Something happens here...

After reading the City Paper article and DCist entry on GWU, I feel compelled to come forth and defend my alma mater.  There is a lot of ridiculousness at GWU, but there are just as many good things going on.

Yes, it is shocking how much the university costs, and it is dismaying that the sticker price might dissuade would-be Colonials from considering the school.  But I must note that you are paying for a growing university in a middle of a great, and very expensive, powerhouse, of a city.  Plus, the university offers merit and need-based aid to help students and parents foot the bill. 

It is quite possible that I would have had more challenging academic classes if I had enrolled at Georgetown.  If nothing else, I was amazed by their library during a summer of thesis research.  Yet, I fear what sort of person I might have become if I had immersed myself in the Georgetown culture. 

It is certain that I would have had a lot more spending money if I had gone to school in Georgia.  But, I don't think that I would be the sort of person I am today if I had decided to follow the route of so many of my peers who enjoyed full or partial rides to UGA or Emory. 

Besides, being away from home, out of the suburbs, and in a grand political city, was exactly what I was looking for—and willing to pay for.  GW was a very welcoming and comfortable place.  It was simply a good fit.  I applied early decision (the only school I applied to...)--and don't regret the six years that I spent living and learning in Foggy Bottom.

By the way, I loved Colonial Inauguration.  And I think that it is worth the money spent.  I met new people (that I never saw again...) and believe that the event helped me garner a sense of Colonial pride and ease before I even attended my first class.

As a tour guide, I was an eager school advocate, but I know that by senior year, I regularly complained about the out-of-touch administration.  Yet, I think that I spent even more time defending the school against unfair rants from students who were still sour that they didn't get accepted into Georgetown and were too busy mirroring their parent's "keeping up with the Jone's" mentality to really take advantage of the amazing educational and cultural experience that is GWU & DC. 

University life is what you make it.

So, to all those annoying GWU students who continue to complain about the university: stop bitching and just transfer or, better yet, work to make the university better.

I'm choosing to do the later and I plan on defending the university for as long as I live.