Public health at GW

Hey everyone! I’m super fortunate to have been admitted to the Class of 2021 here, but am currently trying to decide between GW and a nearly to an in-state college. I was also fortunate enough to have received a Presidential Scholarship at GW, but even with that aid, GW is still pretty pricy. I’m planning to go in to public health, which I understand would require applying to Milken my sophomore year. In trying to weigh my options, I would like to ask anyone for insight on the public health school if there is any of CC. My main motivations for going to GW would be that they have a public health major (which my state school does not) and that I love DC and the internship opportunities. But is the cost worth it?

Thanks for any input in advance!

The question of whether or not GW is “worth the cost” is one that can only be answered by you. First of all, how much will you have to pay the first year? Multiplying this by 4 would give a very rough idea of total debt you’d incur over your 4 years. Assume your monthly payments post-graduation will be about $100/mo per $10K in loans, so $400/mo for $40K in student loan debt. That’s more than a car payment, and if you’re only making $50K/year when you graduate (pretty average for DC, if you stay here) then it’s really going to hurt your finances.

How much if your state school going to cost you?
Are you intending to pursue a Masters of Public Health or stop at a Bachelors? (If you do intend to do the Masters, you can go to your state school for a Bachelors and then go to GW for the Masters)

GW and it’s internships will certainly help you obtain a job post-graduation, but you should take into consideration how much you would make after student loan payments and compare that to figures of the state school and whichever field you’d potentially find yourself in. You can find earning estimates from googling “career outlook for XXX.”

Thank you for your response @NHuffer !! I am intending to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Global Public Health and then plan to apply to medical school. I suppose I could take similar courses at my state school as a way to create my own major there, or even take general education requirements and transfer to the Miliken School of Public Health? Is there a way for accepted students to delay admission and enter GW as a soph or junior?

Well, two things come to mind with your intent to go to med school. First, if you’re already going to incur $150-200K in debt for med school (yes, it’s that expensive), do you really want to add-on another $40-60K? Second, if there’s a chance you don’t get-in to medical school (or change your mind your first or second year at college- it happens frequently), will you be happy with your choice in degree and/or school? (wherever you’re leaning)

Now, I’m going to potentially make your decision more difficult (or easier- who knows, lol). If you attend GW, there are a lot of classes you can take that will give you exposure to the medical field, as well as staff at the medical school (GW has its own in case you didn’t know). If you are a strong student and leave a good impression on these faculty members, you can get some great letters of recommendation that will go a long way to getting accepted to GW’s program. I had a lot of friends in the pre-med track at GW, and many of them ended-up at GW’s med school. I don’t know if that’s because so many GW students are highly driven and it just ended-up that way, or if their networking while at the school made a noticeable difference (I’d assume the latter). Anyway, a little more food for thought…

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention. Yes, you’re allowed to defer your admission for up to a year. HOWEVER, that’s only if you plan to take the year off and not attend elsewhere. If you go to any other school, you cannot defer.

Wow…thanks yet again for such a thorough perspective! My state school would basically be free for me, and I could imagine myself going there for college. But I can’t deny that I’m enticed by the idea of going to GW…I’m the only one in my school who got in and I was personally looking for a chance to start over in college, whereas going to my state school would mean seeing at least a third of my class again. I suppose the money though is worth sucking up the blows to my ego for going to a state school though, so I’ll keep that in mind.

I’m going to visit GWU either this weekend of April 28th for the Final Look date. I was unable to go these past few weeks due to unchangeable family plans. Do you think I could speak to a counselor there and attempt to appeal for more financial aid/explain my situation? I definitely think GW is a great fit for me, regardless of whether I decided to continue my plan of going into medicine (I’m also interested in music and journalism lol), so I’d like to consider the option fully before making the decision!

I haven’t done Final Look before so I don’t understand completely what you’ll be able to do. However, looking at an article on GW Today (https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/inside-gw-welcomes-more-3400-visitors) it says that at one point you’ll have “a discussion with academic advisors,” where you can discuss your interests of medicine, music, and journalism to see how GW can tailor to them. As far as financial aid concerns, you can most certainly stop by the office in Colonial Central on the ground floor of the Marvin Center (the main student building.) They may or may not be able to do anything on the spot, but they might give you advice on what else you can do for aid. It helps, though, if you have some specific reasons on why you want/need more other than “I really want to go to GW but it’s too expensive.” I’m not sure what those reasons would be for you specifically, so that’s something you’ll have to plan-out.

I’m glad you’ll get a chance to go to GW one more time to figure stuff out. It really is a great school, but I completely understand how the cost is an extremely important factor. Even though you may end-up going to your state school and being with many of your current classmates, you can still look forward to “getting out” for med school, or even think of transferring somewhere else after a year or two and get some of your basic requirements out of the way for much cheaper.

My daughter is in the same position as you … have you decided yet? We feel we didn’t quite get enough information about GW’s academics, never got into the classrooms, etc on the tour or at Inside GW day. She is debating the merits of degree when it feels like the main selling point is simply location. She is well-suited to the location, just not sure the cost to attend is worthwhile. Also a little unsettled with the lodging options for Foggy Bottom campus. She is not interested in being in the “party” dorm with so many roommates and the other options are much more expensive than we had thought.

Yes I share many of your concerns about how GW seems to over-market their location, which makes it hard to assess the quality of the school itself. Yesterday I attended the Final Look program so I have a little extra input that I can provide you. After yesterday, I decided that if I attend, I will DEFINITELY opt to live on the Vern. Not only is it a great adjust for freshmen who might need a year to acclimate within the university before being thrown into the bustle of the city, but Vern students also have priority registration for classes on that campus (you can take intro classes there that would usually have 300+ students on FB) and the quality of life is amazing. Food was phenomenal, dorms top-notch (private bathroom in nearly each dorm? including singles!), and based on what I’ve heard from students, most clubs aren’t extremely time-consuming. I definitely think the hefty price of GW comes more so from the overall quality of life that students can experience. As for academics however, I’d say it depends. I personally am leaning towards accepting my state school’s full ride and then transferring to my original top choice (not GW). What is your daughter intending to study?