Social Scene Question

[euphoric_potato]

<p>I have heard a lot of bad things about GU in regards to the social aspect and I just wanted to hear some other input because all of it is seriously depressing me. This is just what I’ve heard (repeatedly):</p>

<li>"‘Everyone’ is the same."</li>
</ol>

<p>Way too occupied with the future and extremely wealthy. Because the majority of the campus are so worried about their grades (grade deflation?) and the future, there lacks a warmth found on many other college campuses. The only day it really feels like everyone’s friendly and ready to socialize (without alcohol) is Georgetown day, but that’s only one day of the year.</p>

<p>The wealthy aspect of the school leads to a sense of over-entitlement in many of the students aka they are snobby. They do not respect others unless they’re sucking up to them. Most people are arrogant and feel as if they can push other people around. I know that those types of people have always existed, but I’ve heard that they exist in larger…more concentrated quantities at GU.</p>

<li>Lack of desire to return</li>
</ol>

<p>So winter break rolls around and you’re home, or gone to Cancun or wherever and then as the date of school reopening approaches…do you anticipate returning? High school, maybe not so much. But college? Some people have told me that while they couldn’t wait to get back to soandso school, others dreaded going back to GU. There is an indifference to GU that bothers me. Thoughts?</p>

<li>Ivy League Complex</li>
</ol>

<p>I found this in many people during GAAP weekend. “Oh, Harvard didn’t accept me, so I’m left with Georgetown and blah” or something like that and so they kind of view GU through resentful eyes. I guess this could add to the indifference some have towards the school. As someone who did not apply to a plethora of Ivy schools, I do not suffer from this. But a friend has told me that a lot of kids even at GU view GU as a “chump” school (even though they are plunking down 50 grand a year for it), which affects their personality and the way they act towards other people, smearing around the unhappiness/indifference/blah.</p>

<li>Thoughts on transferring to another university</li>
</ol>

<p>This came up more frequently than I thought it would.</p>

<p>I hope I haven’t offended anyone. These are NOT my opinions because I have not lived the GU campus life yet. But I really do want other input and I feel that the CC board would be a better place to ask than an extremely biased GAAP person. And, as a side note, I know that life is really what you make of it, but the college environment in which you start really branching out and growing is really important to me for GU’s price tag. Should I really just not expect too much?</p>

[dzleprechaun]

<p>There's a ton I could write here, but I'll try to be brief. Let me know if you want more detail.</p>

<p>"'Everyone' is the same."</p>

<p>While Georgetown IS a very pre-professional and careerist school, I know plenty of people who have no idea what they're doing 3 months from now, much less 30 years.</p>

<p>As for snobbishness and richness, I think a lot of that tends to be stereotyping. Sure, there are plenty of wealthy students, as you'll find at any elite university. But the majority are, in my experience, solidly in the middle class. Many hold down one or more jobs and very many will be finishing school with 5-figures worth of debt. </p>

<p>Also, I can't really think of any common situation where students have to "suck up" to other students, or where they're "pushing other people around" (except maybe some drunk fights on the weekend). </p>

<p>I think what happens a lot of the time is that people see Georgetown students wearing lacoste, oakleys, and tiffany's and assume they're all stuck-up a*holes. This is simply not the case. </p>

<p>Lack of desire to return</p>

<p>I don't know that this feeling is any stronger or weaker than at other comparable schools. One thing that may have an effect is the geographic distribution of the student body. While there are plenty of students from the Northeast corridor, which isn't THAT close, there's not a ton of local students and people generally tend to come from a ways away. It's a national/international school.</p>

<p>By comparison, students at other school often go to places that either some of their existing friends already attend, or they're nearby. For them, going back to college means getting away from the family without being too far away from them or their friends. When you're heading off to DC while your friends are planning getting together once they get back to their colleges, it can be a little depressing I suppose.</p>

<p>Ivy League Complex</p>

<p>Wow, what you're describing sounds more like GW to me (hah)! Seriously, though, kids at GAAP are, I think, especially prone to still be in the "name brand above all else" phase. This fades once they spend some time at Georgetown, experience the strong and established tradition that it possesses and start to feel like a part of that tradition. Many people at Georgetown have been rejected by Ivy League schools, while others picked GU over Ivies. It's about the fit and the friends and opportunities at the school, not whether it belongs to an athletic conference that has managed to do an excellent job of advertising.</p>

<p>Shorter answer: I don't find that attitude to be prevalent at all.</p>

<p>Thoughts on transferring to another university</p>

<p>I've actually never met anyone who mentioned wanting to do this...
Kids at GAAP are very often still reeling from the college acceptance/rejection process. They feel like they've just been judged not worthy by any number of schools. The result tends to be quite a bit of cynicism, especially among the kids who were always the big fish in their respective ponds (I definitely sympathize). A lot of that fades by the time August rolls around, and once people gain a bit more perspective, their attitude tends to be a lot more positive.</p>

<p>I've met far more people who were happy to be at Georgetown than those weren't. That doesn't mean not wondering what it would've been like if you had gone elsewhere or not complaining about little thing, but it does mean that most people understand on balance how good they have balance.</p>

[Copley]

<p>I'll try to respond based on my own experiences as best I can. </p>

<ol>
<li>Everyone isn't the same. There's this whole conception at Georgetown of Jack and Jane Hoya--preppy, white, conservative, elitist, wealthy, etc. Although a lot of people at Georgetown actually do fall into that category, it is not by any means the entire school. I don't think that the phenomenon of Jack and Jane Hoya is either inherently good or bad, but it's a part of Georgetown and has been this way for quite a while. The reality is that up until relatively recently (read: the 80's), although Georgetown was perceived to be a really great school, it was sort of a rich people party school.<br></li>
</ol>

<p>So although J&J Hoya is what's most associated with Georgetown, there's definitely way, way, way more to GU underneath the surface. It's discouraging and overwhelming at first, but most people are able to find a niche at Georgetown, no matter how quirky you may be. Georgetown also appears very white from the surface, but there actually is a lot of diversity here once you get below the surface. THe international student population, which is huge, also makes campus a way more interesting place. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>I think this is normal for people in their first years of college. I'd say 90% of first year students at Georgetown are pretty or very happy here. I, for one, was dying to get back over winter break to see my friends. At the same time, there's a lot of adjustments going on during the first year of college and I don't think anyone expects that absolutely everyone is going to immediately love the school. Some never will, and that's normal, but it's definitely not most people. </p></li>
<li><p>Yeah these people exist. They're annoying. People hate them. I have friends who turned down HYP to come to Georgetown, specifically the SFS, so I think this is pretty much just BS. You basically have every opportunity in the world at Georgetown, and if people don't appreciate it that's their problem. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I don't know what they mean by chump school, but one thing I will say is that a lot of students perceive the upper-level administration of the University to be a joke. It is sort of a bureaucratic nightmare and it often seems that one hand doesn't talk to the other at Georgetown, but I don't think that's reflected at all in the educational experience. I think a certain love-hate attitude towards the school is also fairly endemic in the culture. </p>

<ol>
<li> I think that's a really personal thing, but Georgetown's firsty year retention rate is actually pretty high I think.<br></li>
</ol>

<p>Honestly, it all comes down to your attitude. If you come to Georgetown thinking you're going to hate it here, you probably will. I came to Georgetown specficially for the academics of the SFS, I was not expecting much of anything out of the other facets of the school. I'm happy to say that 8 months later Georgetown has blown by my expectations. </p>

<p>I thought I wouldn't fit in at Georgetown. And maybe I don't really with the stereotypical image of GU student, but so do a ton of other people here. And in that way I do fit in. I have the craziest, kitschiest, weirdest friends in the world here...people you'd probably only expect to find at like NYU (where I incidentally really wanted to go before my parents vetoed it and sent in my GU deposit haha), but we're not at NYU and we love Georgetown. So seriously, I don't think you have anything to worry about. </p>

<p>Just go into it with an open mind and see what happens, you'll probably be surprised.</p>