The Princeton Review has dubbed The George Washington University's student body the most politically active in the nation.  The 2010 edition of Princeton Review: The Best 371 Colleges singled out GW for having the "Most Politically Active Students" of all schools surveyed.  GW previously reached the number one spot in the 2008 edition, but slipped to number two in last year's edition.

According to Michelle Sherrard, GW's Assistant Director of Media Relations, undergraduate students contributed up to 67,000 hours of service in the District of Columbia and around the country during the 2007-2008 academic year.  Sherrard thinks the university's location plays a role in encouraging its students to be politically active.  "GW is the largest institution of higher learning in D.C., just blocks from the White House, the World Bank, the Smithsonian, and countless embassies and federal agency headquarters," Sherrard said.

Although the survey did not include students at The George Washington University Law School, many GW law students spent their summers as interns for both local or national government agencies.  Still, several students interning at federal government offices this summer described their work and themselves as mostly apolitical.  2L Bill McGonigle spent his summer in the Office of Litigation at the Small Business Association, and doesn't consider most of his work inherently political, although it is "political in its own way."  McGonigle described the political scene at the law school as laid back.  "[GW Law students] don't feel that they need to wear their views on their sleeves," McGonigle said.

Some students reserve their activism for particular causes.  2L Sara Marshman said that, for the most part, she avoids political causes at school except one: animal rights.  "Other than my efforts promoting animal welfare as the VP of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, I consciously try to stay out of [politics]," Marshman said.  When Marshman and her friends at the law school do discuss politics, she said they tend to focus on fostering discussion and learning each other's views, rather than engaging in heated debates.

Other law students channeled their political energy into their future careers.  2L Thanh Nguyen split her summer between working at the Department of Justice and a law firm, and she has worked extensively in both state and federal government.  Nguyen isn't very involved with political activism on campus and said she isn't familiar with the political scene at the law school, but that doesn't mean she's not politically active, she said.  She just focuses more of her energy on off-campus political participation and professional development.  "I'm out networking with D.C. government people more than I hang out with GW people," Nguyen said.

While political activism may not dominate the law school's campus, graduates frequently go on to careers in government.  The Princeton Review estimates that 11 percent of the law school's graduates work in government, excluding clerkships, and cited the Department of Justice as one of the most frequent employers of the law school's newly-minted JDs.

The Princeton Review based its rankings on a survey of undergraduate students at 371 colleges and universities.  The survey asked students to rank on a five-point scale how popular political/activist groups were on their campus, from "Extremely" to "Nonexistent."  The Princeton Review did not define "politically active" for their survey.

Law students can rank the law school in the next Princeton Review survey at http://survey.review.com.  In the 2009 edition of The Princeton Review's Best 174 Law Schools, The George Washington University Law School was ranked ninth in the nation for "Best Classroom Experience" and tenth for "Best Quality of Life."  The Princeton Review also called the law school's Student Bar Association "one of the best in the nation."  Law schools are not ranked on a "politically active" list.

Georgetown University Law Center did not crack the top 10 in any category.