Everyone who attends GW is tired of being asked these questions so here, read up.
1. You mean Georgetown?
NO, I DO NOT MEAN GEORGETOWN.
2. What does Hoya mean?
Pertaining to the question asked above, I STILL DO NOT GO TO GEORGETOWN. I don’t even think Georgetown people know what hoya means.
3. You have to live on campus for three years?
GW just made this a thing starting with the class of 2020. Yes, we have to live on campus until we are seniors. It sounds like a bummer when it isn’t at all. Our campus is in the city. Living on campus doesn’t make us separate from any of our class buildings, peers, places we eat, places we chill. Whether we live on or off campus we’re all in pretty easy walking distance of each other.
4. Do you guys even have frats?
Plot twist, we do! While Greek life doesn’t exactly reign here at GW, it still carries a decent presence. Our frat parties aren’t going to be like yours. They live in town houses not houses. (Just city things). But I sincerely doubt your frat parties rent out clubs for their events. It’s just going to be a different lifestyle. Fun is fun.
5. Do you have to take the metro to class…?
I don’t know what DC you’re visiting but my DC really isn’t that big. The campus covers about four blocks by five blocks. I can cross it in about ten minutes. GW has its own metro stop that’s true! We use it for easy access to sports games, concerts, museums, and all the other fantastic things DC has to offer. Not in any way do we need to metro to class. If I have a 9:35 you better bet I’m still sitting in bed at 9:00
6. Are you like in the city, in the city?
It’s not exactly an exaggeration when we claim that one of our Freshman dorms is practically neighbors with the white house. My sociology class last year was probably interrupted with motorcades once every two weeks and the monument took up most of my calculus recitation window view. Yes. We are in the city.
7. You guys are D1? IN WHAT SPORT?
YES, WE ARE D1. IN ALL OF OUR SPORTS. OUR FOOTBALL TEAM IS STILL UNDEFEATED DEAR LORD.
8. So are you like rich?
GW is expensive. It’s a private school what do you expect? Where all the money is going is another story. But no, that doesn’t mean you need to be rich to attend my school… GW is in no way like that. There are plenty of scholarship opportunities and financial aid to help alleviate the tuition. In terms of “is it all worth it?” my response is, absolutely.
9. You don’t have a football team? … What do you do on the weekends?
Okay yeah, no. Tailgates are not a thing here. That doesn’t mean our entire weekends are lost. There are a million things to do in the city. Whether we’re getting brunch in an old fire station down at gallery place, taking our morning runs around the reflecting pool, eating those to die for hotdogs at a baseball stadium, reading up in the library of congress, or turning into the speakeasy bars down in Adams Morgan. There is never really nothing to do and thank goodness for that because I get bored SO easily.
10. Do you guys have a campus?
Yes and no? When I was a freshman my first couple days here I was just bumbling my way through the city where everything looked the same. You quickly figure out where the GW boundaries lie. Our buildings are smaller. Our campus is less city like. We have a little of both! Walking through my campus the only people I’m passing are students, professors, and depending on the hour, the federal government employees.
Never do I feel like I’m being swallowed by the city. If I wanted to walk out of my dorm at 3am I’d run into the occasional night owl students and some GWPD officers.
11. Where do you eat? Do you have dining halls?
As of this year, no more dining halls! So where do we eat? Uh…everywhere? Our student IDs act as credit cards in all kinds of places. Sushi over at Asia 54, veggies at beefsteak, all of whole foods, sandwiches at Potbellys or Devon and Blakely, burgers at BTS, grilled cheeses at GCDC, steak frites at Maxime, crepes at all kinds of hours over at Crepeaway. The list goes on.
So yeah, no dining halls. I’m not exactly concerned.
I will put it simply. GW is awesome. Call us the best of both worlds in a sense. I get the campus and college kid life combined with the adult world and career oriented students with a drive I literally have not witnessed ever. I’d like to say that only here can you be any kind of student you need to be and be totally accepted with no pressures to be anything else. Sure, I am a little biased. But hey, you just can’t beat the Nation’s Capitol.