Georgetown SFS

[Anonymous]

Can any local DMV parents tell me your child's experiences as a Georgetown SFS student? Do they like it? What's the academic culture (both students and teachers)? How did they feel about not leaving DMV?

Non-DMV parents of Georgetown SFS can weigh in too but please ID yourself since "coming to DC" is a large exciting factor of coming to Georgetown that doesn't translate to a child from DMV.

[Anonymous]

Let me just share that my Georgetown students who come from the DMV area report that they usually do not spend much time going to their parents' houses, although a few say they bring friends to their family dinners, etc. on occasion but then go back to campus. (the friends seem to love the homecooked meals on random in-between break weekends).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me just share that my Georgetown students who come from the DMV area report that they usually do not spend much time going to their parents' houses, although a few say they bring friends to their family dinners, etc. on occasion but then go back to campus. (the friends seem to love the homecooked meals on random in-between break weekends).

Thanks. Assumed the student would be on campus other than Thanksgiving/Christmas/Spring Break.

But how do kids like staying in DC for school when they grew up in DMV?

And what is the general SFS culture like among students and teachers. Collaborative, friendly? High pressure, intense?

[Anonymous]

I don't have SFS feedback, but I know of three students in the past two years who have attended Georgetown from DC/Bethesda in the past couple of years, and they have loved it. It wasn't their intention to stay so close to home, but that is how it worked out and they have loved it. No stories of going home every weekend!

[Anonymous]

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for since this was several years ago, but I attended Georgetown SFS as a a DMV local (grew up in CCMD) and I loved it. Like others have said, it wasn't necessarily my intention to stay close by, but the program was perfect and I loved it when I visited. It was really nice to be able to come home without having to travel or fly. Outside of holidays, breaks, and an occasional weekend where I wanted to come home, I didn't go to my parents' house that often and I felt pretty removed from home living on campus.

I don't know what kids do now (and maybe it's different because I grew up in the suburbs), but living on campus still felt like a new experience because I didn't spend much time in DC growing up - we'd go for museums and events and dinner sometimes, but my friends and I hung out in Bethesda, not DC. Georgetown (the neighborhood) is an amazing place to go to school. It feels like a peaceful neighborhood, but DC is so accessible.

The academic environment (and social environment, to an extent) is a pressure cooker. But for what the program is, you really can't do better. I got to take a class with Madeleine Albright as an undergrad, and the general quality and experience of professors is amazing. Plus the campus speakers and guest speakers that the university (and specifically the SFS) has access to is really impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe not exactly what you're looking for since this was several years ago, but I attended Georgetown SFS as a a DMV local (grew up in CCMD) and I loved it. Like others have said, it wasn't necessarily my intention to stay close by, but the program was perfect and I loved it when I visited. It was really nice to be able to come home without having to travel or fly. Outside of holidays, breaks, and an occasional weekend where I wanted to come home, I didn't go to my parents' house that often and I felt pretty removed from home living on campus.

I don't know what kids do now (and maybe it's different because I grew up in the suburbs), but living on campus still felt like a new experience because I didn't spend much time in DC growing up - we'd go for museums and events and dinner sometimes, but my friends and I hung out in Bethesda, not DC. Georgetown (the neighborhood) is an amazing place to go to school. It feels like a peaceful neighborhood, but DC is so accessible.

The academic environment (and social environment, to an extent) is a pressure cooker. But for what the program is, you really can't do better. I got to take a class with Madeleine Albright as an undergrad, and the general quality and experience of professors is amazing. Plus the campus speakers and guest speakers that the university (and specifically the SFS) has access to is really impressive.

+1

The is the feedback that I have received, as a non SFS parent. I don't think it matters if your DC is close to home or not, when they are attending Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me just share that my Georgetown students who come from the DMV area report that they usually do not spend much time going to their parents' houses, although a few say they bring friends to their family dinners, etc. on occasion but then go back to campus. (the friends seem to love the homecooked meals on random in-between break weekends).

Thanks. Assumed the student would be on campus other than Thanksgiving/Christmas/Spring Break.

But how do kids like staying in DC for school when they grew up in DMV?

And what is the general SFS culture like among students and teachers. Collaborative, friendly? High pressure, intense?

I guess what I intended to convey is that there is a common idea that if you go to a school in your hometown it's like you are not really changing locations and you'll cling to your parents. I conveyed more about the latter. What I'll say about the "not really changing locations" is that your kid probably learns and experiences a whole new side of the DMV area, and given the number of internships and other activities that GU kids occupy themselves with (besides classes, friends, etc.), they kind of will be experiencing a whole new city anyway. And they'll travel to other places instead of come home on weekends. All things I've observed among the students over the years...

[Anonymous]

We have an undergrad at the SFS and re about 4 miles from campus in DC.

Kid loves it, had other fabulous options in other parts of the country and chose SFS because of curriculum that couldn't be easily replicated and opportunity for internships and work that could only be done during the summers at other schools.

Fell into a good group of friends, has a lot of extracurricular opportunities and commitments and we have only seen them during things like xmas and thanksgiving. We never went to the neighborhood much before so still don't. We treat each other like we are in different cities and have yet to happen to run into each other.