GW: The Freshman's Perspective

CorindianaJones
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:44:08 +0000

Hey folks, I’m a freshman at GW studying International Affairs in the Elliot School. I’ve just recently completed my first semester at GW and came back here because I remember checking this place avidly during the admissions process. That being said, I’m open for questions and want to share what I think about GW.

Money
It’s a very well know fact that GW is something like the second most expensive school in the nation. That being said, they give AMAZING financial aid. Well, that is honestly, unless you are an international student and/or well-off. GW holds pretty true to the FAFSA meaning that whatever your EFC is, that’s what you can expect to pay. However, I’m paying just a little less than that currently. If you think money might be a problem I highly suggest applying RD, from what I’ve seen it can only help your financial aid chances.

Academics
This past semester I took University Writing 20: La Vie Boheme, Economics 11: Intro to Macroeconomics, French 001, and IAFF 005: Intro To International Affairs. Honestly, I can’t say too much about academics except for the fact that some classes WILL be a waste of your time.
For instance, in my ECON 011 class, which I took with Professor Robert Trost, I can say that I taught myself literally everything. I went to class MAYBE 5 times. I failed my midterm, not sure what I got on my final, and I did terrible on the homework. Yet, I received an A in the class due to the simplicity of his grading scale. Now, I can fully admit that I can be a terrible student and all of the bad things in my class were strictly my fault. But the bottom line is, don’t take Econ with Trost if you don’t want to teach yourself. Which I ended up covering his entire course in about a week on my own and managed to retain the knowledge.
My writing class, which was taken with Professor Christine Zink, was amazing and filfilling and I felt like it honestly helped my writing. I’d recommend it. My French and IAFF classes were both fairly challenging and I believe worth the money that is being paid for them. Long story short, GW academics are nothing to write home about, however, they are still educational and challenging. Next semester I will be taking Political Science 002: Intro To American Politics, Political Science 003: Intro to International Politics, French 002, Econ 012: Intro to Macroeconomics and History 072: Intro to American History. fun.

Social and Residential Life
Living at GW has so far been the best experience I’ve had. Sometimes, honestly, it’s surreal. On my walk from my dorm to my classes it’s not uncommon to see the Washington Monument peeking out from over top of the buildings. I currently live in Thurston Hall, (yes THE thurston hall) and honestly, its exactly how its described. It’s definitely a party dorm, on friday and saturday nights the front of thurston can be found with 50 or so people just standing there doing god knows what, waiting to go somewhere I guess. It’s also dirty, its not uncommon to come home late one night and find your entire hallway trashed and littered with various items. There has been throw up in the elevators and stairs, as well as urine in the stairwell. However, the cleaning crew in Thurston is top notch. Hallways never stay dirty overnight, and throw up and other messes are usually cleaned within the hour. Honestly, its not anything that’s ever disturbed me or inconvenienced me. It’s also old, it’s not uncommon for one of our elevators to break down and stay broken for an entire day, and one of the rooms on our floor had their shower fall in on them. However, it’s pure luck, most of the rooms aren’t falling apart, and I lucked out because my room is just flat out awesome. I live in a quad with new paint and a great view. I don’t know too much about the other freshman dorms honestly. However, the junior/senior dorms are the holy grail. South Hall, which has just opened this year is glorious. Its’ literally an appartment, super nice kitchen, and all of the living rooms have floor to ceiling windows.

Eating
Newflash: our meal plan actually really doesn’t suck. Sure in theory it does, I mean 1700 you HAVE to spend? No one wants that. But, well, I actually ran out of money this first semester. The 700 to spend in jstreet can be spent, and spent well. My favorite is WOW wingery, which is on the 5th floor and has some awesome quesadillas and milkshakes. The J street cafe also has some great days on the buffet. Now for the other 1000 aside from all the other places to spend it (CVS, 711, Johnny Rocket’s, Carvings, Au Bon Pain, etc.) there is a loophole. CVS sells Visa and American Express gift cards. At some point last semester I decided to be irresponsible and buy a $100 one and blow it all at Forever 21. I don’t recommend that, but it is possible to get your money back off of it. Oh, you can also buy your books with colonial cash.

DC
I love DC so much. It’s a city full of great opportunities and history. For instance, I’ve eaten McDonalds at 2am on the curb in front of the White House. (For all you prospective GW-ers, the McDonalds at 13th and NY is open til 1 Monday through Thursday, and 24 hours Friday through Sunday.) When I get stressed out, I got walk over to Lincoln real quick. If you’ve got time on your hands, the walk from GW to all of the museums and the capitol is definitely bearable. As well as to Georgetwon, that’s only about 20 minutes. Through GW I’ve taken a tour of the Pentagon and had chances to take tours of the CIA headquarters as well as the white house. There ton’s of great restaurants, I recently ate at Busboys and Poets which is at 14th and V, I highly recommend that. If you’re a clubgoer the amount of clubs withing walking distance is ridiculous so you won’t miss out there.

I think I’ve covered pretty much everything about actually being at GW so if you have any other questions, shoot em!