George Washington University Top Questions

George Washington students are known to be active on campus (with student organizations, undergraduate research...) and off campus (participating in internships and using vacation periods as time to volunteer and give back to both the local and global community). The student body does live up to this stereotype. However, the stereotype is limited. Greek life is a big part of campus as well as an extremely diverse student body.

George Washington students are known to be active on campus (with student organizations, undergraduate research...) and off campus (participating in internships and using vacation periods as time to volunteer and give back to both the local and global community).

The main stereotype is that students are rich, stuck-up, and preppy. While many students do come from privileged upbringings, the notion of kids being stuck-up or spoiled at gw is very overblown. There are tons of students that are friendly, smart, and willing to talk to and help out fellow students

Preppy. This stereotype seems accurate for the most part.

A common stereotype of students at my school, the George Washington University, is that most students only came to GW because they were rejected from Georgetown University. While this may be true for a small portion of students at my school, this stereotype is largely inaccurate. I myself visited both George Washington and Georgetown when deciding which colleges to apply to and decided only to apply to GW. I felt that GW would be a better fit for my specific interests and I am sure many of my fellow students had a very similar experience.

George Washington is an extremely expensive school. Thus, the stereotype that follows GW students is that they are all spoiled and rich. When I came to George Washington, I had the same idea. However, I've found that this stereotype is not accurate at all. Of course there are a number of students here that come from wealthy families, but most people have worked just as hard to be accepted at this school, and everyone is extremely down to earth, regardless of their family's annual income.

There seem to be two pervasive stereotypes of the typical G-dub student: The prohibitively rich, BlackBerry-addicted, skinny-vanilla-chai-tea-latte sipping former New England prep-schooler who takes class notes on an iPad and who, throughout his or her four years in the District, will remain underwhelmed by the variety of of D.C. nightlife, blissfully unaware of its existence outside of nearby Georgetown. The Ambitious Future President is the second stereotype, the kid in high school who was president of every club in which the position existed, and whose drunken conversations in college are quote-laden to an extent verging on verbal plagiarism – not with song lyrics or Adam Sandler references, but rather with the political wit of Aaron Sorkin's hit T.V. show, "The West Wing." In their own way, both stereotypes have their place at George Washington University. As one of the country's most expensive universities, it's inevitable that a portion of the student body will have come from a privileged background; likewise, GW's location in Our Nation's Capital inevitably attracts students with political ambitions. However, GW is not a small school, and while many colleges like to tout 'campus diversity' in their visitor's center pamphlets, I would say GW in fact makes good on the claim. I'm a creative writing major, and within my core group of friends there is a future congressman, doctor, psychologist, CIA agent (I'm sure of it) and environmentalist. We are all, all of us, also on scholarship, financial aid being one of GW's perhaps little-known but critical selling points. Are these stereotypes accurate? I've seen their embodiments. Are they indicative of GW life overall? I wouldn't still be here if they were.

The stereotype of GW is that we are "rich, smart, partiers." To a certain extent this is true because there are a number of privileged children, but a number of the students are working very hard to maintain scholarships. There is a great deal of partying, but it is possible to have a social life without being a part of it.

Just like any other college/university GW is filled with different kinds of people, with different interests, from different places. One of my favorite aspects of GW is the diversity found here especially in terms of international students. DC itself is a hub of the international community. Having said that GW is a very expensive school. There are plenty of people on scholarships, but the majority of people pay full tuition to come here. There's a lot of people you'll meet who throw down money on shopping and credit cards at bars like it's nothing. With this comes a lot of girls who wear a lot of make up, designer brands and always look put together. This also brings guys who can't get enough of their look in raybans, own too many pairs of boating shoes and often wear salmon colored pants. I don't know quite what to call this stereotype, but lets just say its the opposite of air jordans and hippie ladies. NOT to say those can't be found at GW. There's a little bit of everything definitely. But a lot of what was previously mentioned.

You've got every mix of student here. BUT there are no "football" jocks here. Sports aren't really big in GWU