On the application, you can list two choices for your major. I’m very interested in the political communication program, but I know it’s selective. Will it affect my odds of admission into the university if I put Political Communication as my first choice and then have Poli Sci as my second? Meaning, if I don’t get accepted into the Political Communication program, will the fact that Poli Sci was my second choice decrease my chances of getting accepted into that major? Does anyone have any advice about applying (specific to political communication or just in general?
I think you should be fine…you get in you get in? I can understand why you would be nervous but again I think you will be fine because you have to imagine there’s multiple students in that situation and George Washington definitely wants to attract and encapsulate rather than discard qualified students. I really wouldn’t worry about that…I’m not an adcom but if that’s your dream major go for it. You’re essentially worried that if you don’t get into your first pick major then it just makes you seem less competitive and attractive for acceptance into your second choice. I don’t really think George Washington discriminates or blacklists like that.
So it looks like this is a major through the School of Media and Public Affairs- I think it’s harder to get into than Columbian but not the hardest to get into. If the admissions committee thinks you’re qualified in general to get into George Washington I think they’ll probably at least put you in Columbian. And I don’t mean “at least” in a pejorative sense…more so in the sense that in my experience at George Washington many of the students who already know what they want to do early on and have taken a lot AP’s for it tend to be in the engineering, business or Elliott School. But through Columbian you can always just do an internal transfer and take some electives your freshman year. The internal transfer process here is pretty smooth and welcoming of students. I can’t speak to the magic of the School of Media & Public Affairs but I can say that the GWSB curriculum is uniquely integrated. The concepts you learn in your core business courses have a lot of carryover rather just learning concept after concept in a disjointed way. That’s where George Washington really stands out, IMO. The professional and highly qualified faculty at George Washington does an excellent job of making relevant real world connections and applications to lecture material. Many of these professors have day time jobs, so in essence these people are people who have actually made in both academia and corporate America. But I digress, I think really if you just get your foot in the door you’ll be fine and things will work out anyways 
Oh yeah and in terms of application advice- well here’s my two cents. George Washington is a very internship driven university at the epicenter of a very prestigious and powerful government town. It’s important to be yourself in your application essays; you don’t necessarily want to curry the favor of the admissions committee by overemphasizing demonstrated interested and simply agreeing with the politics of the university. Albeit, it’s totally okay to be inspired by the universities politics…which is how I feel about GWSB and Yale. At the same time you don’t want to try to hard too sound sophisticated. The power of using exact words in the right places and yet knowing when to convey certain ideas succinctly so as to give your audience something to play with is golden. The admissions committee doesn’t know you but that doesn’t mean they’re cynically waiting to reject like many students think…they’re trying to understand you. They want to be entertained and they want a story that will resonate with them and perhaps their own beliefs. At least that’s my philosophy…when it comes to admissions essays I always try to write from the heart.
When going through the admissions process, you will be initially considered for your primary school choice. If you are not accepted, you will then go through the entire process again for your second choice. There is no beneficial strategy for putting down one school over another.
SMPA programs are more competitive than other columbian programs simply because they keep the number of students enrolled in them small. But if Political Communication is really what you want, then go for it. If it doesn’t work out, you won’t be at any disadvantage when you’re reconsidered for your second school choice.
Best of luck to you!
What was the Political Communications supplementary essay prompt this year?
@SkipWoosnam It was “If you could be any one person who was active in politics, who would it be and why?”
@rosebudd21 Thank you! Good luck to all who applied!
Hey @rosebudd21! I was accepted to GW ED 1 for SMPA Political Communication, but as my second-choice major, I had put Political Science, which I had debated on whether or not to do, too. Because it’s selective, as has been said above, I was kind of worried about getting in, but I made sure to stress anywhere on my application interest/activites towards PoliComm.
Also, as some advice, we were given the option to upload a graded essay, and I would highly consider it if I were you!
Good luck!!!