Georgetown University | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Erin

Class: Junior
Major: Business
Gender: F

High School: Westhill High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

The best thing about Georgetown is that everyone loves Georgetown. No, I'm serious. Never have I ever felt such a surge of school spirit than I did when I first stepped foot on campus nearly four years ago. It's a perfect size - just small enough to give you the tight community feeling and just large enough to ensure that you don't have to see the same people every second of every day. Another thing I love about Georgetown is it's reputation. More often than not when I mention that I go to Gtown I get the "Wow, smart girl" or "Oh, great school" answer...and I must admit that I love that kind of reaction. When I'm on campus I'm usually in my apartment, in the gym, or in the library. And as much as I adore Yates and it has come to hold a special place in my heart, I would definitely not mind Gtown upgrading the workout facilities. Georgetown's location is pretty much perfect. We're in the middle of a beautiful and quaint neighborhood in a robust city, but also have a gorgeous and quiet campus that helps us feel a bit more isolated. It's the perfect mix of campus and city life. There's a story I like to tell people that paints a pretty good picture about school pride at Georgetown. I have an older brother that graduated from Emerson College. He was one of (I think) 15 or so paid tour guides. At Georgetown, the application and interview process for Blue & Grey is pretty rigorous - I think there's about a 25% acceptance rate (last semester alone there were over 110 applicants). On top of that, we're all volunteers. I think there are currently about 100 active guides dispersed amongst all four years who all love our school so much we are willing to wake up at ungodly hours (ok...so only 10am) on Saturday mornings to brag about our school to prospective students and parents. That's a lot of love... More along the lines of school spirit...the experience that I'll never forget has to do with last year's basketball season, when the Hoyas defeated North Carolina to advance to the final four for the first time in about 20 years. As soon as the buzzer rang my friends and I ran out of Copley Hall (where we also saw hoards of students emerging from wherever they were watching the game) and went down to N St between 37th and 36th. It was there that probably about 1000 students dominated the streets and started chanting our fight song as well as many other battle cries. Just when I thought everyone had had enough the crowd started to break into a spring after a distant voice cried out "TO THE WHITE HOUSE!" About 15 minutes later...after running wildly through M Street, Wisconsin Ave, and Pennsylvania Ave (high fiving stopped drivers and screaming Go Hoyas at every passerby) about 400 give or take a few Hoyas ended up outside of the gates of the White House...ah...incredible :) I'd say definitely the most frequent student complain is about the food. Leo's is notorious for the same old soggy stuff. But it's undergoing some serious renovations and is apparently really making a turnaround - again something I can't be too up to date about because I haven't eaten there in some months.

Academic Life

Whether or not your professor knows your name completely depends on the professor. I had some professors that knew my name and addressed me by it almost every day in class and I had others that I'm sure wouldn't even recognize me. It's a combination of a) their personality and how well they remember people and b) how much you attend and participate in class. The class sizes are generally small enough (with the exception of big introductory liberal arts cores) that professors will get to know you by the end of the semester even if you're on the quiet side. There are a couple of classes tied for my favorite: Management and Organizational Behavior and Religion and Aesthetics. Now, the first class sounds like you should just start falling asleep right away - but my professor made it one of the most interesting classes I've taken and definitely one that I've gotten the most from. She is now my faculty adviser. Same thing going with the other one, although the subject matter was a bit more interesting she is definitely an amazing teacher that assigned provocative assignments that made me actually interested in writing a 10 page paper...rarely does that ever happen. Every now and then I get a smack in the face reminder that "yeah, I go to Georgetown." For instance when I'm standing in line at the keg on the rooftops and I overhear a conversation about correct grammar. And I don't think I even need to mention the demonstrations and activism that goes on in Red Square...oh, those funny SFS students. I like and dislike Georgetown's requirement system. I really like how they make it imperative to take classes outside of my major and in a wide variety of areas. What I don't like, however, is that there are so many requirements that I no longer have any room in my schedule for electives. My first two years were jam packed with introductory level courses that were mostly prerequisites for what I'm taking now and my last two years will be almost all business classes. I wish it was just a big more dispersed.

Student Body

I think the student that would feel most out of place at Georgetown would be the very alternative and gothic-y type person. Like I mentioned before a lot of people at Gtown are relatively nice dressers and to see someone with nails and chains all over there body would be a bit outlandish for Gtown. I don't think that means that they won't enjoy Gtown - I just think that on a very superficial level they might have a harder time fitting in than most. Most Gtown students come from Jersey and California - but you also have people from Bulgaria, Nepal, Malaysia, England, etc. It's a pretty great mix. A lot of the kids at Georgetown come from sound economic backgrounds (hence the nice dress) but I don't think there's an overwhelming presence of money on campus at all. Nor do I think that kids talk about money all the time - a lot of us, especially those of us in the business school, are competing for the most lucrative jobs in investment banking...but that's not the only thing we talk about. As for the activism, this is the SFS's area of expertise. Most of the SFS's I know are incredibly involved and active politically - or at least very knowledgable on the subject. I myself am not that politically adept but that just goes to show you that Georgetown provides the means and environment to be as involved/aware as you want without overpowering you with influence.