<p>Okay, I'm getting a little sick of people running around saying GWU is 60k a year! It's way over-rated! I did a pretty basic breakdown and GWU is not fantastically expensive if you compare it to other local universities. Let's use American University for example:</p>
<p>GW
Tuition: 39,210
Fee: 30
Orientation: 250
Room and Board: 11,900
Personal: 1,350
Books: 1,000
Total: 53,740 (first year, subsequent years are 53,490)</p>
<p>American
Tuition: 30,958 (Sneaky, almost 31!)
Fees: 467
Room and Board: 11,812
Transportation: 700
Personal: 600
Total: 45,137 (for the first year)
Using a standard 6% increase this is what it looks like for the next few years:
Soph: 32,815-
Junior: 34,672-
Senior: 36,530-</p>
<p>Comparing ONLY the freshman year when AU has the advantage, the difference appears to be: 8,603. But, if you take away 400 from GW's padded book expenses (1000 versus AU's 600) and the extra 750 GW's allows for extra expenses, you're left with a difference of:</p>
<p>7,453</p>
<p>Speaking strictly in terms of rent for say, a 1-bed, to live near Dupont Circle (near GW) it costs about 500-800 dollars more than it would to live near Ward Circle (by AU). So, if you take that 800 dollars premium you pay to live in a more "happening" area of DC and times it by the number of months in a school year you get: </p>
<p>7,200 - NOT far off from the basic difference b/w a GWU and AU first year cost! </p>
<p>If you look at the senior year difference in tuition (plus all the extra stuff) it drops even more - you'll be paying 51,155 to attend AU versus the 53,490. If you're a GW student, you'll be paying only 2,335 dollars more to live and study near Dupont Cirlce, a much more expensive area to be in DC!</p>
<p>Now, before everyone starts bashing me and saying, "What about this, what about that?" they should first realize that I only created this post because I was bored and I realize that there are TONS more variable out there. I'm just a little sick of people running around saying that AU is a bargain and steal compared to the outlandishly expensive GWU. DC is expensive no matter how you look at it and if you plopped a really nice house near Ward Circle near Dupont Circle then you may have just doubled its value ONLY BECAUSE OF THE LOCATION.</p>
<p>Let the controversy begin...</p>