To give some background info on me: I'm from Colorado, majoring in business, concentration in finance and international business, I’m from a lower/middle class family, and LOVE GW. Academically speaking, I’m an overachiever, to say the least, I’m in the top 10% of my class and have had internships every semester and 2 separate internships over the summer. Also, I'm doing this in a bit of a rush so there may be some spelling and grammatical errors, even with those small errors my points will be clearly made.Academics: GW is a top tier school, while not yet an ivy, definitely better than 90% of schools. GW has been quickly climbing up college ratings, and I believe is still underrated.
Professors: Some of the best in the country. Most professors haven't spent their whole lives in the world of academia, but instead have held actual jobs in the real world, and many held powerful positions. Their real world experience allows professors to give info that isn't in the textbook and is useful when getting a job. Many professors give invaluable career info if you go to office hours.
Post Graduation: GW is one of the best schools if you want a great job straight out of college. I'm only entering my sophomore year and I have interned on a few political campaigns, on Capitol Hill for a Congresswoman, and am currently working for a powerful real estate firm. If you're wondering why so many political internships for a business major, I started out as a poli sci and econ major and recently changed to business. The Career Center is very useful with resume critique and career help. The GW career website is maybe the best in the county, my friends who stayed in Colorado for school look at the GW work site and are amazed; many are trying to get the money together to live in DC for the summer to take advantage of the career opportunities. If I would have stayed in Colorado for school I would still be waiting tables for the restaurant I worked for during high school instead of working for a large real estate company due to the fact I decided to go to GW. Not to mention, that GW has many rich and powerful alumni that like hiring students from their former school. When I applied for all of my internships all the employers have been impressed with GW at the top of my resume. Job opportunities while in college and post graduation are greatly enhanced by going to GW.
Students: Many of the blurbs I have read on this site are not friendly to the kids at GW, so let me give you the real story. Yes, there are many from the North East. Yes, many are extremely rich, I’m not, but to be honest, most students at private colleges are very rich and if I didn’t know beforehand that all my peers had money I wouldn’t of guessed it. Sure, there are some snobby ones with money, but there are plenty of down-to-earth rich kids. GW is a very diverse school, there is an especially large Gay and Jewish population on campus, GW is very accepting of the Gay community. The students are diverse not only ethnically, but also very diverse personalities. There are some students who like to drink and party, but there are also many like me who spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night in the library. Now I don’t drink, and have never felt forced to at GW. I’m glad though that I didn’t go to a college full of nerds like me that only study and read all the time.
City: After living here for a while I can confidently say DC is the greatest city in the world. The campus is four blocks from the Whitehouse, I had Presidential motorcades drive down the block my dorm is on regularly. Unlike many colleges that are located in large cities where students can’t walk off the campus without fear of being mugged, GW is in the most affluent part of DC. I feel completely safe on campus not matter what time it is, but I’m still smart enough to not be out alone at 2 in the morning. There are GW security guards all over the place, and if you want to feel really safe yet, every once in a while you see a CIA agent. Like I said, the campus is in an extremely rich part of the city, only the best (most expensive) lawyers and lobbyists can afford to live in the part of the city where GW is located. As I previously stated, the city is also brimming with career opportunities.
Campus: The dorms at GW are like palaces. After seeing the dorms in other schools, I am reassured of how great GW is. Even though GW is in the heart of a city it still has a campus feel to it. The campus is 6-blocks by 6–blocks, walking from one end of campus to the other only takes 15 minutes. Most other schools built in big cities, such as NYU, have campuses 20-30 blocks long. GW’s mix is just right, academic buildings are close enough together so the campus is small and feels like a college campus, yet there are actual business buildings in between academic buildings so I’m not continuously surround by only college students: it feels like I’m in the real world, not some college town.
Business School: I go to the Business School so I figured I should dedicate at least on paragraph to it. The B-school is brand new—paid for by donations from rich alumni. There are rooms where each desk has 3 computers and a stock ticker going around the wall of the classroom. The school has a modern look to it, and all the fancy toys a new building has.
In conclusion, going to GW has been the best decision I have ever made, I can’t think of any other school I would even consider going to. So my advice on GW—GO THERE, GO THERE, GO THERE.
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