<p>My son just learned he was accepted to the GW Honors Program with a Presidential Scholarship of $18,000/year+. This is great news, but a big complication in decision making! </p>
<p>Does anyone on the board have personal experience with this program? How is the quality of instruction compared with the general GW program? The classes are small (no more than 20/class), there is specialized programming available and there is a separate dorm. It seems worthy of consideration, but hearing from those with personal experience would be valuable. If your child was accepted and turned it down, was there a specific reason why? At this point his most likely alternative would be Penn or Claremont McKenna(or one or two others!), while he waits on the waiting list for MIT as well. He wants to study economics and political science. DC is a huge draw for the predictable reasons, but also because of family considerations. </p>
<p>Honestly, we have been most fortunate and have the money set aside for him to go to any school he wants to, and we don't feel he should make the decision solely based on this factor- we still want him to go to the school that is best for him, but the money makes you sit up and take notice a bit....We just feel he needs more information about the reality of this program to factor all aspects of his decision.</p>
<p>UPenn would be a better choice in terms of academics, but that of course does not deal with the financial considerations. </p>
<p>If the financial considerations are at issue, I would offer this: GW is an excellent school in a terrific location. It's particularly strong in certain areas, as everyone knows (IR, all Asian studies, Public/Health, good journalism, pre law and pre-med emphases, biomed, etc.). </p>
<p>The Honors program is not a separate school or separate course of study. There are specific honors courses sprinkled throughout the curriculum to choose from, and also a specific non-honors course can be turned into an honors course by working it out with the professor and the admin to do additional research, etc. The honors students can take the honors courses they want, by and large, so long as they take at least one per semester. </p>
<p>The honors dorm is optional, and a lot of the honors kids actually choose to integrate with non-honors students rather than go to the honors dorm. </p>
<p>Again, I'd choose University of Pennsylvania if money is not an object. If money is a consideration, and your son wants to study a field that GW is strong in, it will be a great choice.</p>
<p>He wants to do Poly Sci or Economics in Elliott school. He is a pragmatic kid, but also likes discourse and discussion. GW without the honor's program (even with the great DC opportunities) was not appealing enough...the question is how incremental the difference is with the resources of the honors' program..and if there are any down sides to the program.</p>
<p>The money is nice, of course, but would not displace the quality of the program and school as the first priority...</p>
<p>Political Science is the one major where I think GW might trump Penn. The access to all of official DC is something that can't be beat. Only Georgetown might be better in that regard and I'm not even sure about that...we looked at both, D considered both, did not apply. But that Presidential Scholarship brings GW down from "highest priced" to "reasonable enough to consider."</p>
<p>Assuming its a half tuition scholarship what would you do with the extra 75K? Grad school? Our S chose Honors at BU with the half scholarship and he is doing a 6 wk summer abroad program that we would have likely vetoed had he chosen a full cost school. Still, PENN is an intriguing environment. Visit all for accepted students days, they will likely have a special reception for Honors candidates, and see if that helps to tip the scales. All are good schools so he can't go wrong. Congtats</p>
<p>As my astute mother in law points out, this is, after all $18,000/year AFTER TAXES (!)...though GW is mighty pricey which knocks the relative value down a bit. GW has fixed tuition for 10 semesters...tuition alone of 36,000 and change!!</p>
<p>He would take some classes in the honors program, some outside of it(which is how the program is set up). He had said that his ideal school would be "Macalester in Washington DC" (ie, a smallish, urban, liberal arts school with an international focus in DC)...I am just not sure to what extent the GW honors program/Elliott school of International Affairs replicates this in terms of the interactions between students and professors, the caliber of discussion in classes, etc...It is hard to guage. It would be fabulous if he could visit, sit in on a class or two...but I think that it is just not feasible from 11,000 miles away...</p>
<p>As to what he would do with the extra money...he is definitely expecting to go to grad school or law school, so the money would be his for that.</p>
<p>robyrm: wow, you are not exactly in commuting distance. Perhaps you could call the dean of the honors program and speak to him/her about your questions. You can get the phone number off the web site. This at least might help you get more specifics to make your decision since you can't be there. As Dogs says, poly sci and econ are very strong at GW. You could also get the names of some honors students in your S's areas of interest, and speak with them directly. As Dogs suggests, they do have honors meetings for accepted students, and current honors students do most of the talking. So I'm sure one or two would be happy to speak to you.</p>
<p>The opportunities in any DC school are fantastic when it comes to Elliott and political science. My S's roommate, who is only a sophomore, is already interning with a congressman. The contacts are amazing. I can't imagine any group more dedicated to poly sci than the kids in the DC schools.</p>
<p>I think he really needs to be in touch with students...you are both right. He has one student whom he knows from a summer program that is in the Honors Program, having chosen it with a full scholarship over Harvard. He is trying to make other connections as well. He needs to be with the right mix of kids..absolutely. </p>
<p>One dilemma I have in thinking about this is that since he is only 17 (!) he might well decide a year or two from now that what he really wants to major in is philosophy or geology or who knows what else. I think this is not likely, but you never know. While GW clearly has added value in poly sci, international affairs, etc....what if he changes his mind!!</p>
<p>We have a son currently sophomore at GW in Economics. He is not part of the honors program. But, he has been able to stand out in classroom discussions and written essays, earning invitation to a seminar on ‘how to get an internship and/or fellowship’, run by the director of the undergraduate fellowship program. With that, he proposed and won a $5K year long fellowship. Also, he applied to the GW study abroad program, and was accepted at both London School of Economics and Oxford University for his junior year. Bottom line, an outstanding student at GW has access to connections few other schools have. And not just in poli-sci and int’l rel. I can only imagine what he would have been able to accomplish with the backing of the honors office.</p>
<p>Just wanted to point out that there are hundreds (and possibly thousands) of kids who don’t attend schools in DC who intern on the Hill, staff committees and subcommittees at the Fed/World Bank, and research, write and edit for think tanks.</p>
<p>I know dozens of kids (can rattle off their names with no help) who attended schools all over the country who spent a semester, one or more summers, or even more quality time in DC. So I would encourage you to explore the academic aspects of the GW program and look at the “connections” as a nice but not hugely compelling bonus.</p>
<p>Kids at Penn intern in DC. Kids at Cornell intern in DC. Kids from U Mass, U Chicago, Swarthmore, BC, Marquette, U Texas, Reed, Bowdoin, all of them manage to intern in DC. There are very few colleges in the US where a professor of economics or political science cannot pick up the phone or shoot off an email and get a kid an interview in an area of interest.</p>
<p>My D from Smith had a 6+ month Summer/Fall internship in a US Senate office. Upon graduation, she took a job with a non-profit think tank that works closely with the Hill. </p>
<p>One of the most impressive things about her record & experience to me is:</p>
<p>jobs applied for for after graduation: 1
jobs offered: 1
jobs accepted: 1</p>
<p>And she’s doing exactly what she wants to do, exactly where she wants to be doing it.</p>
<p>So, yes, GW has a certain convenience to it but, in the words of Kipling, there are nine and sixty ways…</p>
<p>My son graduated last year from GW in the Honors program. He received a BA in Archeology and BS in Chemistry. He is also working in his field. To me the importance of his education at GW was certainly about the academics but also about the experiences he would have in DC. He interned at NASA, as well as the peace corp. He attended performances at the Kennedy Center, attended the inauguration of two Presidents, learned extensively about public transportation in large cities, attended professional hockey games, baseball games and many more experiences I think are unique to DC. It wasn’t alway perfect but he learned so much. I feel our money was a good investment in his future.</p>