Georgetown University Top Questions

Academic life at Georgetown is challenging but doable. I have only taken a couple courses that had more than 30 students, and even in each large course that I've taken my TA's still recognize me on campus and know me by name. One of the best things about Georgetown is definitely the faculty; they're brilliant, and they all seem to care deeply about their students. When I took Calc I, I took it with 25 other students from the head of the mathematics department - an experience you won't get at many other institutions. Overall, academics at Georgetown are based on individual experiences; it is what you make of it. Some professors are much more difficult than others, but all courses are rewarding and fun. Academic life often spills over into other aspects of the college experience; I've had many rewarding intellectual discussions in the cafeteria, with my roommate, or hanging out at the gym. I have also had a lot of opportunities to speak with my professors outside of the classroom; my french professor took our class to eat at the French embassy, and I watched the Lion King with my African Policies professor and the rest of my class. The high level of academic rigor definitely pays off.

Most of my professors knew me on a first-name basis; however, some times it was difficult to get to know the professors in some of the larger classes. Academics are challening, but also stimulating and thought-provoking, and student participation in class facilitates learning. Professors are always willing to help students outside of class. The university requires Philsophy and Theology courses, but I believe these topics only help to fully round the students by encouraging them to take courses that may lie outside the comfort zone.

Language programs are really good, as are most of the SFS courses. Art history was also amazing - the program is tiny of course, but most courses other than the intros have around 10-15 students taught by amazing profs. I'm not sure how other unis do it, but I never had a TA as a professor, and never went to the TA-led practice sessions for my econ classes, so never really met TAs at Gtown.

GU is small enough that you can really get to know professors. I've become long-term friends with quite a few professors, many of whom I think of as valuable mentors now. Beware of the School of Foreign Service, though. My major is Culture & Politics, the most interdisciplinary major of any in the SFS, yet I still was required to take a litany of courses designed to prepare students to follow orders at the State Department or the World Bank, rather than provoking critical thinking. The four required economics courses are the worst -- all SFS students moan endlessly about these courses, which are both the most difficult and least educational courses I've taken, since you memorize economic graphs rather than debating economic theory or policy. Seek out courses with professors dedicated to teaching their students to think critically about the world -- there are plenty! You can find them especially in the English, History, Women's Studies, Anthropology & Theology departments.

Best academic thing about Georgetown is the good liberal arts curriculum. The science curriculum is good for pre-meds, but for hardcore science, look elsewhere. Being a chem major gets you lots of upperclass classes with very small numbers of students to faculty.

Study all the time. very good education

Georgetown wasn't as hard as I had hoped. There were too many classes that focused on "do X to get an A in the class" and not on community-based learning.

Most of the professors and classes are good. Required classes can go either way, but lots of them are really excellent, as well as quite difficult. Georgetown doesn't have grade inflation, so for the most part, you really have to show you deserve an A to get one. I haven't found Georgetown students to be too competitive, even though some classes are graded on a curve. Lots of interesting history, government, and theology classes. There is kind of a stigma that the foreign service school is the best of the four schools, which I wasn't aware of before coming here. I don't think that is true when it comes to the acceptance rates, but I have found there to be more of an academic focus on foreign service and government. The education is definitely geared towards learning for its own sake, not toward getting a job. Some professors are not flexible when it comes to missing class for interviews. The career center, on the other hand, is heavily biased towards finance and consulting jobs.

Georgetown is great about class sizes. A large percentage of my classes have been under 30 people, and the larger lecture-style courses have smaller group discussion sections so you never feel as if you don't have enough one-on-one time with professors.

Whether or not your professor knows your name completely depends on the professor. I had some professors that knew my name and addressed me by it almost every day in class and I had others that I'm sure wouldn't even recognize me. It's a combination of a) their personality and how well they remember people and b) how much you attend and participate in class. The class sizes are generally small enough (with the exception of big introductory liberal arts cores) that professors will get to know you by the end of the semester even if you're on the quiet side. There are a couple of classes tied for my favorite: Management and Organizational Behavior and Religion and Aesthetics. Now, the first class sounds like you should just start falling asleep right away - but my professor made it one of the most interesting classes I've taken and definitely one that I've gotten the most from. She is now my faculty adviser. Same thing going with the other one, although the subject matter was a bit more interesting she is definitely an amazing teacher that assigned provocative assignments that made me actually interested in writing a 10 page paper...rarely does that ever happen. Every now and then I get a smack in the face reminder that "yeah, I go to Georgetown." For instance when I'm standing in line at the keg on the rooftops and I overhear a conversation about correct grammar. And I don't think I even need to mention the demonstrations and activism that goes on in Red Square...oh, those funny SFS students. I like and dislike Georgetown's requirement system. I really like how they make it imperative to take classes outside of my major and in a wide variety of areas. What I don't like, however, is that there are so many requirements that I no longer have any room in my schedule for electives. My first two years were jam packed with introductory level courses that were mostly prerequisites for what I'm taking now and my last two years will be almost all business classes. I wish it was just a big more dispersed.