George Washington University

George Washington University is a private research university in Washington, D.C., chartered by Congress in 1821 and named for George Washington. Its principal Foggy Bottom campus sits a few blocks from the White House, the State Department, and the World Bank. Additional campuses include the Mount Vernon Campus in D.C. and the Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn. It is a city university rather than a land-grant or collegiate one.

Schools that matter most to graduate students are the Elliott School of International Affairs, the Law School, the Milken Institute School of Public Health, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Business, and Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Teaching hospitals and federal agencies supply internships and clinical sites. Political science, international affairs, public policy, law, and public health are the fields the university is best known for.

Enrollment is about 26,000 students, with graduate and professional students forming half or more of the total. International students come from more than 130 countries. Faculty number about 2,500 full-time. Alumni include general and secretary of state Colin Powell, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and actor Kerry Washington.

Graduate degrees include academic master's, professional master's, JD, MD, MPH, and PhD programs, many designed around internships in federal agencies and international organizations. The calendar is a U.S. semester system. Funding includes assistantships, fellowships, and employer tuition support common among part-time students who work in government. Daily life is urban: classrooms, Metro stations, and workplaces sit in the same Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, George Washington University lists 198 graduate programs across 47 subjects: 138 master's programs and 56 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in education, public health and biology. George Washington University holds rank 310 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.