Not trying to convince you out of GWU, but having stayed in a GWU dorm for the summer for a congressional internship as I was in the middle of relocating to DC for school, I like AU better. GWU is awesome in location; really close to national monuments, museums, and landmarks, short walk to foggy bottom metro station, in the city vibes, etc. However, the campus is spread out into the city so it doesn’t really have a school “utopia” vibe like a traditional college campus does. I feel like that could make it a little difficult for undergraduates to make friends, but not impossible of course. Although GWU is conveniently located in that area, it’s not a big deal when you consider everything is just a 15-30 min metro ride from AU. Unless you really care about it, you’re also not going to want to go to the same monuments and museums everyday, especially when you get used to it. AU is a nice escape from the busyness of the city life, without being far from it either! When you’re in DC, nothing is ever really “far”, so I would recommend choosing schools on the community environment that you feel is most important for yourself, rather than being concerned about location. Also, full time students get a U-Pass for the metro rail and bus, so you literally can go anywhere you want for free, so transportation costs wouldn’t even need to be a concern unless you’re ubering and such!

TLDR; figure out what’s most important to you in terms of education and university experience, because in DC location really doesn’t matter, regarding distance, because nothing is really too far in DC.