Hi, I’m a current senior in high school who is planning to commit to Georgetown’s SFS. I’ve wanted to become a foreign service officer since I was a kid, and after visiting Georgetown (2 times!) I fell in love with the campus and the overall vibe of the place. I was beyond overjoyed to get accepted EA.
But after seeing the 2022 facebook geoup, I’m becoming very worried about the social aspect. After battling with social anxiety for the past couple years, I’ve learned to come out of my comfort zone and interact with people, but I still find myself drained by long periods of social activity. Parties are fine, but so is staying in and watching movies. From what I’ve gathered, everyone seems to be super outgoing and super social. On top of that, I’m pretty low-income, so I’m scared that I won’t be able to fit in.
Any introverts out there willing to share their experience?
As an introvert, I totally emphasize with you. It was tough figuring out my balance at first, especially since I don’t drink, so parties are always weird for me, and I end up being exhausted afterwards. It takes longer than I would have liked, but you do end up meeting people who are more introverted. Regarding the FB page, keep in mind that the people who are posting are the extroverts–I know I didn’t post in there when I got in, and I can assure you that there are others like you who are there but not actively engaging with the FB group.
In particular, what’s helped me was to limit the amount of times I do social events. Generally, I don’t do more than one social event per weekend–the rest of the time I’m either in the library catching up on work or just in my dorm recharging. The key, I think, is to figure out what you need to do to recharge in order to have fun at events.
The nice thing about Georgetown is parties aren’t the only “social” type of events. There are tons of speaker events, panel sessions, and other really cool events that various clubs and the SFS puts on every week. I’m in the International Relations Club and help to organize some of those, so I may be a bit biased when I say this, but the IRC is a great place to find your kind of people and do things that aren’t necessarily just parties on the weekends. Feel free to DM me if you have other questions. I’m also a part of GSP, the scholarship program for low-income students, so I can answer any questions you have about that as well. Hope to see you on the Hilltop next year!
I just comitted to attend Georgetown next year class of 2022 too! I consider myself intraverted, and I have had a lot of similar worries as you are having with the facebook group. Many, many people have the same worries as we do. I just went to the GAAP weekend and I was astonished with how friendly and welcoming the students are.
About the low income thing, I cannot emphasize with you too well (I’m not low income, but I’m certainly not filthy rich eitherl lol). Students there whom I talked to said that people are very sensative about economic differences. For example, Students told me that often a group of friends would go to a nice breakfast in DC, and they would let low-income kids come with them but not eat anything, just to hang out.
Previously I thought of Georgetown as a ‘snooty rich kid’ school. It really didn’t seem like that when I visited. Many of the students seemed to have money, but it wasn’t like they made a big deal about it.
@masquerade98 Thank you so much for your detailed response. That eased a lot of my fears, especially when you mentioned that you don’t drink. I’m also planning to not drink but I heard that it was a big part of the social scene at Georgetown, so I was kind of worried that I’d have to drink in order to make any friends. I mean, I’m fine with being surrounded by extroverts and all but I feel so out-of-place among them sometimes, especially when all of them seem to be having fun the fourth hour into a party and all I want to do is go sleep (that impulse has been getting better though!) Can I just ask: was it tough? Did you ever feel disconnected from everyone else? And how did you end up finding those few introverts within the campus?
IRC sounds right up my alley, much less intimidating than those other super-competitive clubs I’ve been hearing about. I could probably DM you all day with questions but I’m too new of a member to do so (not to mention you’d probably get annoyed pretty quickly), so just one more question: how pre-professional is the student body? I’ve heard that it’s hard to make meaningful friendships because of how competitive everyone is with one another and with how much people are focused on their courses and future careers and internship opportunities. Is that true?
@Savage101 GAAP weekend oh my gosh, I want to attend so badly!! I couldn’t make the March one but hopefully I’ll make the April one, especially now that I’m all hyped up about it after reading your post. And I’m glad you had such a positive experience! There goes my worries about the student body being, like you said, rich and snooty and disingenuous. Also, I’m glad someone is on the same boat as me about the facebook group. Everyone there seems so confident and successful… selection bias, but still.
“Also, I’m glad someone is on the same boat as me about the facebook group. Everyone there seems so confident and successful… selection bias, but still.”
Thats basically what social media is… everyone seems confident on social media. By the look of their facebooks, people may seem to have their entire lives together, but in all honesty basically everyone has some degree of confusion, nervousness, etc.
Also at GAAP weekend try to talk to a lot of current Georgetown students because they can probably answer your guestions an adress your concerns better than College confidential can
@Savage101 So the wealthier kids ‘let’ the low income kids come to breakfast with them not to eat but to hang out. I hope at least they buy them a cup of coffee!
@Savage101 Yeah, that should be common sense but I guess that small insecure part of myself denies it completely. Thanks, I’ll do just that!
@wisteria100 To be fair, I wouldn’t want my friends buying for me every time we went out together, even if they were rich. I’d just feel plain bad. If I was allowed to be there without anyone questioning why I wasn’t buying anything, I’d be grateful.
Hopefully, you can find people willing to eat a moderately priced breakfast to spread awareness that, contrary to popular belief, lower income kids get hungry too!
This was completely sarcastic just to clarify and I’m sure finding people down for affordable food won’t be a problem. :))
@wisteria100@a20171 Lol this is DC we’re talking about. Affordable food practically doesn’t exist outside of campus gates. It’s a good thing DC minimum wage is so high–otherwise we’d all starve, rich parents or not!
@dreamingstars What I’ve found to be helpful is to show up about an hour late to parties. At that point, people have either pre-gamed enough or have just drunk enough that they really don’t care whether or not you’re drinking. Even when sober though, everyone I’ve declined a drink from just accepted that I don’t drink and moved on, no questions asked. Part of the fun at parties for me is watching everyone else because it’s honestly quite entertaining when you’re one of the only people sober at a party. You see a lot of things that no one else will remember and you get to see people show a completely different side of themselves.
To answer your questions though, yes, I did feel disconnected the first couple months. Being in the IRC helped, and being on the Model UN team helped even more, because we spent 14 hours on a bus going to Boston to compete, and being in a hotel room with 3 other people for a weekend really brings you together. Model UN for me has been a bonding experience like no other, and it’s been really helpful to find people that are interested in the same things as you. Finding my introverted friends was an accident, honestly. The problem with introverts is that it’s hard to meet them because they don’t socialize often. Some I’ve met through class, others through the IRC, and others just randomly.
Regarding the pre-professional culture, I’d describe it as friendly competition. It’s competitive in the sense that everyone wants to be in the White House or on Capitol Hill in 10 years, but because of the amount of resources and networking connection Georgetown provides, I get the sense that people feel like they’re going to end up somewhere nice and it’ll work out. So in that sense, it is a type of friendly competition. It’s possible to have close friends and apply to the same internships/leadership positions as them, because if you don’t get an internship that your friend gets, the chance that you got one somewhere else equally good is pretty high. A lot of my friends are actually on senior staff with me for our collegiate MUN conference, and it was competitive getting in, but I never felt like I was competing against them.
@dreamingstars First post! My D just attended GAAP for early admits and is in the same boat as you are. She also finds the facebook group just not her thing and does not post or feel comfortable doing so…she isn’t a big ‘social media’ kind of person in general and would rather not put her personal ‘business’ on the internet. She plans on using the university matching system for a roommate and hope for a match based on similarities rather than social media connecting.
She does not drink either. I can tell you that everyone was very welcoming and we did stop several students on campus and off to ask various questions that were not part of the GAAP group and found them as helpful and nice as the ones that were. Visiting while school was in session solidified that Georgetown was her ‘fit’ and the students were people she was comfortable. We are not wealthy either, solid middle, so I don’t think that not being wealthy would be a great barrier between students and from what I observed there were all ends of the spectrum on campus and I did not notice any ‘separation’ of groups. My D is friendly but not at all like some of the facebook kids that ‘jump right in’ and I think she will be just fine…I’m sure you will be too!
As the father of an introverted daughter who is thriving at Georgetown, I thought I might supplement the already excellent advice you have received with the following suggestions based upon my daughter’s experiences. I hope they assist you.
Take advantage of CHARMS, the roommate-matching online system Georgetown offers. Having a compatible roommate greatly helps your initial socialization.*
Consider joining a pre-orientation program. They typically offer good bonding experiences.**
Embrace the opportunities to meet people during orientation. Among other things, your orientation group should be valuable in this regard.
After orientation, join your dorm group on the social outings they take, whether it’s kayaking on the Potomac, visiting D.C. monuments, or eating cupcakes at Baked and Wired.
To ease your transition to college, take rigorous, but not impossibly demanding, courses your first semester.
@WithGrace You have no idea how ecstatic I am to hear all this. I’m glad you and your D had such a fabulous time! Hopefully they’ll let EA students register for the regular GAAP weekend too (I had to miss last week’s because of a conference). Thank you for the encouragement, and I hope to see your daughter on the hilltop!
@espenser Thank you so much for all the helpful tips, I had no idea they had a separate page for pre-orientation programs so I’ll definitely take a look at that. I’m hoping to push my limits next year, and I’m also hoping that SFS courses aren’t too challenging for me to deal with. Again, thank you so much!
Definitely agree with @espenser. Pre-orientations are a great way to meet new people and have a network established before everyone else. Plus, you get to move in early. PEP is a great one, as it allows you to get to know Georgetown campus before everyone else, and was very helpful for me in assimilating.
hey I’m a fellow introvert and admit to GU 2022, but to the college. I’m still deciding between 3 schools and the only thing keeping me from choosing georgetown is this exact issue. I don’t want to go to a college in a super competitive and extroverted environment, which is how georgetown has been described on a number of other CC posts. I also never drink and have only been to one party in high school and didn’t really enjoy it. @dreamingstars maybe we can be friends if we both commit?? are you going to the accepted students days this month? also where are you from?
I’m in the exact same situation. I’m an introvert, don’t drink, am not particularly fond of parties, and have been somewhat frightened by the Facebook page… I’ve been accepted to the FLL as a Comparative Literature major but still haven’t committed to Georgetown precisely for those reasons. Does one feel terribly isolated in the Georgetown community as an introvert? Is it difficult to live in the dorms if the people around you are always partying? Or is that just a stereotype?
Thank you!
@chopin77 I didn’t feel isolated just because so many people were so friendly, and there were many people ready to help. What I did have trouble with was the sense that I was missing out, especially when I see other people seeming like best of friends on social media already. I just keep reminding myself that people on social media are not portraying their true selves, and that everyone is still settling in with friendships. With partying, most of it is done in the upperclassmen apartments or on the rooftops. There might be pre-games going on in freshmen dorms, but in general it’s not a big issue. Noise is not much of a problem for me, since by the time I go to bed, the people who are still out partying are either at upperclassmen dorms or elsewhere in the city by then. I hope that was helpful for you!
You may wish to check out Georgetown’s Living Well Community, which provides substance-free housing for first-year students and is one of Georgetown’s Living Learning Communities.*
According to its mission statement, the Living Well Community creates an environment for “a diverse group of students … to live a well-balanced and engaged lifestyle … free of alcohol, tobacco, and other mind-altering substances.”*
Other Living Learning Community options for first-year student housing include those dedicated to Culture and Performance, Justice & Diversity in Action, Explore DC, and Entrepreneurship.*
Current students can help you evaluate the pros and cons of the Living Well Community far better than I can. If it proves to be the right option for you, be on the lookout for the date applications to it go live.
