Help a student decide? (USC, GWU, Swat)

Parents Forum
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<p>In my experience with CC, I've always been impressed with the efforts you parents go through to help your children prepare for life beyond high school. Honestly, much of my college research and assistance came directly from the parents who just went above and beyond in compiling the long lists of scholarships as well as taking time to answer questions I had about the college admissions. I was mostly on my own during this whole process as my parents come from a completely different culture. Although they don't know much about the schools that accepted me, I know they're proud of me.</p>

<p>I wanted to get some opinions from you as to which school would be best to attend next year hoping that a few of your children have matriculated to these schools. So far I've been accepted to a few and I'm mostly deciding between the University of Southern California, George Washington University, and Swarthmore College.</p>

<p>I'm a prospective international relations/affairs major and I'm looking to go to a school that not only is strong in this area but also would give me a great undergraduate experience. As of now, I'm slightly leaning towards USC only because it's only a few hours from home, it has a great sense of community and strong school spirit, a very strong alumni network, and I think I mesh pretty well with the atmosphere at that school.</p>

<p>However, GW is really great for my major since I got into the Elliott School of International Affairs and also the Honors program.</p>

<p>I've been told that Swarthmore was the most prestigious on my list but that's not a huge factor for me. I like Swat because it seems like a nice community and they also have given me the best financial aid package so far. (Although the other two have given me pretty good financial aid packages too.)</p>

<p>All of that being said, if you could give me some pros/cons about each of this school that would be great! Personal experience or what you know about graduates from each school would be also useful.</p>

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<p>You might do better if you post this in the Parents Forum.</p>

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<p>Wow, each of these schools are so different! It’s fascinating that you are weighing the three of them.</p>

<p>I only know some about USC but my kids had different majors than the one you’re planning. Both of my kids were very happy there; since it’s so large, it’s pretty easy for most kids to find a good niche for themselves. One of D’s friends will be heading to NYC, where she will be working with a major brokerage firm (which was her dream job). Another friend’s kid was offered many, many jobs–he’s double majoring in chemical engineering & finance, with a masters in finance as well. He accepted a job with a big name firm that he liked in LA (he got a free trip to NY to meet & interview with firms there & had a prominent LA businessman matched as his mentor). Our S (in electrical engineering) was offered 3 very good jobs in Feb of his SR year. Cousin’s kid who graduated in cinema was able to do 5 internships and received MANY job offers.</p>

<p>If you are willing to work hard and do well at USC, you can have a lot of amazing opportunities. I expect the same is true about the other Us you are considering as well.</p>

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<p>I’ll weigh in about the other two. Swat and GW are quite different.</p>

<p>If you are considering grad school, I might lean towards Swat. I’ve heard wonderful things about their rigor and intellectual atmosphere. </p>

<p>I know quite a few people who went to GW. It’s more of a pre-professional atmosphere. It’s urban and doesn’t have a distinct campus and really encourages students to use the city with internships and pt jobs. That said, DC is a fun city in which to be a student. There’s are a lot of colleges and a lot of young people plus plenty to do.</p>

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<p>This makes me think GW is the one for you. I understand that the opportunities in this area for internships, etc., while you’re in DC are pretty much limitless.</p>

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<p>Is funding an issue or are you able to choose freely? These are wonderful choices. As VH said, GW is a great choice for your major, but you can’t go wrong with any of these schools. Does the size of the school matter to you? If you want access to faculty and a stronge sense of community, that might tip the hat to Swat. Opportunities fromt here should be good too, though agreed, DC is the place to be for what you want.</p>

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<p>HImom, thanks for the info! I’ll take that into consideration as I make a decision. </p>

<p>2college, I am actually considering grad school, and someone on another thread said the same thing about Swat. I’m not sure how I feel about the pre-professional atmosphere yet at GW because there are things I do and don’t like about it. However, I don’t wanna pass up a great opportunity that would help with my career just because the sense of community isn’t as strong.</p>

<p>VeryHappy, thanks for your input!</p>

<p>jym, I’m able to choose freely because with the financial aid packages I received all three of these schools are financially within my reach. I hope to cover any extra need with outside scholarships, and perhaps even the Gates scholarship if I’m lucky. As I do more research each day, I’m slightly leaning more towards USC still because I think I’d be happiest there. I do like larger schools but even though I’d have roughly 300 in my class at Swat, I think the opportunities and resources it would offer me would outweigh that factor. I’ll hopefully be able to get a stronger opinion of Swat after I visit.</p>

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<p>Be careful with the outside scholarships. With some of them, the schools will use them to reduce their need based aid as it lowers your “need”. In other words, if they gave you $20K in need based FA and determine that your EFC is $5K, and you get a $5k outside scholarship, some (many?) schools will apply it to your need, reduce their FA award to you accordingly and still show your EFC as 5k.</p>

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<p>The advantages of DC for an IR major are absolutely HUGE. As much as I love Swat (the classroom experience is likely to be the best of the three), at neither of the other two schools will you able to access IN-TERM internships related to your major/goals (or, likely, any internships at all, outside of the summer). </p>

<p>GW is not as “pre-professional” as you might think (American is far more so), as 60% of students are in the liberal arts/engineering. </p>

<p>But you should go where you’ll feel happy, and do well.</p>

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<p>If you end up choosing USC or GWU, do approach their FA office saying that they are your favorite, but you’ve gotten a stronger FA offer from Swat, and you wanted to know if USC or GW would be able to strengthen their offer.</p>

<p>Have you visited all 3? They’re each located in such remarkably different environments: urban city campus without clearly delineated campus (GWU), city campus within fences (USC), classic LAC within an arboretum. If you have a clear preference take that into account, but it sounds as if you are a bloom-whereever-planted sort. </p>

<p>My one caution with GWU is if you should change your major. Elliott is excellent, the opportunities within DC superb. But if you weren’t an IR student, I’d be less enthused, even though so many GW students are liberal arts majors. </p>

<p>No bad choices–congratulations on being able to choose among such riches.</p>

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<p>For IR, GW has some clear advantages. My son hated its lack of campus and refused to apply.</p>

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<p>One of my sons is a Swat grad; the other a GW grad. Neither was an international affairs major, so I can’t help you there. The experiences of each were very different; the campuses are very different. I have a hard time believing that the same person would find both those schools appealing. Have you visited them? If you’re planning a trip to Swat, you might as well visit GW as well. It’s only 2 hours on Amtrak from Phildelphia to DC.</p>

<p>GW’s location definitely offers you good internship opportunities, but if you go to Swat you can always apply for DC internships for the summer.</p>

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<p>My d. is an American grad, and wasn’t greatly fond of GW (campus and all, etc., etc.). But I think to simply say it offers good internship opportunities is really a very great understatement. DC offers “career-making” internship opportunities (if you pursue them) and does so all year round. My d. had two, and one has led to a very high-paying job in her field (and a really amazing job even as she finishes her masters degree - at American - this year).</p>

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<p>“I’m slightly leaning towards USC only because it’s only a few hours from home, it has a great sense of community and strong school spirit, a very strong alumni network, and I think I mesh pretty well with the atmosphere at that school.”</p>

<p>Swat has a very strong sense of community and a very strong alumni network. By school spirit, if you mean a big sports scene, you are right - Swat won’t have that. It’s the most intellectual and intense of the three and is highly respected by graduate schools. It also has more resources than you may think because of the consortium with Bryn Mawr and Haverford (you can take classes at any of the three schools). But you have to ‘mesh’ to be happy there. </p>

<p>How important is being close to home? Everyone’s different but my kids flew home 5 times the first year. Twice the second year. Now we beg them to fit us into their busy schedules…their schools have offered them so many wonderful alternatives to being at home that we find ourselves competing. I suspect the same may end up being true for you.</p>

<p>And how certain are you about that IR major, by the way? If there is any chance of changing your mind, would you still be happy at GW?</p>

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<p>jym, thanks for the warning about scholarships being used to lower the school’s aid. I read about this earlier this week actually in another thread.</p>

<p>mini, thank you for your input. I spent a lot of today browsing the opportunities offered at the Elliott School at GW and I’m really impressed. I’ve been looking for a school that offers a lot of short term and summer study abroad prorgams. Regarding internships, I’m still unsure if I’m going to go directly into the workforce after I graduate or if I want to go to grad school, so I still have a lot of thinking to do. Regardless of what direction I take my career though, I plan on using the education I earn in college to help better the world even if in small ways. </p>

<p>Slithey, I’m currently writing a financial aid appeal hoping to use some leverage from the other financial aid package I received. Regarding visits, I’ve only visited Swarthmore and GW, both on paid trips by the schools last fall. Ironically, the only one I haven’t visted yet is the one that is two hours away from me. </p>

<p>I like the way you phrased that, “bloom-whereever-planted.” Thanks btw on the congrats, I appreciate the encouragement.</p>

<p>Mathmom, I did like the campus at GW. When I visited, I actually didn’t know it would take just 10 minutes to walk from the campus to the White House. I wish I had more time to actually explore the city and speak with students in the IR program, but at that point I hadn’t even applied yet or know that I would get in.</p>

<p>shell, thanks for the input! I realize that these are three really different schools. I came across Swat through QuestBridge and I applied to it as a Match finalist. USC is also a QB school but I knew about it before QB. If it weren’t for QB actually, I don’t think I would have applied to schools of this caliber. I’m a first generation American and I’ll be the first in my family to be graduating from schools like these. I would visit GW again, but I come from a low-income family and the trip to Swarthmore later this month is organized and funded by the school.</p>

<p>After reading all of these opinions, I realize that I have a lot more to consider. Thank you for your time and sharing your personal experiences. Before I ask for more opinions, I really need to figure out what I want. Going by intuition though, USC seems to most appealing to me still. The type of students at USC and the strong community really attracts me. I think I’d not only grow there intellectually but also thrive there personally. </p>

<p>As a sidenote, I’ve also gotten into UCSD for international studies but I’ve already eliminated it from my choices because it would be the most costly and I’ve heard bad things about the UC system recently (having to fight your way to register for classes, having to stand in lectures because there are no empty seats). I’ve also been waitlisted to UChicago and UVA.</p>

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<p>I went to GW for IR for grad school. At that point the lack of a real campus didn’t bother me because the MA program was mostly night classes, as they assumed you had some sort of job or internship during the day. I loved being so close to everything that is happening ‘inside the Beltway’.</p>

<p>The program was great and the opportunities were endless.</p>

<p>I guess it depends on why you are pursuing IR. Is it for the Foreign Service, international business or banking, or do you just want to travel?</p>

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<p>USC may lack a home in the seat of US government, but don’t underestimate its Pacific locale. Especially with the shift in $ and, as we’re now witnessing, power to China and the rest of Asia, west coast schools and USC in particular are mining this sea change away from Europe big time. </p>

<p>Doubt you’re bound for Swat if you like USC. Swat’s a great place, but they haven’t won a football game in more than a decade. Very different strokes here.</p>

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<p>If you haven’t been to Swat, you should visit. You will know for sure after that, I think. Be sure you attend a class or two while you are there. My D2 visited recently, and knew by the end of the day that Swat is at the top of her list. Hands down compared to all the other colleges we had visited. But it is not for everyone – they work insanely hard. But I agree with others, USC and GW are VERY different schools. Have you visited GW? Also an unusual campus vibe… not actually very “campusy”. No dorm cafeterias, for example, if I understand correctly. You really need to visit before deciding.</p>

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<p>Pacific locales may be great and all that, but when you visit USC ask point-blank: how many students have in-term (not summer) internships related to international relations? If that’s not an important factor, then don’t consider the answer highly. In fact, if you don’t consider that important, there would be little or no reason to choose GW over the other two schools. The classroom experience is likely better at Swat, the weather and team spirit better at USC. The campuses better at both (except that the Capitol really IS the campus at GW.)</p>

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<p>My d is currently at GWU in the elliot School. I agree GWU has a differnt vibe. I was concerned as she had come from a close knit private HS. she is really adaptable and fits in well. She helped form an LLC of kids she met in the honors dorm. who are still her friends today. Now she is a member of a professional sorority. she has interned and finds this experience invaluable. She loves studying at the Lincoln Memorial and traveling around Dc on the metro. Its my sense at GWU that you find your own group within a group. But definately you have to find your community.</p>