<p>Hi, I'm from Boston and I have the hard decision of choosing between GWU/Elliot school of International Relations vs. Tufts</p>
<p>There are alot of posts here on financial aid and whether the school really has a lot of snobby kids, but nothing about the real experience current students have being in DC and studying at GWU</p>
<p>How are the music extracurriculars? Do people go to each others' performances/concerts? school spirit? diversity? If anyone's from Boston, how is the atmosphere different from Boston? What's the social scene like? </p>
<p>What makes GW great/not so great?</p>
<p>Oh, and can someone explain how there are different houses in the residence halls?</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Tufts, but I can try to answer your questions about GW. Also look through some of the older threads; a lot of student life issues are addressed.</p>
<p>There are several a capella groups on campus, and their performances are pretty well-attended. There are also several popular bands on campus, and concerts as well as the “Battle of the Bands” event are very popular. You can take university band/orchestra as a 1-credit class also.</p>
<p>GW is kind of lacking in the school spirit department. It usually depends on how well our basketball team is doing (this year, not so great). It’s not that people don’t like the school or anything, just that we’re not really athletics-focused, so pep rallies and the like aren’t really big. We’re more diverse than some top-tier schools, especially with our high international student population, but it’s still a lot of rich white kids. The social scene involves a mix of going out to clubs in the city and going to parties in people’s dorms/apartments.</p>
<p>The different “houses” mean nothing. Occasionally your house proctor will email you an opportunity for an event related to your ‘house’ theme, but it’s not mandatory. Choose where you want to live based on the kind of room and atmosphere you want.</p>
<p>Choose GW if you want to be in DC and are going to take advantage of the amazing resources it has to offer, and if you want a practical education that is very focused on preparing you for the world issues you will face in your future career.</p>
<p>love:
1)the DC atmosphere - being around so many imporant people is motivation to do well
2)GW’s reputation within the city -GW has the reputation to employers as having very motivated ambitious kids and within the other colleges it has a good reputation for being able to have fun and do well in school
3)the campus- you can walk/metro to anywhre in the city
4) student involvement is HUGE</p>
<p>hate:
lack of school spirit- we arent the best at sports (compared to big public schools). the only thing people get slightly excited about is basketball
2)lack of a diverse study body- while we have a very large international population, the majority of students are white and from the northeast </p>
<p>those are the big ones, there are more on both sides so if you want some more just message me.</p>
<p>I would add only one thing about what I hate ( although I find GW a little more diverse that trixi does) :
If you want to get paperwork done, if you need a form filled out, etc, you must ask at leat 3 or 4 different people. the administration is not the best, and eventually you get used to it!</p>
<p>hi!
i’m also choosing between Tufts and GWU! except for gwu i’m getting a full ride, and considering that i’m an international student, that’s pretty amazing. the thing is tufts has always been my dream school and my heart was so set about going there until i found out about the scholarship (i’d have to pay full tuition at tufts)… so in this case, should i definitely choose gwu? (my parents have enough fund to pay for the tuition… but it’s always best to save up money, and in this case, a lot of money)</p>