Hey guys,

Congrats on acceptance. I was GWU full time MBA, however I decided to drop the school after first year and I definitely would not recommend this school to anyone.

Here is why: first of, all the school officials are nice with you only during the admission process. Second, professors are last instance in this school which means you never can be right and if you try to complain anything the only thing you hear from the Dean is that school has not enough information that professor was not right (we had this situation during my first year when about 85-90% of students complained (in written form) one professor, nothing happened and he is still teaching, School not even tried to investigate the issue, even though he was previously faired from Georgetown for the same reason and previous class had same kind of problems with him). As a proof - this guy was accused in sexual harassment later the same year. Third, career center - those guys suck. For international students they say - GRADUATE AND GO HOME - they say exactly this words. For everyone else - check your resume, even though my career coach helped me to edit my resume, the next day she said this again - YOU MUST HAVE SOME PROBLEMS WITH YOU RESUME, THAT IS WHY IT'S SO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO FIND INTERNSHIP. This is ridiculous!!!!! Fourth, most of student initiatives go straight to the trash can. One of my classmates had a proposal how to help students obtain better loans and he was willing to work on this proposal to make something good for everyone. He wrote several proposals, talked with the Dean and whoever in responsible for this. The answer was - we are too busy with the admission process, so you should come later in the year; he had the same answer in the Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Conclusion - I am not saying that GW MBA is worse than any other school. They still have some excellent teachers (like my Finance, both Economics teachers, Accounting, Managerial accounting, Statistics), the problem is the atmosphere of the school. And as you might know the GW MBA was not included in FT MBA ranking last year, when this happened the Dean talked in front of the school explaining to us why this happened - the reason was - ALUMNI DID RECOMMEND GW AS A PLACE TO STUDY, OR DID NOT REPLY ON EMAILS FROM FT ASKING TO GRADE THE SCHOOL. For me this is a big red flag!!!

So again, I am not saying that information you get there is wrong and useless, but if you have other options, I would recommend go for them.

Sorry you had a bad experience with GW. I still think that it is an excellent school and I will be attending regardless. I think how good a school is depends on what you make out of your study at that school. It only makes a difference if you can go to Havard, Yale, Princeton, NYU or Columbia. But if you go to any other school besides those, the quality of education will only vary slightly. Maybe you dropped out cause you couldn't handle the program? Or it was not a good fit for you? Try assess the situation internally first before playing the blame game.

ershovici wrote:Hey guys,

Congrats on acceptance. I was GWU full time MBA, however I decided to drop the school after first year and I definitely would not recommend this school to anyone.

Here is why: first of, all the school officials are nice with you only during the admission process. Second, professors are last instance in this school which means you never can be right and if you try to complain anything the only thing you hear from the Dean is that school has not enough information that professor was not right (we had this situation during my first year when about 85-90% of students complained (in written form) one professor, nothing happened and he is still teaching, School not even tried to investigate the issue, even though he was previously faired from Georgetown for the same reason and previous class had same kind of problems with him). As a proof - this guy was accused in sexual harassment later the same year. Third, career center - those guys suck. For international students they say - GRADUATE AND GO HOME - they say exactly this words. For everyone else - check your resume, even though my career coach helped me to edit my resume, the next day she said this again - YOU MUST HAVE SOME PROBLEMS WITH YOU RESUME, THAT IS WHY IT'S SO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO FIND INTERNSHIP. This is ridiculous!!!!! Fourth, most of student initiatives go straight to the trash can. One of my classmates had a proposal how to help students obtain better loans and he was willing to work on this proposal to make something good for everyone. He wrote several proposals, talked with the Dean and whoever in responsible for this. The answer was - we are too busy with the admission process, so you should come later in the year; he had the same answer in the Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Conclusion - I am not saying that GW MBA is worse than any other school. They still have some excellent teachers (like my Finance, both Economics teachers, Accounting, Managerial accounting, Statistics), the problem is the atmosphere of the school. And as you might know the GW MBA was not included in FT MBA ranking last year, when this happened the Dean talked in front of the school explaining to us why this happened - the reason was - ALUMNI DID RECOMMEND GW AS A PLACE TO STUDY, OR DID NOT REPLY ON EMAILS FROM FT ASKING TO GRADE THE SCHOOL. For me this is a big red flag!!!

So again, I am not saying that information you get there is wrong and useless, but if you have other options, I would recommend go for them.

That is exactly what I tried to avoid in my post. I was not saying that the quality of education is low, instead I said that GW still has some excellent professors that make program interesting. In regard of your concerns of my ability to handle the program, I would say that my GPA for last semester in the school was 3.76, so I was able to handle it. And I was not trying to convince you refuse GWU's offer, it's your choice. I just shared my insight.

My message was that school is not only professors and education. The whole atmosphere in the school and attitude of personal is not how it supposed to be. This is the problem with this school.

For example, my background is private business, I had my own company for 7 years. I used to work successfully with all kind of people. My company had contracts with government, senators, millionaires, private companies, etc. I was hoping to shift my business to the next level with an MBA. The last issue I had was related to silly intramural case competition that GW does for strategy class every year. Guess what, when my team (5 grown adults, the youngest one was 29) asked professor and Dean to explain judgment criteria - all I get was - YOU KNOW THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL GRADUATE FROM THIS SCHOOL, AND I WOULD NEVER ASK THIS KIND OF QUESTIONS TO YOUR EMPLOYER. Can you imagine someone saying this to 35 year old professional - I would say f**k that, no one of us is a teenager, you are talking with adults who paying you their own money. This is the attitude you will see at GW, sorry.

Anyway, again, I am not saying that education is just bad at GW, it's just atmosphere and attitude of school officials.

Edited because it came off too mean-ish.

Will rewrite when not exhausted

Hey guys, we all need to take a breather here....we are all here to help each other out...

Ershovici: thanks for you help and insights. I guess every b school has some good and some ordinary professors and from wht ive heard, the career center of most b school's are pathetic. So, unless ur a wharton etc b school guy, every other b school wud be the same.

moneyball: dude..ur in the US?.....we shud keep in touch, ill see in fall, if u cud msg me ur cell or email, we could figure out the apartments scene. P.S: im not in the US currently

Wow, congrats GWUMBA and Moneyball29!
It seems like this forum has a high admission rate for GW applicants, which is always nice to hear.

I recently moved to DC from Los Angeles, and I was surprised that rental prices were just as expensive, if not more so, than LA. The great thing about GW is that it sits on top of a metro station, which means that you can live pretty much anywhere along the metro system and still have an easy commute. My husband and I found that apartments go quickly, so come ready with a checkbook.

A fun area to consider are the Rosslyn/Courthouse/Clarendon neighborhoods in Arlington, which are slightly more affordable and just a few stops from Foggy Bottom on the Orange line. Silver Spring, MD is much more affordable, seems to offer plenty of available housing, and is along the metro. It's hard to go wrong with the rest of DC (particularly anywhere NW), but it's pretty universally pricey.

ershovici - I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with GW. I'm sure most of us will take your account into consideration, but we all understand that the same program can be a perfect fit for some, and a terrible fit for others. Most of the folks in this forum have already decided to attend GW, so there's not much we can do with your information at this point.

I appreciate your honesty, though, and I think you've given us enough information to appreciate the context of your experience.

Hey DCJen,

Thanks for your inputs of accommodation. I'll check them out!

Hi DCJen, I am from Southern California as well, and rent in the DC Foggy Bottom area is definitely more expensive. Since you've lived in both DC and So Cal, how would you compare and contrast both areas?

DCJen wrote:Wow, congrats GWUMBA and Moneyball29!
It seems like this forum has a high admission rate for GW applicants, which is always nice to hear.

I recently moved to DC from Los Angeles, and I was surprised that rental prices were just as expensive, if not more so, than LA. The great thing about GW is that it sits on top of a metro station, which means that you can live pretty much anywhere along the metro system and still have an easy commute. My husband and I found that apartments go quickly, so come ready with a checkbook.

A fun area to consider are the Rosslyn/Courthouse/Clarendon neighborhoods in Arlington, which are slightly more affordable and just a few stops from Foggy Bottom on the Orange line. Silver Spring, MD is much more affordable, seems to offer plenty of available housing, and is along the metro. It's hard to go wrong with the rest of DC (particularly anywhere NW), but it's pretty universally pricey.

ershovici - I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with GW. I'm sure most of us will take your account into consideration, but we all understand that the same program can be a perfect fit for some, and a terrible fit for others. Most of the folks in this forum have already decided to attend GW, so there's not much we can do with your information at this point.

I appreciate your honesty, though, and I think you've given us enough information to appreciate the context of your experience.

GWUMBA wrote:Hi DCJen, I am from Southern California as well, and rent in the DC Foggy Bottom area is definitely more expensive. Since you've lived in both DC and So Cal, how would you compare and contrast both areas?

Well, I definitely find that L.A. is more relaxed than D.C. Folks here seem to be much more serious, conservative, conservatively-dressed, early-morning types. I'm not 100% sure if I'd venture to say that folks are less friendly here, but they don't suffer fools, and I'd become accustomed to a certain amount of leniency in attitudes.

I think the biggest difference is in how walkable, commutable and centralized it is here, which really contributes to a better quality of life. The City of Los Angeles has, literally, seven times the area that DC has, and you get all of the trappings that come with that. There's this expectation that because it's all the same region, you should be willing to travel around it for work, social functions, etc. And of course, DC has a regular commuter traffic rush hour, whereas LA just has bad traffic most of the day in almost any direction.

Los Angeles really is a car-dominated culture, with big, wide streets, big parking lots, and very few areas that are truly walkable.

Oh, and there's so much more greenery here. It still amazes me.

I got my invitation for an interview tonight! Any advice and insight you all can offer?

DCJen,

Sorry for the late response. I've been really busy and noticed your comment just now. Nevertheless, I hope this helps other applicants if you've already had your interview. About the interview, I recommend that you prepare to discuss the following:

What you currently do?
How an MBA helps you achieve your post-MBA goals?
Why a GW MBA?
What resources at GW do you want to utilize?
What will you contribute to the GW MBA community?

My interviewer took some time to talk about the school and what sets it apart from all other business schools. GW's location and how MBA students can leverage this unique advantage to achieve their career goals are important themes. GW is also very strong in international business, and if you have an interest in this area, mention how GW's strength and your interest make a good fit. My interviewer was skilled at bouncing my responses by giving input as I answered the questions.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

DCJen wrote:I got my invitation for an interview tonight! Any advice and insight you all can offer?

Update - I've been admitted! I'm still waiting to hear from the other school to which I applied, but they would have to throw in some financial help to lure me away from GW at this point. What a relief to know, finally!
Thank you for everyone's encouragement and help!

Congratulations DCJEN!...whts the scholarship that u have been awarded??

C u in fall!

I did not apply to GW full time, but I am accepted for the Professional Flex MBA program. Still waiting on other schools to provide final decisions.

Admitted with fellowship. Seriously considering a couple other offers I have in hand.