I remember sitting down to work on my GW application, trying to decide which school to apply to. At that point, I didn’t know whether I wanted to study international affairs or engineering.
And to be honest, I’m still deciding.
But with the strategic plan, which outlines GW’s academic strategy for the next decade, students will have the freedom to apply to the University as a whole, rather than picking from individual undergraduate colleges.
Let’s face it: Most undergraduates have no idea what they want to study when they come to college. And this approach would give those still unsure a chance to explore different courses and make decisions later in their GW career.
By reducing the pressure for students to choose a specialization before they’ve even been admitted to GW, the plan will give undergraduates more flexibility.
The problem with having to apply to specific schools is that there is more pressure to declare your major track early. But if students just apply to GW, they aren’t pigeonholed into one field of study.
Under the new model, students would have time to decide and weigh their options. As a freshman who has yet to declare a major, I understand the pressure of having to apply to school without knowing exactly what I was interested in. Going forward, students won’t be forced to make hasty decisions.
And this idea of having students apply to GW as opposed to its specialized schools isn’t just an admissions decision. It will also play a role for students in the classroom.
University leaders want to encourage collaboration and foster a cross-disciplinary culture in which all students can benefit by uniting them under a single core curriculum.
Some have suggested that this system would undermine the prestige of some of GW’s colleges, such as the nationally ranked Elliott School of International Affairs and the School of Media and Public Affairs.
But with this new University initiative, students will be able to understand how different subjects are interconnected rather than being confined to one discipline or course of study. More collaboration between these schools would expand the scope of a GW degree, and it would help prepare us for the world outside college, where collaboration between disciplines is a common practice.
In the past, GW has created a culture of insularity among the five colleges and departments. In the past decade, the Elliott School has emerged as one of the top 10 international affairs schools in the country.
We have become a University that is perceived as being good at only a handful of areas, but this new organization and interdisciplinary focus can change that trend. It demonstrates the University’s commitment to the wide array of disciplines taught on campus every day.
Under the new model, we would be not only members of our individual schools, but also part of a single, cohesive intellectual community.
And that’s a model we can all get behind.
Sri Murthy is a freshman in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
I think while this is an ideal scenario, GW takes pride in its location and the areas it excels in. GW is not a top 10 or 25 school all around. But when it comes to International Affairs or Political Science it easily is in the top 10 category. The school should create similar models of the Elliott and SMPA schools for others such as Engineering as opposed to merging them together. Undecided students still have the option to apply to Colombian as undecided so why should that take away from the students who come in knowing what they want to do?
While the sentiment expressed in this Opinion is nice, it is also very naive. Many Elliott students come into GWU for its ranking that places it in the top 10 International Affairs schools in the nation, they already have a decent understanding of what they want to study and what they plan to get into. Elliott, top 10. GW? Just fell out of the top 50. And we cannot even compare the rankings of the other schools in their respective specialized disciplines to Elliott . No, this OneGW model will damage Elliott’s rankings, the selectiveness of which keeps ESIA at the top. If a student wants to be in ESIA, great! But ESIA is more selective than its counterparts, which is why there are stipulations to transferring between schools. You know GWU’s price tag, and while you or maybe some others may be ‘undecided’, which isn’t a bad thing, for others, they come in knowing full well the investment they are making and what area of study they want to pursue. You talk about expanding the scope of the GW degree. But this OneGW model will lessen the value of the degree of ESIA graduate and it will tank ESIA’s valuable rankings. Not to mention, this idea is hardly feasible. Do you know how difficult it is to get the administrations of the various schools to work together, with different thresholds of expectations for their respective students? It would be a mess to try and streamline the admissions process with the various schools competing for a different application model. In short, I oppose the OneGW model- and those who already know and are committed to their field of study shouldn’t be penalized for it.