George Washington University Student Reviews

Big Picture

The best thing about GW is that its in a good part of DC. I mean Georgetown is in a good part of DC, but the school sits in a residential area and is kind of isolated on a hill. GW is in the thick of things, right in downtown near the mall, near offices (if you land an internship), near good restaurants, near the metro (subway), and better or worse, GW took over the neighborhood where people used to live so there are lots of students mixed in with working folks. We're not an isolated entity, but there are times when the residents of Foggy Bottom wish we were, like Thursday nights through Sunday Morning. Catholic is in the hood, Howard is in a hood that is undergoing substantial gentrification, American is isolated, but they have metro. People say that GW is a good school, usually because they don't know much about it. If they do know anything about it, they know that its expensive as hell. Its not like Georgetown which has immediate name recognition and reputation, so whatever. I spend most of my time on campus in either my place or a friend's place. Its not like there are any places that students just hang out in, though GW has tried to create that in the Hippodrome. I refer to GW's "college town" as GWorld (also the name of our ID cards). Its not just limited to Foggy Bottom, but GWorld is the totality of everything that is GW. Pentagon City Mall is part of GWorld, Dupont Circle clubs and bars, Adams Morgan bars and clubs, Georgetown bars and clubs. There are places that people will go and say "oh I know DC", but really DC is so much bigger than their concept of the city. GWorld is a mindset that if you go further than three stops away on the metro, its not worth going to. Students will hardly ever venture outside of NW DC, and will seldom discover some things even in NW like Tenleytown, which is on Wisconsin Ave, but beyond Georgetown. They will go to Adams Morgan, but not Cleveland Park, or down U Street. GWorld is buying an Ipod on your GWorld, or having a $400 impulse buy at Coach on a Tuesday afternoon with daddy's credit card. GWorld is getting EmerGed and not getting in trouble because your mother who is a lawyer in Jersey called to "smooth things over". GWorld is the complete lack of real-world consequenses because we keep ourselves insulated to our concept of "college life". Karl Rove was the biggest controversy on campus lately, but this is being rivaled by the commencement speaker who is equally polarizing on the other side of the political arena. Most people at GW are "too cool" for school pride.