While it isn't technically in the ivy-league, most people associate it with schools of that caliber like Cornell, Brown, etc. </p>
<p>GW is definitely the second best school in DC as far as reputation is concerned. It isn't nearly as hard to get into as Georgetown, but the students here are generally very ambitious and worked hard in high-school. The average SAT is in the low 1300s and most entering freshmen ranked in the top 10% of their high-school class. I find that my classes are very engaging and challenging, and I have to work very hard to even pull a 3.0. Most intro classes are very large, but the majority of classes are less than 30 people. GW offers top-notched programs in International Affairs, law, and journalism, but is very weak in the hard sciences. GW is definitely a city school, but within the 4x4 of GW owned buildings, there is a nice quad and university yard for GW students. Everyone who comes to GW is a traditional college student, and I would say that the majority of students here live on campus their entire four years. GW also has it's own convenient metro station, and is basically in walking distance to the best areas of D.C. (Dupont Circle, Georgetown, downtown, Chinatown, all the monuments/federal buildings). University Police are everywhere and it definitely is apparent that you are in a college environment when walking around the central areas of GW. I think GW offers a really great option, and while most would say Georgetown is a better academic university, they are very different socially and academically which makes it tough to draw comparisons. I would say that rather than trying to be a Georgetown wannabe, the University is striving to be more integrated into D.C. like NYU in New York. While D.C. is technically a second-tier school in U.S. News Rankings, it is considered the best college out of the others on that list.</p>
<p>American University is probably the third (maybe fourth) best school in D.C. in terms of prestige. Howard University is only ranked 2 spots below AU, and is located in a the historic (yet at times unsafe) U Street area of D.C. </p>
<p>I have to say out of all the D.C. schools, AU definitely has the biggest inferiority complex. Everytime I meet an AU student, it seems that they have to make a comment about how overpriced GW is or how we don't have a "real campus" or something of that nature. I am sure that there are plenty of pleasant AU students but that's simply my experience with the several AU students who I have met. Georgetown students are always very pleasant, and rarely say anything negative about GW. Despite being less than a mile away from each other, there's hardly a rivalry between GW and Georgetown...most GW students could care less about comparing themselves to Georgetown. </p>
<p>AU is a good school, but probably has the worst academic quality and location of the three major schools in D.C. I don't have a car at GW and have no need for one...but if I went to American and had to take a 10 minute shuttle simply to get on the metro every day I would almost definitely want my own vehicle for transportation. It's not like AU's metro stop is in a good location either...getting from your dorm to metro center could easily take over an hour...which pales in comparison to GW's location. American is right near the D.C./Maryland line, which means it's much harder to get places from AU than GW or Georgetown. Yes, GW is more expensive, but the cost of living in Foggy Bottom is going to be much more expensive than AU's campus on the outskirts of D.C. </p>
<p>Hope this helps...I honestly have nothing against AU but I just kind wanted to put my opinion in as a GW student and resident of D.C."</p>