School Tie-ins

My secondary purpose for going to DC last weekend was to check out some of my options for grad school. I think I got a decent feel for the campus lifestyle at each school and can weigh and measure my options better now that I have been there in the flesh.

Based on the half-day to day I spent on campus these are my thoughts.

1. Georgetown is a name brand school and the students like it. The facilities need some work. There is not a lot of care taken in preserving the historical buildings that make the campus so beautiful. For example, my new friend Zach is a med student there and during lab a light fell out of the ceiling and onto a fellow student. Not good. However, the academics are strong and the Foreign Service and Public Policy program is particularly strong and competitive. The department represents itself well and has a polished feel to it. The location is a little isolated but you can access it by bus or by the Circulator (love it!). The surrounding area is very yuppie and upper crust but it is not a closed campus.

2. American is down-to-earth. The graduate school staff is approachable and focused. I got a sense that a lot of work happens there and that the students are more authentic and serious, meaning less concerned with marketing themselves and more focused on their topics of study. I felt like I could have walked into a random room and busted out my computer to start research and felt at home. The promising thing about American is that a new School of International Studies will be ready for spring 2010. This means new modern classrooms with IT hookups and brighter classrooms. Awesome. The surrounding area is suburban but there are grocery stores and stuff nearby. The tram journeys the mile or so to the metro so it's not cut off from city stuff even if it is a ways up the red line.

3. George Washington is a hidden gem in plain sight. I must admit that when I first researched their school I was not so impressed by their website. However, after walking through the campus to get to several other parts of the city I realized that I was stupid not to check into their offerings. GW knocked my sox off. (Red Sox that is.) I went in expecting nothing and was wowed by their programs, their facilities and by the willingness of students and staff to talk to me about the school. I can't say enough about it. The school is in the city, directly off the metro, and accessible enough for me to live in VA and commute in. Score! I was sold. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to determine my best program option.

I came away from my DC experience excited to start school but daunted by the amount of work it is going to take to finance it. I need to do some major finagling to get moola. Naturally, Heavenly Father always plans things just right. Tomorrow, Brother Packer will teach our second RS Enrichment activity--learning to budget. Hallelujah!