Georgetown University

Date: Nov 10 2010
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I was really skeptical about attending Georgetown, and this website was one of the reasons why. Reading about people who thought the student population were unfriendly and arrogant scared me a little, as it should have. Having several other (cheaper) offers from great schools, I was really hesitant when I finally turned in my letter of intent to Georgetown. Now that I'm here, I know I couldn't have made a better decision.

I'm orginally from California, and at least for us, U.S. rankings actually hold some ground. If that applies for anyone, I'd like to state flat out that rankings are really really arbitrary. Most of my friends here at Georgetown were accepted into schools that are ranked higher than Georgetown, but chose not to go to those schools. (Just to throw out some names - Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Washington in St.Louis, the list goes on…) That being said, the student population here is pretty competitive. Not in a cutthroat kind of way, but going here you have to expect to have some really intelligent kids in your classes that you'll essentially be competing against if there's a curve. At least for me, I've had to work a lot harder than I did in high school (which wasn't very much at all, to be honest) in order to keep up with my academics. At the same time, talking to my friends at UC Berkeley and other public schools in California, I can tell they're working a lot harder on their academics.

Secondly, to address social life. I read a comment just now that complained about how the parties are horrible and sitting alone at meals is usual for them. Yes, the parties are usually crowded and there are the usual hook ups and kegs—but this is college… I'm pretty sure EVERY college has a similar atmosphere, and if you're looking for the college experience this is part of it. If that scene really doesn't appeal to you, we have M street. If you can acquire a fake ID (which many students do), it's not extremely difficult to get into the bars and clubs. As far as making friends goes, I've never had to eat alone unless I did it by choice. I'm not trying to say I'm a social butterfly in any way; Leo's is practically designed to foster a social eating experience (large round tables).

Next, extra curriculars. This is one of my favorite things about Georgetown - everyone gets involved in something. At a lot of my friend's schools, all they do are classes and social life on the weekends. For us, we have our classes and our parties, but the clubs here are really strong and actually host most of the parties we go to. It definitely makes college more meaningful, at least for me.

I know that college is what you make of it, and everyone's bound to have different experiences. I just really wanted to write this to counter some of the things I read when I was deciding whether or not I wanted to come here. The SFS kids are NOT arrogant and annoying as a body. Obviously you'll come across individuals like that but it's not fair to judge the whole student body by a couple of people. You do NOT have to be Catholic to come here; most of my friends actually aren't. A lot of the stereotypes aren't true. Mostly everyone that I've met here has been really sociable and down to earth. All the professors I have are pretty good, and fair graders.

Overall, nothing but love for Georgetown and DC in general. One of the best cities to explore ever—run a couple of miles and you're on the National Mall. Great views. And also, to back me up, look up Georgetown University in urbandictionary.com and the first definition is great. Best of luck to all deciding and applying - hope this helped.