This is something only each student can answer for him or herself. As a parent of a recent GW grad you might think I am biased, but my son was accepted to both GW and American in 2009 so we had to make this choice. Since we are from the Midwest, we really didn’t know much about either school so it was easier for us not to let any preconceived notions get in our way.
We attended both accepted student days in April of my son’s senior year. Previous to these visits, we visited GW in his sophomore year of high school (we had never heard of the school before). We had not previously visited American but had heard of the school.
Our observations about GW at the accepted student day were it was a very energetic school, right in the city and close to everything. Despite it raining that day, everyone was nice and cheery (not snobby like we expected after reading some reviews on college confidential) and the program was well run. Our son is a high energy but down to earth Midwestern so this was great for him. We met students from all over the country so this was important to him as he did not want to feel like an outsider.
The next day we visited American and he was invited to a multicultural overnight (he is mixed race). I spent the day with him and then he broke off around dinner time to spend the night with his host and had a full day of activities planned for the next day. During the day we attended a luncheon with other accepted students. It was very uncomfortable as the other students did not really know how to communicate. We are friendly and talkative and tried on every level to engage with them, but it didn’t happen. A faculty member then sat at our table and tried to engage the table as well. This faculty member was in charge of some leadership program and after talking to the students at the table honed in on my son. She basically was trying to recruit him into the program as It was apparent he was the only one with any social skills.
Afterwards, we took a campus tour. We just felt like the current students were just staring us down the whole time and judging us. Again very uncomfortable. At one point a couple of American students cut right through our tour group instead of moving to the side which I thought was really rude. It was like the red sea parting. I couldn’t believe it. Needless to say my son did not have a good time at the overnight either. His host basically abandoned him to go party and he was locked out of the dorm room until 1 a.m. At 8 a.m. the next morning he called me and said, “Get me out of here! I don’t want to go here.” We made an excuse that we had a family emergency and couldn’t stay for the day and bolted. We went straight back to GW and made our deposit. Now this was our personal experience. I know others love American, but it was not the right place for our son. Why is GW better than American? Because it was a better experience for our son. The cost was the same for our family at GW or American so that was not a deciding factor for us. My best advice would be to visit both of them. Only you can decide if GW or American is better.