Student Profile
Sam
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Government
- Gender: F
- High School: Marlboro High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
The best thing about GW is living in Washington DC. If I could change one thing, it'd be the eating situation. Food is incredibly expensive and incredibly unhealthy. And there should be a grocery delivery service that accepts GWorld. At a city school where no one has a car, food shopping is a pain. And mandatory spending at JStreet, the food court, is ridiculous. The food is all overpriced and unhealthy. When I tell people I go to GW, I think they're impressed, because it's a really good school, and they think it must be great to live in DC, which it is. I spend most of my time in rehearsal for theater! I live in campus, so I'm here all the time, hanging out in my friends' rooms. Or on nice days, it's great to sit outside in Kogan Plaza or University Yard and relax. There's no college town better than DC! So much culture, and most importantly, drunk monument tours! I don't know too much about the administration. All I can say is there's a lot of red tape to get anything done, and people are overpaid. The biggest controversy on campus was a Jewish girl who had reported that swastikas had been drawn on her door and all over campus. She made a big fuss about it and made the school start an investigation. They found out that it was her who had been drawing them. It was ridiculous. There's a lot of pride for the basketball team. I wouldn't say there's school pride here like there is at big football schools, like my friends at Michigan or Rutgers, but we've definitely god pride. Everything about GW is unusual because of its location. I'll remember all my nights of drunk roaming the streets of DC. (Well, I can barely remember any of them, but you know what I mean.) The most frequent student complaints are about food and high tuition.
Academic Life
Maybe not freshmen year, in huge lectures, but generally, professors know your name. Some of my favorite classes have been Women in Western Civilization with Bonnie Morris. She's an inspiring and amazing woman, the reading is so interesting, and the discussions in our sections were great. I also love Freedom and Equality with Professor Kelts. He's completely nuts and totally brilliant. It's a tough but great class. My least favorite was Hebrew Scriptures with Hostetter. It was so boring, and really didn't need to be. You could get people inspired to have really interesting debates when the topic is the Bible, but he didn't. There are always people in Gelman! Students here definitely study a fair amount. Class participation is definitely common. GW students definitely love to talk about intellectual things outside of class! There's so many political science and international affairs majors here, and all we talk about is what's going on in the world. That's one of the reasons I wanted to come here! Students are definitely competitive with each other. The most unique class I've taken was a Dean's Seminar called Washington Sex Scandals. It was amazing, and Mark Foley's sex scandal happened while I was in that class, which made it even more interesting. The professor was Chad Heap, who was great. I haven't declared my major in political science quite yet, but it's a really popular major here, so I'm sure the department is good. No, I've never spent time with professors outside class. I think GW's academic requirements are a little bit unfair. For example, political science majors and international affairs majors are in two different schools. Even though their fields are really similar, polisci majors have to take 3 sciences, while IAFF majors only have to take one or I think even none! Three sciences and two maths is too much. Whatever career I have, I can promise you I'm never using biology or chemistry. One science and one math should be the requirement for all liberal arts majors.
Student Body
We've got a huge Jewish population - over 30%. And we also have a really big LGBT population as well. And I never knew that people could have as much money as some of the kids here have. It's insane. But I also know plenty of kids here on full scholarships who don't have money. I know kids from the south find it hard to adjust to GW. There aren't a lot of them - pretty much everyone is from the Northeast or California. Everyone knows what the GW freshman girl's uniform is - Ugg boots, spandex leggings, and a T-shirt. But students wear various things to class. Most people don't dress up for class. People complain that students from different backgrounds don't interact much. There's definitely an element of that here, but it's not considered odd for people to intermingle. Students here are very politically aware and politically active. The vast majority, in DC and in GW, are leftists. But the College Republicans on campus is extraordinarily active and loud, even though it's much smaller than the College Democrats. A lot of students don't talk about how much they'll earn one day, but that's probably because they're trust fund babies and will be set no matter what.
The Best Things
DC
The Worst Things
Food
