For those at Georgetown now, what do you think?

veritas
Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:39:32 +0000

Another first-year perspective:

Dorms

I live in Harbin, and really enjoy it! I like my “cluster” a lot, we are all fairly close and do a lot of activities together. Clusters are segregated by sex, not that it seems to matter…unless you’re looking at terms of cleanliness, which has the girls’ clusters miles ahead. The water pressure in the showers varies, but it’s not so bad. We have a communal room with a kitchen, and our floor actually does a fair amount of cooking there.

Village C rooms are smaller by far, from what I’ve seen, especially in terms of desk space. Yes, you have your own bathroom, but yes, you have to clean it yourself (if you want, I guess). The people who live on the top floor of Village C get nice vaulted ceilings, but even then it feels a little cramped.

Darnell is kind of dingy, from my experience, and is the farthest away from the main dining hall and the “Freshman Row,” so to speak. But it does have its own dining hall.

New South, recently renovated, can no longer claim its dirrty past (read: no more rats and roaches!). It’s a little rowdy there, especially on the bottom floor, but it’s a real community and the kids love it there. The rooms aren’t that bad.

Overall, quiet hours are pretty much ignored–but what would you expect? Don’t request a single-sex floor unless you’re very serious about it. Most of the girls I have met on an all-girls floor are miserable, and end up coming to all the other floors anyway.

Food

Eh what can you say? Yes, Leo’s gets repetitive after awhile, but it is much better than some of the other colleges I have visited, even some of the Ivys. I eat a lot of pasta and salad, and try to stay healthy. There is also a dining hall at the bottom of Darnell, a handful of student-run convienece-type stores (Vital Vittles and Hoya Snaxa), and a few coffee shops about campus (Midnight Mug in the library, Uncommon Grounds in Leavey). I find myself wandering down to M Street to go out to eat about once a week, and I make my weekly trek to Dean & Deluca to stock my fridge. I use the 14 meal plan, and usually have meals left over.

Yeah, it’s a ripoff when you see how much they charge for meals…something around $10.50 for dinner!..and even though supposedly you get a discount buying the meal plan, I can’t wait to live off campus and buy my own food.

Classes

Whereas most people take five classes, I’m only taking four (due to my intensive language). I have two lecture classes (Philosophy, ~75 people; Microeconomics, ~150 people) and two small classes (Proseminar, 15 people; Language, 15 people). For each of my lecture classes, I have a recitation section with a TA on another day that is about 15 people as well. I don’t bother going to my Econ recitation, as it’s not mandatory and kind of pointless, but my Philosophy recitation is mandatory and also quite helpful in understanding the material.

My teachers are pretty good. My proseminar teacher is one of the leading experts in his field and has written books that are used in some of my friends’ classes. Where else are you going to find teachers who begin talking with, “When I was talking to Cat Stevens…” or “Yes, I translated the bin Laden tapes…”?

Being in the SFS, I have a lot less free choice as to what classes I take. I chose the topic of my proseminar (2nd choice) and chose my langauge, but everything else is pretty much set out for me. The College kids have a lot more room to choose (for instance, my roommate is hoping to take The Philosophy of Star Trek next semester). However, I was able to arrange my schedule this semester so that I don’t have any classes on Friday. <3 for perpetual 3-day weekends.

The work load here is not insane, but I have a lot of reading to do. I can go out on the weekends, as long as I get some reading done ahead of time. My intensive langauge was tough at first, because there are always the know-it-all native speakers who take the intro classes…but it’s slowly evening it out.

Do your work. Read what is assigned. Be prepared for grade-shock: everyone here was used to getting all As in high school. It’s not going to happen here. Some kids can’t handle it; I know a few who are already planning to or have transferred. As George Tenet said when he spoke to us on parents weekend, “check your ambition at the door.” To paraphrase, work hard and don’t worry about anyone else. Your dedication will show, and things will fall into place.

Community

There is always something to do in Georgetown. I like the free GPB movies on the weekend, the vast array of clubs, intermural sports and the proximity to the city. As an aside, it’s not that easy to get downtown (we don’t have a metro stop like GW, and the GUTS buses don’t even run on Sunday), but it IS possible and I highly advise it. Museums are free, monuments are free, the zoo is free…and that is a wonderful price. Save money on sightseeing, you have more money for ramen.

Collars up, friends. I have the Heckler article on my door, because it rings a little too close to home sometimes. Yeah, it’s true, there are trust fund babies here…“I bet you don’t even know how to sail…” I just ignore them and find copatriots, of whom there are a lot.

There are parties every weekend, and most people report that the atmosphere is pretty friendly. I’ve lucked out that our floor isn’t too crazy (read: no anonymous vomit piles Sunday morning), but it can be a problem in some areas. I guess it’s part of college.

There are amazing opportunites here for kids like us! On Tuesday I’m going downtown to go to one of the candidate’s election-watching party, in thanks for volunteering for his campaign. Senators and congressmen are always looking for GU students to staff their offices. Many internships aren’t paid, but are a great way to get a foot in the door. I’ve already seen Colin Powell, Al Gore and George Tenet speak, thanks to our amazing Lecture Fund. It’s just a cool place to be.

In sum, yeah, I like it here. I’d be happy to answer any questions…hopefully that info was useful! Oookay, off to Arabic now…

Good luck everyone, I hope to see you guys on the Hilltop sometime soon!