Gtown ND Vandy

[GIGAFAN99]

sirsaxa said:

afalcon10 said:

Anybodys decision come down to these 3 schools?

Whyd you choose Gtown?

Hmmm.... doesn't seem like much of a dilemma to me.
In that comparison, GU stands out as far and away the top overall experience.

Now if your other choices were say, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, I could see some hesitation.
Or, some folks might prefer a certain geographical location, e.g. it can be difficult to persuade kids to leave California.
Maybe someone's family has a long history of attending a certain University.
Or they want to be on the Ski team at a place like Colorado or Dartmouth.
Or some school offered a ton of financial aid.

But just looking at ND, Vandy and GU... geez, I don't see what the problem is.

I was thinking the same thing SirSaxa. Nothing against these schools but UVA, Penn, Duke, Amherst, Cornell etc. are the types of schools I found my classmates had mulled over (outside of financial aid packages, legacies, and other similar circumstances).

ND was my backup plan (and I got really close to needing it) but it's not like it was ever in the running if I got into Georgetown. Just my opinion of course but reputation and location are both advantages to Georgetown over these two. Great schools all, but all things equal Georgetown would be a clear favorite in my extremely-biased opinion.

[Nevada Hoya]

dfw said:

danmcq said:

What do you call speaking Texan then?

Depends if you're from Mexia or Refugio, I guess.

lubbockonline.com/news/03097/book.htm

Several years ago, when the Superconducting Super Collider was under construction near Waxahachie ...

Gee, that didn't last long.

[Nevada Hoya]

dfw said:

tgo said:

At GU you have the resources of the capitol of the world while still being on a campus that feels secluded and suburban.

A little devil's advocate here--Georgetown does not feel "secluded nor suburban" anymore. Maybe for those who grew up in New York it's suburban, but it's within a major city.

Yes, NY area raised too, so it felt secluded (at least 40 years ago). I didn't realize all the traffic (even at that time), as I didn't have a car (thank goodness), until the day after graduation, when a fellow classmate and I took a road trip to San Diego. It took us one hour on a Monday morning to cross the Key Bridge (we still made it to San Diego in about 3.5 days).

[LizziebethHoya]

I got into ND too.

I went for an official campus visit/overnight visit and cried when it was all over. It was horrible.

And it didn't help that when everyone asked me what other schools I got into, and I mentioned Gtown, they replied "ah I wish I got in there, cause I would have gone. But I like it here, too"

[RusskyHoya]

nyhoya08 said:

I got into ND too.

I went for an official campus visit/overnight visit and cried when it was all over. It was horrible.

And it didn't help that when everyone asked me what other schools I got into, and I mentioned Gtown, they replied "ah I wish I got in there, cause I would have gone. But I like it here, too"

Wow, that sounds pretty traumatic. What happened, did you run into Lou Holtz? I know that would've made me run screaming and crying.

Somewhat relatedly, I knew a girl who took an overnight visit to Georgetown and had a bad experience (party-hearty host) and decided not to come here. Of course, this girl was (I don't know if she still is) a pretty huge nerd. I'm sure she's happier at Grinnell.

I have several friends who go to Vandy and they all seem to like it, but all but one are from the Deep South and the other is an engineer, so that probably has an impact.

[CTHoya08]

One of my friends at Georgetown is a transfer from Vanderbilt, and his older sister is a Vandy alumna. He says that unless you're willing to do the fraternity thing there isn't a ton to do there. He also says that the Georgetown students are/seem to be head and shoulders above the Vandy kids in terms of intelligence.

[LizziebethHoya]

Uninspiring classes, the fact that you had to put your coat and backpack in a cubby outside the dining hall like you were in elementary school, the fact that the rooms were so small you could not walk into them, all the rules, my host told me she got a job on the weekends cause she was bored, nothing to do, nowhere to go....but there was football?!?

[HoyaTejano]

afalcon10:

Georgetown doesn't have D-1A BCS football. It doesn't have frats.

But it has the single greatest asset of any modern university in the world -- it sits in the most powerful city in the history of the entire world. As a result of that, you are going to be afforded educational and professional opportunities that you simply will not have greater access to if you go to UND or Vandy.

GW and American don't count in this because Georgetown is a complete place from top to bottom. When people outside the Beltway think of school in DC they think of Georgetown. Case closed. You come to GU, you don't have to give a two paragraph explanation that you go to school in DC but not at Georgetown. You just say:"I go to Georgetown." And you stand tall when you say that, and you take pride that you say that. And then when you graduate, you can say: "I went to Georgetown." And that just feels good to say.

Georgetown isn't perfect, but as an alum I don't have to admit that in public to other people. Georgetown is freakin' Georgetown.

This isn't even about UND or Vandy. This is an easy choice even if you're matching us up with Michigan, Texas, UCLA. Georgetown vs. anywhere, Georgetown vs. the field, you take Georgetown. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

In fact, from here on out, this is the easiest choice you are ever going to make. It only gets harder, but it's going to feel so good when you walk across Copley Lawn to get your diploma. You can always watch D-1 football. Plus, we don't need Greek, we have it in our cheer.

If you come to Georgetown, and you work hard, you will never wake up regretting you went somewhere else. If you go somewhere else with a GU offer in hand, then not now, maybe not 10 years from now, you may just slightly think about what might have been. And that is a terrible feeling to have, afalcon10.

Don't do that. Georgetown has accepted you. Accept Georgetown.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Seriously Georgetown Has the perfect balance of Academics and social life. Georgetown wins no contest.

[tgo]

hoyafinisher said:

Georgetown first of all, has a better sense of community I think, while Vanderbilt is based more on Fraternities and Sororities. Because of the Greek system here, I don't get the same sense of one school that I got at Georgetown. However, if you are looking for fraternities, Vandy is probably better than Georgetown.

when i was a senior in hs i assumed i would be in a frat. it is totally my MO but from talking to friends at schools with frats i became very happy that GU didnt have them. It leads to a much more open environment/social scene. also the idea that the majority of your friends will be chosen for you by who applies and is accepted into your frat seems really limiting to me.

hoyafinisher said:

If having a car is important though, choose Vandy, Georgetown is no place for owning a car, while Vandy kids all have them.

i cant imagine why it would be important for someone to have a car if they dont need it. a car is a tool to be used when needed, at GU you wont need it except for the occasional run to Atlantic City or to go grocery shopping and there is always one or two people around who can help you with those two regular tasks. saying you want to have a car at school is like saying you want to have your john deere riding lawn mower at school and it sucks that it is a hassle to keep it on campus.

[tal1286]

The ONLY reason to choose ND over GU is if you are a football fanatic and can't live without it.

That is all.

[SFHoya99]

dfw said:

tgo said:

At GU you have the resources of the capitol of the world while still being on a campus that feels secluded and suburban.

A little devil's advocate here--Georgetown does not feel "secluded nor suburban" anymore. Maybe for those who grew up in New York it's suburban, but it's within a major city.

When I interview students, Georgetown gets high marks for location, access, and a strong student body. Conversely, some parents do not appreciate the school's distancing itself from being a Catholic institution (calling oneself Jesuit is not enough) and the perception that only the very poor and very rich can afford to attend. You can often get past these concerns but they're out there.

In contrast, in the Bay Area, I'd say 90% of the candidates are concerned that Georgetown is:

1. Too Catholic
2. Too White

By "Too Catholic" I mean forcibly so. I have to assure them there are no required masses or curfew rules; the impression of Georgetown is often equal to Oral Roberts or Liberty. No one is scared of a Theology requirement or having a priest teach them, but there aren't many students in East Bay San Francisco ready to swear off the opposite sex or go to a service they don't want to.

As well, kids here are used to schools with a heavy Latino and Asian contingent, as well as some African American. They view Georgetown as overly rich and white, and to some extent it is. Then again, so are most top private schools. And it isn't nearly as bad these kids think it is.

--------------

I pitch it the way Austin does: best mix of academics and social life out there. Best mix of social life available because of DC (parties, bars, events, clubs, things to do outdoors, indoors, etc). Best mix of urban and enclosed campus.

[HealyHoya]

Afa, I'm curious, are you on ND/Vandy boards posing the same question? If so, what are the pro-them and/or anti-us arguments being put forth?

[Cambridge]

jimmyhoya said:

I didnt have the option of either (wooo hooo thin envelopes!!), but take a long, hard look at Vandy.

I don't know what you're looking for in a school, but Vandy is a very, very cool option to have from everything I've heard from friends. SEC football, even at Vandy, is SEC football. If the team is any good, basketball ain't shabby either. Do ya like frats? Nashville, while southern, is a heckuva town, too.

They also have a school administration that cares more about its students than simply their ability to name famous professors (even if in 90% of the cases they will never ever have a class with them).

ND? South Bend? Seriously? LAME. DON'T FALL FOR THE FOOTBALL TRAP!

JimmyHoya is on the list. Watch that sympathizer carefully.