<p>There seems to be a certain stigma of pretentiousness surrounding GW. How true is this?</p>
<p>Is it really a waste to go to GW for a STEM degree?</p>
<p>what is like to be a pre-med? just wondering because i’m in CCAS and I’ll be majoring in journalism while doing pre-med stuff too.</p>
<p>ram0276 - I’d say it depends who your friends are and who you spend your time with while at GW. There are going to be pretentious college kids at any university in the U.S. While a lot of GW students are white, middle/upper-class suburbanites, we also have a lot of diversity and people from all different backgrounds.</p>
<p>kendrickgirl - pre-med anywhere is pretty rigorous, I know a few people within CCAS who are doing it but their majors are in bio or chemistry. GW has advisers that will help make sure you get in the requirements you need for medical school</p>
<p>I’m a parent. I attended the GW session on Saturday morning at 10 AM with my son who is a junior. I thought the two students who ran the session in the theatre were excellent. I liked the back and forth between the two of them. The student who is I believe a sociology major had some good stories both about his research work with a professor and the excitement of being in a great location near the action.
I was also impressed that there were some tour guides thus allowing for a small group tour. The woman who led us around (by walking backwards the entire time) was a double major in English and Public Health who had just been accepted into the Honors program as a freshman applicant. She did a great job and the tour was the right length.<br>
My son, who has interest in int’l business, was impressed with the Bloomberg trading room during our quick peek inside the business school building.
Our final interaction was we walked back to the Admissions Building with our tour guide. I asked the student behind the counter for any business school literature. He responded that he was a business major, had done work in the Bloomberg trading room, and had done an internship this past summer at Bloomberg in NYC. My son loved hearing his story.
Sorry that I did not note names, but everyone did a great job!
msg</p>
<p>Hello,
Thank you everyone for all the insights. GW is my D’s dream school but we are all seriously conflicted about the cost vs opportunities. She has been accepted as a freshman into the School of Media and Public Affairs. I would like to hear from journalism students and graduates about the advantages of studying journalism in DC versus a more regional but highly respected journalism program at a state university (University of Oregon in her case). GW has offered zero financial aid while UO has offered a merit scholarship that puts the cost at about half of GW.</p>
<p>Hi, I just got my acceptance letter for the GWU school of Business. Im excited to have the chance of being part of the GWU community. I would just like to know, how is the finance/economics program there in terms of employment opportunities. Is it prominent in the school at all? Thank you for taking your time.</p>
<p>kendrickgirl- I’m premed! Yes it is rigorous, but we get pre med advisors to help out. I’m a psych major also, because I actually hate science. If you study hard, you’ll be fine. </p>
<p>ram0276- take UW, bisc 1005/1006 for your science req (sooo easy compared to bio for majors), and take your fine arts credit. people forget that alot. also, soc 1002 is easy as pie.</p>
<p>msg - I’m glad you enjoyed your visit to GW! There’s nothing student tour guides like better than hearing they did a good job :)</p>
<p>daisy4 - I am not in SMPA and obviously financial decisions are your own, but I can say that studying journalism/communications here is probably one of the best places in the world to do so. We have professors who work with (or at) CNN and other major news networks, and these news networks frequently film segments in our SMPA building. I actually do work with the radio station and all of their equipment (as well as TV) is state-of-the-art. SMPA students also have the advantage of being part of the Columbian College so most of them double major or minor in humanities, so it’s very interdisciplinary. Obviously you and your daughter have to take personal choices into consideration but I have nothing but good things to say about SMPA.</p>
<p>jlyons - I’m not in the business school but I have a lot of friends who are. Rates of job and internship placement are something GW is particularly proud of but I know that especially within the business school there are a lot of opportunities to network and make connections that help in the long run. The business school also does a unique “career trek” trip to New York for sophomores where you learn about various industries, network with business school alum and work on interviewing/resume building etc</p>
<p>Thank you for the insights!</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for your reply from before! I haven’t been on for a while, but thanks!</p>
<p>I know you said FSK was the party dorm for sophomores and that would be a good option to get to know people and such. Can you also shed some light on Dakota? I heard its a favorite of all the sophomores and one of the best. But can you explain affinity housing? Thanks!</p>
<p>Dakota is by far the nicest sophomore dorm, there are washer/dryer units in each suite and it’s fairly new. Affinity housing is basically groups of students (usually formed around some common interest, like a student org, academics or athletes) that all live on the same floor or section of a building and meet on a monthly basis with goals for their group. So you have to know people (or get a group of people together) to apply for affinity housing.</p>
<p>Hi, GW does have a monthly payment plan option. You might have received info about it already, or else you will soon (or look online by Googling it). There’s a fee of about $55 a year for the service, then you pay monthly for 10 months, starting in May, I think – maybe June for freshmen. </p>
<p>You have to initiate the payment plan yourself (or your parents can). There is a link somewhere on the GWeb site. You/your parents also have to figure out yourself how much you owe. The payment plan company offers a worksheet for you to figure this out. Any outside scholarships that you have are sent to the Financial Aid office and you have to remember to deduct these. </p>
<p>Then you have March and April without any tuition payments.
Good luck at GW!</p>
<p>Hi GWgirl, my Daughter is accepted for class of 2017, her intended major is computer science, do you know what kind of internship would be available for her? Can you tell me if typically, class sizes are large? Could you shed some light on the dorm set up in Thurston Hall, chances are that she will be placed there. I noted that the six person to a dorm is said to be ideal, why is this so? What sort of layout does it have? I imagine it to be clustered with beds placed in a square room. </p>
<p>Thanks, you’re a great help.</p>
<p>harryferg - I know some comp sci majors and they have had no trouble getting internships despite the fact that it is a competitive climate. From what I understand it’s pretty versatile, and they work for all different types of corporations, government agencies, non-profits, or directly with engineering or IT work. I know that’s not a really specific answer but DC has so many internships for every different type of major.</p>
<p>Class sizes vary depending on the class and what year you’re in. Some introductory freshman classes can be as large as 200 (for example, introduction to sociology, or an intro science). Large classes will always have either a small lab section or discussion section in which you meet with a maximum of 20 students and either the prof or TA to go over class materials, assignments, etc. GW professors are also generally good about being flexible with 1-on-1 office hours. I never felt I struggled in larger classes. However as you begin to take major-specific courses (which is usually sophomore-senior year), class sizes usually decrease. This is pretty standard for any university that is GW’s size.</p>
<p>Thurston is “the” freshman dorm, it’s honestly what you make of it; it can be a party dorm (especially during the first few weeks of fall semester when kids are excited about being on their own for the first time), but I know people who have not had significant issues living there (and if anything serious does happen you an always do a “room swap” and switch dorms). Price-wise, generally the more roommates you have, the cheaper your housing rate is going to be. 6-person suites in Thurston are essentially comprised of two rooms, a main living area and a “study alcove” in addition to lots of extra closet space. If I remember correctly most people in a 6-room have three beds in the “living area” and three in the “study alcove,” so it’s essentially like having two bedrooms.</p>
<p>It’s up to you and your daughter but personally I consider the triple to be ideal in Thurston because it has a similar layout to the 6-room suites where there is a separate room. I generally advise against purposely going for more roommates but the 6-room definitely has its perks.</p>
<p>GWgirl…thanks, very informative.</p>
<p>Do you know what the Anthropology and Forensic Anthropology programs are like at GWU?</p>
<p>Whit97 - the anthropology department at GW is very strong and one of the top majors among students; the professors all do a lot of extensive research both here and abroad. However I don’t believe we have a Forensic Anth major, only Anthropology, Archaeology, or Biological Anthropology. But since it is such an interdisciplinary major I’m sure there are forensics classes in the general anth curriculum (as well as sociocultural anthropology, etc.). A lot of anthropology majors also study abroad and do research abroad because it is such a cross-cultural field of study.</p>
<p>How hard is it to transfer from ccas to elliott?</p>
<p>ram0276 - because the elliott school is very competitive, there are a number of requirements that you must meet in order to complete an internal transfer request, which include having completed a certain number of credit hours and taken specific classes (I believe they are usually econ, polisci and foreign language), and then your request has to be approved. Plenty of people do it, but it is more of a process than if you were transferring from elliott to ccas.</p>
<p>Hi GWgirl, what are the pros and cons attending GW? My D who is from the Caribbean is still trying to decide whether or not to attend. Is there any Caribbean organization on campus? </p>
<p>Thank you…</p>