Living at Georgetown
Hello all. We wanted to give you a better idea of what you can expect from life on the Hilltop (what we sometimes call Georgetown) in terms of your housing and eating situations. I am going to try to give you as much information as possible, but keep in mind that this is just my view as a Georgetown senior and your counselor, and that you may have a different experience in some of these areas when you arrive. Georgetown is like a small town within a city, and almost anything you will need while you are here can be found close by, or, at the very least, a short metro ride away. Living on campus over the summer is a fantastic experience. There are many university students from all over the United States and the world staying at or near Georgetown while the take classes or work in DC for the summer. You will surely meet a wide variety of individuals during your month here. Below I have tried to include some basic information that will be incredibly helpful to know when you arrive on campus, and I have included websites whenever possible for those who are curious for more information. Hopefully most of your questions about these topics can be found here.
In terms of your specific housing, you will be living in Harbin Hall, a residence hall located towards the center of campus. It is a short walk to the dining hall, the front lawns, and many of the main classroom buildings here on campus. In addition, there is excellent access to our fitness center, Yates, and the stops for our Georgetown buses that will bring you to the Metro.
Our dorms here on campus are extremely safe and will provide a great place to live for your time with us. Rooms are usually furnished with two beds, two desks, two chairs, closets, and drawers. Each room also has two internet connections and air conditioning, which can prove very useful in the hot DC summers. There is also a common room on every floor which has a kitchen and couches for the use of all students on the floor. For more information, see the housing website’s description of Harbin here http://housing.georgetown.edu/academic/residences/Harbin/. You will each get a key to your room, but to enter the dorm itself, along with most other residences on campus, you will also need your university ID card, called a GOCard.
Your GOCard will be your most important piece of identification here on campus, and will be used for everything from getting into your dorm, both opening the door and getting past the security guard, eating at the on campus dining hall, and getting into the gym, among other purposes. You should try to always keep this card, and your room key, with you at all times to avoid problems of getting into other buildings and your own.
To get your GOCard, you will need to go to the GOCard office, located in Darnell Hall (left) on the north end of campus. There they will take your picture and print your card. The process does not take long, but it is important that we do this as soon as possible when you get to campus, so on Monday the 16th the other counselors and I will take you to get them to avoid confusion or delays. More information can be found on the GOCard website, http://gocard.georgetown.edu/.
Another very important use for the GOCard comes when it is time to do laundry. There are facilities in Harbin, and you will use your GOCard to pay there. To do this, you must put money on your card either online using a debit or credit card, or you may use cash as well as debit and credit cards at one of the GOCard machines on campus, which are located in the Library (left), the Dining Hall, and several other locations throughout campus. You will need this money to print or copy at the library as well. Some stores and restaurants around the Georgetown area will accept the “debit dollars” on your GOCard, but it is by no means necessary. I would recommend only putting on what you need in small increments; because once the money is on your card you cannot get it back. Only put on what you need when you absolutely need it.
As previously mentioned, you use your GOCard to get into our on campus dining hall, affectionately called Leo’s by the students here, as well. While Leo’s will be going under a few renovations this summer, the basic layout will remain the same. You walk in and present your GOCard to one of the workers at the entrance and then walk in. Upstairs are the main dishes for the day, as well as the vegetarian and pasta sections. Downstairs you will find the Grill and some of the more fried foods, as well as the pizzas and pastas. Both levels have places to make salads and sandwiches, as well as fruit, yogurt, cereal, drinks, and desserts. It is an all-you-can-eat system, so once you go into Leo’s you can eat as much as you want, although you cannot bring food out with you.
The website for more information, including tentative weekly menus, can be found here: http://dining.georgetown.edu/. Monday through Friday, Leo’s is open for breakfast from 7:30am to 9:00am; lunch is 11:00am to1:30pm; and dinner is from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. On the weekends there are only two meal times: brunch from 10:30am to 1:00pm; and dinner from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.
While Leo’s serves good and plentiful food, many students also enjoy having a snack or eating out occasionally. For snacks or food for your room, we have two student run locations on campus: Hoya Snaxa in the Southwest Quad and Vital Vittles in the Leavey Center. For more information about these and other student run businesses on campus you can look at the specific pages off the Corp’s website, http://thecorp.org/. There is also a Safeway, the local supermarket, and a CVS, a pharmacy and convenience store, within a short walk of campus, in addition to many other places. Eating out in Georgetown can be a daunting experience do to the variety offered in our neighborhood and the surrounding city. Just around campus you can find some of the most expensive and least expensive restaurants in the city serving an impressive variety of cuisine. All of this depends on your own tastes, but the best thing to do is to explore and ask other students for recommendations; everyone has their favorite place.
On campus, in the Leavey Center, where you will find our student run grocery store mentioned earlier, there is a food court that may sometimes prove to be the most convenient, although not the only place close to your dorm to get a meal. There are restaurants such as Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Subway, a sandwich shop, there, along with a student run coffee shop. It is a nice place to go and sit if you need a quick meal or a change from Leo’s, but there are plenty of places a bit further away if none of these suit your tastes.
After you have eaten all of this food, you can take advantage of our on campus Fitness Center, Yates Field House or just Yates, for your exercise needs. Once again you will have to swipe you GOCard to enter, but you can then proceed to the changing rooms or just down to the various facilities we have. There are both indoor and outdoor pools and tennis courts, an indoor track, a full range of weight machines and free weights, racquetball courts, basketball courts, and many other opportunities to attend an aerobics class or various other activities. If you want to work out here, you should bring some gym shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers. Many students change at their own dorms at then go to Yates and return to their dorm to shower and change again, but there is a locker room with showers and lockers, although these lockers do not have their own locks, so do not leave your valuables there unattended. For more information see the Yates website, http://yates.georgetown.edu/.
Hopefully this will give you a good start to your life at Georgetown. Before long you will be exploring and discovering things yourself. You can find a campus map here: http://explore.georgetown.edu/maps/. For a more general website that lists many good resources for students living on campus, see this website from our housing office: http://housing.georgetown.edu/summer/resources/. For information about all Georgetown services and the University itself, look here http://www.georgetown.edu/home/student.html, or use the search function off our main webpage, www.georgetown.edu.
Hopefully you can find the answers to many of your questions in this document and the websites attached. If you are confused by anything don’t worry, we will be able to answer any of your questions once you get to DC. I look forward to meeting you all soon and to helping you have a smooth transition to life on the hilltop. See you in less than a week and have a good flight,
Bryan
