The George Washington University — Attraction in Washington

GW is an astounding university and I think it truly does deserve a 5 star rating. I am currently a student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and I truly think I am getting a quality education.

GW is ranked in the top 10 U.S. universities in many of its programs such as international affairs, international business, political science, law, public health in addition to countless other programs. It is on the rise as a university especially in engineering with the newly opened Science and Engineering Hall that GW invested $300 million dollars in to build. I am confident that in the next couple of years, GW will be recognized for the strides it has taken to solidify its reputation in engineering and many of its other fields.

Overall, I would very much so recommend going to GW. You'll be right in downtown DC in a highly energetic area surrounded by motivated intelligent people. Most students I know lead busy but fulfilling lives and will intern for companies while being involved with clubs or fraternities/sororities and keeping up good grades. GW and DC offer so many opportunities and the key is to take advantage of them. I am involved with numerous on campus organizations, am interning at a company while dedicating most of my time to studies. Most of my peers regardless of major have similar schedules. I've had an easy time finding internships both in NYC (where I'm from) and in DC. (GW was ranked #1 by Princeton Review for Best Colleges for Internships and it is clear why) I am confident I'll be able to excel in my career with the knowledge I've gained here. The alumni I know who graduated from GW and went to my high school had job offers lined up before they even graduated with 100k+ salaries.

Academically, GW is certainly challenging and is on par with any top school but you could always find the help you need if you look for it. They are generous with financial aid and scholarships. I was accepted to many similar city schools (NYU, BU, Northeastern) but chose to go here because I got a great financial aid package and scholarship and even though some of these similar schools offered nearly identical packages, I felt...

Poor Communication On All Fronts:

Resting a handful of degrees beneath Ivy League, GWU is a lovely and relatively prestigious institution.

What is not lovely about it is communicating with anyone. When placing a phone call, expect long waits with several mechanical menus of options to surf through before selecting an option for live humans.

The employees are pleasant enough when you get them on the phone - in a rather Stepford manner - but lack any sort of actual knowledge. They know just enough to direct you to a website or an email, but when asked pointed questions about applications, requirements, etc. they casually curl up and admit defeat before weakly providing yet another email or number to call.

I spent approximately 3 hours on the phone being shunted from department to department, desperately trying to figure out how to log onto a Student Portal to apply for classes. A call into Admissions would be directed to IT, then transferred back to Admissions, then to Registrars, then to the Department I was applying to and back again, with no one actually knowing who to send me to and all employees politely divesting themselves of any responsibility to get to the heart of the issue. Instead they would calmly yet firmly indicate, "That's not really my department. Here, I'll transfer you to someone who might know something about it."

Occasionally, I would run into a dead end of a voicemail, and with no ability to select a new option, would need to dial in again to begin the process all over.

Overall, an extremely frustrating experience. Somewhat like calling your cable company and waiting in line at the Secretary of State/ DMV all...

The George Washington University (GW, GWU, or George Washington) is a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was charted in 1821 by an act of the United States Congress.

The university is organized into 14 colleges and schools, including the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the Elliott School of International Affairs, the GW School of Business, the School of Media and Public Affairs, the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the GW Law School and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. George Washington's main Foggy Bottom Campus is located in the heart of Washington, D.C., with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank located on campus and the White House and the U.S. Department of State within blocks of campus. GWU hosts numerous research centers and institutes, including the National Security Archive and the Institute for International Economic Policy. GWU has two satellite campuses: the Mount Vernon Campus, located in D.C.'s Foxhall neighborhood and the Virginia Science and Technology Campus in the Washington Metropolitan Area. It is the largest institution of higher education in the District of Columbia. George Washington offers degree programs in seventy-one disciplines, enrolling an average of 11,000 undergraduate and 15,500 post-graduate students from more than...