5 paragraph essay about george washington

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George Washington

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 25, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

George Washington (1732-99) was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) and served two terms as the first U.S. president, from 1789 to 1797. The son of a prosperous planter, Washington was raised in colonial Virginia. As a young man, he worked as a surveyor then fought in the French and Indian War (1754-63). 

During the American Revolution, he led the colonial forces to victory over the British and became a national hero. In 1787, he was elected president of the convention that wrote the U.S. Constitution. Two years later, Washington became America’s first president. Realizing that the way he handled the job would impact how future presidents approached the position, he handed down a legacy of strength, integrity and national purpose. Less than three years after leaving office, he died at his Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, at age 67.

George Washington's Early Years

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 , at his family’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia , to Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708-89). George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington’s six children, spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. After Washington’s father died when he was 11, it’s likely he helped his mother manage the plantation.

Did you know? At the time of his death in 1799, George Washington owned some 300 enslaved people. However, before his passing, he had become opposed to slavery, and in his will, he ordered that his enslaved workers be freed after his wife's death.

Few details about Washington’s early education are known, although children of prosperous families like his typically were taught at home by private tutors or attended private schools. It’s believed he finished his formal schooling at around age 15.

As a teenager, Washington, who had shown an aptitude for mathematics, became a successful surveyor. His surveying expeditions into the Virginia wilderness earned him enough money to begin acquiring land of his own.

In 1751, Washington made his only trip outside of America, when he traveled to Barbados with his older half-brother Lawrence Washington (1718-52), who was suffering from tuberculosis and hoped the warm climate would help him recuperate. Shortly after their arrival, George contracted smallpox. He survived, although the illness left him with permanent facial scars. In 1752, Lawrence, who had been educated in England and served as Washington’s mentor, died. Washington eventually inherited Lawrence’s estate, Mount Vernon , on the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia.

An Officer and Gentleman Farmer

In December 1752, Washington, who had no previous military experience, was made a commander of the Virginia militia. He saw action in the French and Indian War and was eventually put in charge of all of Virginia’s militia forces. By 1759, Washington had resigned his commission, returned to Mount Vernon and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he served until 1774. In January 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), a wealthy widow with two children. Washington became a devoted stepfather to her children; he and Martha Washington never had any offspring of their own.

In the ensuing years, Washington expanded Mount Vernon from 2,000 acres into an 8,000-acre property with five farms. He grew a variety of crops, including wheat and corn, bred mules and maintained fruit orchards and a successful fishery. He was deeply interested in farming and continually experimented with new crops and methods of land conservation.

George Washington During the American Revolution

Washington proved to be a better general than military strategist. His strength lay not in his genius on the battlefield but in his ability to keep the struggling colonial army together. His troops were poorly trained and lacked food, ammunition and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without shoes in winter). However, Washington was able to give them direction and motivation. His leadership during the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge was a testament to his power to inspire his men to keep going.

By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced firsthand the effects of rising taxes imposed on American colonists by the British and came to believe that it was in the best interests of the colonists to declare independence from England. Washington served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 in Philadelphia. By the time the Second Continental Congress convened a year later, the American Revolution had begun in earnest, and Washington was named commander in chief of the Continental Army.

Over the course of the grueling eight-year war, the colonial forces won few battles but consistently held their own against the British. In October 1781, with the aid of the French (who allied themselves with the colonists over their rivals the British), the Continental forces were able to capture British troops under General Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805) in the Battle of Yorktown . This action effectively ended the Revolutionary War and Washington was declared a national hero.

America’s First President

In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the U.S., Washington, believing he had done his duty, gave up his command of the army and returned to Mount Vernon, intent on resuming his life as a gentleman farmer and family man. However, in 1787, he was asked to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and head the committee to draft the new constitution . His impressive leadership there convinced the delegates that he was by far the most qualified man to become the nation’s first president.

At first, Washington balked. He wanted to, at last, return to a quiet life at home and leave governing the new nation to others. But public opinion was so strong that eventually he gave in. The first presidential election was held on January 7, 1789, and Washington won handily. John Adams (1735-1826), who received the second-largest number of votes, became the nation’s first vice president. The 57-year-old Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, in New York City. Because Washington, D.C. , America’s future capital city wasn’t yet built, he lived in New York and Philadelphia. While in office, he signed a bill establishing a future, permanent U.S. capital along the Potomac River—the city later named Washington, D.C., in his honor.

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George Washington’s Accomplishments

The United States was a small nation when Washington took office, consisting of 11 states and approximately 4 million people, and there was no precedent for how the new president should conduct domestic or foreign business. Mindful that his actions would likely determine how future presidents were expected to govern, Washington worked hard to set an example of fairness, prudence and integrity. In foreign matters, he supported cordial relations with other countries but also favored a position of neutrality in foreign conflicts. Domestically, he nominated the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court , John Jay (1745-1829), signed a bill establishing the first national bank, the Bank of the United States , and set up his own presidential cabinet . 

His two most prominent cabinet appointees were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), two men who disagreed strongly on the role of the federal government. Hamilton favored a strong central government and was part of the Federalist Party , while Jefferson favored stronger states’ rights as part of the Democratic-Republican Party, the forerunner to the Democratic Party . Washington believed that divergent views were critical for the health of the new government, but he was distressed at what he saw as an emerging partisanship.

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George Washington’s presidency was marked by a series of firsts. He signed the first United States copyright law, protecting the copyrights of authors. He also signed the first Thanksgiving proclamation, making November 26 a national day of Thanksgiving for the end of the war for American independence and the successful ratification of the Constitution.

During Washington’s presidency, Congress passed the first federal revenue law, a tax on distilled spirits. In July 1794, farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled over the so-called “whiskey tax.” Washington called in over 12,000 militiamen to Pennsylvania to dissolve the Whiskey Rebellion in one of the first major tests of the authority of the national government.

Under Washington’s leadership, the states ratified the Bill of Rights , and five new states entered the union: North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796).

In his second term, Washington issued the proclamation of neutrality to avoid entering the 1793 war between Great Britain and France. But when French minister to the United States Edmond Charles Genet—known to history as “Citizen Genet”—toured the United States, he boldly flaunted the proclamation, attempting to set up American ports as French military bases and gain support for his cause in the Western United States. His meddling caused a stir between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, widening the rift between parties and making consensus-building more difficult.

In 1795, Washington signed the “Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America,” or Jay’s Treaty , so-named for John Jay , who had negotiated it with the government of King George III . It helped the U.S. avoid war with Great Britain, but also rankled certain members of Congress back home and was fiercely opposed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison . Internationally, it caused a stir among the French, who believed it violated previous treaties between the United States and France.

Washington’s administration signed two other influential international treaties. Pinckney’s Treaty of 1795, also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo, established friendly relations between the United States and Spain, firming up borders between the U.S. and Spanish territories in North America and opening up the Mississippi to American traders. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed the following year, gave American ships access to Mediterranean shipping lanes in exchange for a yearly tribute to the Pasha of Tripoli.

George Washington’s Retirement to Mount Vernon and Death

In 1796, after two terms as president and declining to serve a third term, Washington finally retired. In Washington’s farewell address , he urged the new nation to maintain the highest standards domestically and to keep involvement with foreign powers to a minimum. The address is still read each February in the U.S. Senate to commemorate Washington’s birthday.

Washington returned to Mount Vernon and devoted his attentions to making the plantation as productive as it had been before he became president. More than four decades of public service had aged him, but he was still a commanding figure. In December 1799, he caught a cold after inspecting his properties in the rain. The cold developed into a throat infection and Washington died on the night of December 14, 1799, at the age of 67. He was entombed at Mount Vernon, which in 1960 was designated a national historic landmark.

Washington left one of the most enduring legacies of any American in history. Known as the “Father of His Country,” his face appears on the U.S. dollar bill and quarter, and dozens of U.S. schools, towns and counties, as well as the state of Washington and the nation’s capital city, are named for him.

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What is George Washington known for?

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George Washington

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George Washington is often called the “Father of His Country.” He not only served as the first president of the United States , but he also commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolution (1775–83) and presided over the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution . The U.S. capital is named after Washington—as are many schools, parks, and cities. Today his face appears on the U.S. dollar bill and the quarter.

George Washington did not belong to a political party. He ran as a nonpartisan candidate in the presidential elections of 1789 and 1792 . To this day, Washington is the only U.S. president to have been unanimously elected by the electoral college .

Yes, George Washington owned slaves. Washington was born into a Virginia planter family. After his father’s death in 1743, Washington inherited 10 enslaved people. In 1761 Washington acquired a farmhouse (which he later expanded to a five-farm estate) called Mount Vernon . In 1760, 49 enslaved people lived and worked on the estate; by 1799 that number had increased to over 300. Washington eventually freed the 123 people he owned. In his will he ordered that they be freed “upon the decease of my wife .”

After serving two terms as president, George Washington retired to his estate at Mount Vernon in 1797. Two years into his retirement, Washington caught a cold. The cold developed into a throat infection. Doctors cared for Washington as they thought best—by bleeding him, blistering him, and attempting (unsuccessfully) to give him a gargle of “molasses, vinegar, and butter.” Despite their efforts, Washington died on the night of December 14, 1799.

For years people have shared a story about the first U.S. president involving a hatchet, a cherry tree, and a young Washington who “cannot tell a lie.” The legend attests to George Washington’s honesty, virtue, and piety—that is, if it is true. It is not. The legend was the invention of a 19th-century bookseller named Mason Locke Weems who wanted to present a role model to his American readers . It is one of many legends about Washington.

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George Washington (born February 22 [February 11, Old Style], 1732, Westmoreland county, Virginia [U.S.]—died December 14, 1799, Mount Vernon, Virginia, U.S.) was an American general and commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–83) and subsequently first president of the United States (1789–97).

Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, had gone to school in England, tasted seafaring life, and then settled down to manage his growing Virginia estates. His mother was Mary Ball, whom Augustine, a widower, had married early the previous year. Washington’s paternal lineage had some distinction; an early forebear was described as a “gentleman,” Henry VIII later gave the family lands, and its members held various offices. But family fortunes fell with the Puritan revolution in England, and John Washington, grandfather of Augustine, migrated in 1657 to Virginia. The ancestral home at Sulgrave, Northamptonshire , is maintained as a Washington memorial. Little definite information exists on any of the line until Augustine. He was an energetic, ambitious man who acquired much land, built mills, took an interest in opening iron mines, and sent his two eldest sons to England for schooling. By his first wife, Jane Butler, he had four children. By his second wife, Mary Ball, he had six. Augustine died April 12, 1743.

Little is known of George Washington’s early childhood, spent largely on the Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River , opposite Fredericksburg , Virginia. Mason L. Weems ’s stories of the hatchet and cherry tree and of young Washington’s repugnance to fighting are apocryphal efforts to fill a manifest gap. He attended school irregularly from his 7th to his 15th year, first with the local church sexton and later with a schoolmaster named Williams. Some of his schoolboy papers survive. He was fairly well trained in practical mathematics—gauging, several types of mensuration, and such trigonometry as was useful in surveying . He studied geography, possibly had a little Latin, and certainly read some of The Spectator and other English classics. The copybook in which he transcribed at 14 a set of moral precepts, or Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation , was carefully preserved. His best training, however, was given him by practical men and outdoor occupations, not by books. He mastered tobacco growing and stock raising, and early in his teens he was sufficiently familiar with surveying to plot the fields about him.

At his father’s death, the 11-year-old boy became the ward of his half brother Lawrence, a man of fine character who gave him wise and affectionate care. Lawrence inherited the beautiful estate of Little Hunting Creek, which had been granted to the original settler, John Washington, and which Augustine had done much since 1738 to develop. Lawrence married Anne (Nancy) Fairfax, daughter of Col. William Fairfax, a cousin and agent of Lord Fairfax and one of the chief proprietors of the region. Lawrence also built a house and named the 2,500-acre (1,000-hectare) holding Mount Vernon in honor of the admiral under whom he had served in the siege of Cartagena . Living there chiefly with Lawrence (though he spent some time near Fredericksburg with his other half brother, Augustine, called Austin), George entered a more spacious and polite world. Anne Fairfax Washington was a woman of charm, grace, and culture; Lawrence had brought from his English school and naval service much knowledge and experience. A valued neighbor and relative, George William Fairfax, whose large estate, Belvoir, was about 4 miles (6 km) distant, and other relatives by marriage, the Carlyles of Alexandria, helped form George’s mind and manners.

The youth turned first to surveying as a profession. Lord Fairfax, a middle-aged bachelor who owned more than 5,000,000 acres (2,000,000 hectares) in northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley , came to America in 1746 to live with his cousin George William at Belvoir and to look after his properties. Two years later he sent to the Shenandoah Valley a party to survey and plot his lands to make regular tenants of the squatters moving in from Pennsylvania . With the official surveyor of Prince William county in charge, Washington went along as assistant. The 16-year-old lad kept a disjointed diary of the trip, which shows skill in observation. He describes the discomfort of sleeping under “one thread Bear blanket with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice Fleas & c”; an encounter with an Indian war party bearing a scalp; the Pennsylvania-German emigrants, “as ignorant a set of people as the Indians they would never speak English but when spoken to they speak all Dutch”; and the serving of roast wild turkey on “a Large Chip,” for “as for dishes we had none.”

The following year (1749), aided by Lord Fairfax, Washington received an appointment as official surveyor of Culpeper county, and for more than two years he was kept almost constantly busy. Surveying not only in Culpeper but also in Frederick and Augusta counties, he made journeys far beyond the Tidewater region into the western wilderness. The experience taught him resourcefulness and endurance and toughened him in both body and mind. Coupled with Lawrence’s ventures in land, it also gave him an interest in western development that endured throughout his life. He was always disposed to speculate in western holdings and to view favorably projects for colonizing the West, and he greatly resented the limitations that the crown in time laid on the westward movement . In 1752 Lord Fairfax determined to take up his final residence in the Shenandoah Valley and settled there in a log hunting lodge, which he called Greenway Court after a Kentish manor of his family’s. There Washington was sometimes entertained and had access to a small library that Fairfax had begun accumulating at Oxford.

The years 1751–52 marked a turning point in Washington’s life, for they placed him in control of Mount Vernon . Lawrence, stricken by tuberculosis , went to Barbados in 1751 for his health, taking George along. From this sole journey beyond the present borders of the United States, Washington returned with the light scars of an attack of smallpox . In July of the next year, Lawrence died, making George executor and residuary heir of his estate should his daughter, Sarah, die without issue. As she died within two months, Washington at age 20 became head of one of the best Virginia estates. He always thought farming the “most delectable” of pursuits. “It is honorable,” he wrote, “it is amusing, and, with superior judgment, it is profitable.” And, of all the spots for farming, he thought Mount Vernon the best. “No estate in United America,” he assured an English correspondent, “is more pleasantly situated than this.” His greatest pride in later days was to be regarded as the first farmer of the land.

He gradually increased the estate until it exceeded 8,000 acres (3,000 hectares). He enlarged the house in 1760 and made further enlargements and improvements on the house and its landscaping in 1784–86. He also tried to keep abreast of the latest scientific advances.

For the next 20 years the main background of Washington’s life was the work and society of Mount Vernon. He gave assiduous attention to the rotation of crops, fertilization of the soil, and the management of livestock. He had to manage the 18 slaves that came with the estate and others he bought later; by 1760 he had paid taxes on 49 slaves—though he strongly disapproved of the institution and hoped for some mode of abolishing it. At the time of his death, more than 300 slaves were housed in the quarters on his property. He had been unwilling to sell slaves lest families be broken up, even though the increase in their numbers placed a burden on him for their upkeep and gave him a larger force of workers than he required, especially after he gave up the cultivation of tobacco. In his will, he bequeathed the slaves in his possession to his wife and ordered that upon her death they be set free, declaring also that the young, the aged, and the infirm among them “shall be comfortably cloathed & fed by my heirs.” Still, this accounted for only about half the slaves on his property. The other half, owned by his wife, were entailed to the Custis estate, so that on her death they were destined to pass to her heirs. However, she freed all the slaves in 1800 after his death.

For diversion Washington was fond of riding, fox hunting, and dancing, of such theatrical performances as he could reach, and of duck hunting and sturgeon fishing. He liked billiards and cards and not only subscribed to racing associations but also ran his own horses in races. In all outdoor pursuits, from wrestling to colt breaking, he excelled. A friend of the 1750s describes him as “straight as an Indian, measuring six feet two inches in his stockings”; as very muscular and broad-shouldered but, though large-boned, weighing only 175 pounds; and as having long arms and legs. His penetrating blue-gray eyes were overhung by heavy brows, his nose was large and straight, and his mouth was large and firmly closed. “His movements and gestures are graceful, his walk majestic, and he is a splendid horseman.” He soon became prominent in community affairs, was an active member and later vestryman of the Episcopal church , and as early as 1755 expressed a desire to stand for the Virginia House of Burgesses .

U.S. Presidents

George washington.

First president of the United States

The son of a landowner and planter, George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in the British-ruled colony of Virginia . His father died when he was 11, and his older brother, Lawrence, helped raise him. Washington was educated in basic subjects including reading, writing, and mathematics, but he didn’t attend college. Not much else is known about his childhood. Stories about his virtues—such as his confession of chopping down his father’s cherry tree—were actually invented by an admiring writer soon after Washington’s death.

During his 20s, he fought as a soldier in the French and Indian War, Great Britain’s fight with France over the Ohio River Valley territory. After the war, Washington returned to Virginia to work as a farmer.

Virginians elected Washington to their colonial legislature, or government, when he was 26. Soon after, he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two young children. They settled at Mount Vernon, a family home Washington had inherited.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR HERO

As a government official, Washington spoke out against unfair laws, such as high taxes, during Great Britain’s rule. In 1774 and 1775, he was one of Virginia’s representatives at the First and Second Continental Congresses, a group of representatives from the 13 colonies that would eventually become the United States. The Second Congress helped future third president, Thomas Jefferson , write the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, proclaiming that the 13 colonies were now independent states, no longer under British rule. An army was formed to oppose the British, and Washington was selected to lead it.

For five years, Washington served as the head of the army as the Revolutionary War against the British raged. The British finally surrendered in 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia. Washington was now a hero, seen as an important person who helped the colonies finally gain independence from Great Britain . After the war, Washington retired from the army and returned to private life.

PATH TO PRESIDENCY

After the end of the war, the former colonies operated under the Articles of Confederation, a document that placed most power with the states. For example, each state printed its own money. There was no national leader. The individual states were not supporting each other as one country, and the new nation seemed to be in trouble.

In 1787 state representatives gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , at the Constitutional Convention to fix these problems. There, the delegates wrote the Constitution of the United States. This document created a strong federal government: two chambers of legislators (also called lawmakers), a federal court system, and a president. The Constitution still serves as the foundation for the United States government today.

Based on the Constitution’s directions, states chose representatives to elect a president. Washington won the vote, making him the first-ever president of the United States. John Adams received the second most votes and became vice president.

SETTING TRADITIONS

As the nation’s first president, Washington set the example for other presidents. He worked out how the nation would negotiate treaties with other countries. He decided how the president would select and get advice from cabinet members. He also established the practice of giving a regular State of the Union speech, a yearly update on how the country is doing. He appointed federal judges and established basic government services such as banks. As president, he also worked hard to keep the new country out of wars with Native Americans and European nations.

During Washington’s time as president, New York City was the nation’s temporary capital; then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although Washington helped plan a permanent national capital, his presidency ended before the federal government moved to the city later named in his honor: Washington, D.C.

LASTING LEGACY

After serving two back-to-back terms as president, Washington retired to Mount Vernon in 1797. He died two years later on December 14, 1799. Washington, who kept one of the largest populations of enslaved people in the country, arranged in his will for them to be freed by the time of his wife’s death. After his death, he was praised as being "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

• Washington is the only president to have a state named for him. • The first president was so worried about being buried alive, he insisted mourners wait at least three days before burying him. Just in case. • The first president is the only president not to live in the White House.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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The remarkable life of George Washington

For most people who grew up in America, the figure of George Washington needs no introduction. He is the hero who led the American colonies in their successful  war against the British and became the very first president.

However, there is a lot more to his story than this. There was very little evidence in his early life of the great achievements we now associate with him.

Even now, the glorification of Washington’s life often overlooks the contentious choices he made during his lifetime. 

Washington's early life and military career

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

His father was Augustine Washington, and his mother was Augustine’s second wife: Mary Ball Washington.

The family was prosperous and socially prominent. From the age of seven, George was raised on Ferry Farm in Stafford County, Virginia.

His father passed away in 1743, and by the time George was 15, he was doing survey work for prominent Virginia figures like Lord Fairfax.

This brought him into contact with the colonial elite. 

George Washington's military career began in 1752 when he was appointed as the official surveyor for Culpeper County, Virginia, at the age of 20.

Then, in 1753, Governor Robert Dinwiddie appointed him as a major and the official British emissary to the French forces in the Ohio Valley.

He was ordered to deliver a message demanding the French vacate the territory claimed by the British. 

When the Seven Years’ War broke out in 1754, Washington led a small contingent of colonial militia to confront French forces near what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

His actions at the Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, although culminating in a British defeat, demonstrated his keen tactical awareness.

Following this battle, he resigned from his Virginia regiment but was quickly reinstated as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock in 1755.

He notably survived the disastrous Battle of the Monongahela at this time. By 1758, he participated in the successful campaign to capture Fort Duquesne, and after this victory, he resigned from his military duties to return to Mount Vernon.  

Becoming the hero of the American Revolution

However, his retirement was short-lived as he was thrust back into military leadership with the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775.

On June 15, 1775, the Second Continental Congress appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

Washington faced the daunting task of organizing a ragtag group of colonial militias into a coherent fighting force capable of challenging the well-trained British Army.

One of the first tests of his leadership during the Siege of Boston, and the British evacuated the city on March 17, 1776. 

With his revitalized army, Washington led a series of critical battles. His tactical decision to cross the Delaware River on the night of December 25, 1776, and surprise the Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey, was a bold move that reinvigorated the American cause.

This victory was followed by a successful engagement of the subsequent victory at the Battle of Trenton at Princeton. In these campaigns,

Washington's ability to leverage the element of surprise and his intimate knowledge of the terrain proved instrumental. 

However, the British counterattack forced Washington to seek shelter over the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge.

The winter conditions were particularly harsh, and it tested the morale of the American troops under his command.

Amidst freezing conditions and supply shortages, Washington used the time to implement a rigorous training program designed by Baron von Steuben, a Prussian military officer. 

The culminating point of Washington's military leadership came during the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781.

Coordinating with French forces under General Rochambeau, Washington executed a decisive encirclement of British General Cornwallis's troops.

On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis's surrender effectively ended major combat operations of the war and Britain signed a peace treaty.

Washington himself was hailed as the hero of the war: a significant personality whose personal brilliance had brought about the victory. 

How did Washington become president?

After the American Revolution, in 1787, Washington was unanimously elected as the president of the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia.

He immediately sought to revise the failing Articles of Confederation. During the convention, Washington's role was largely ceremonial.

The delegates were able to draft the United States Constitution, which established the federal government with its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

This document also included provisions for amending the government structure. 

In 1789, under the new Constitution, Washington was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States.

During his presidency, he set many precedents, including the establishment of a Cabinet and the policy of serving only two terms.  

Was Washington a good president?

One of Washington’s major achievements was the creation of a national bank, a move spearheaded by his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton.

Formalized through the Bank Bill of 1791, it aimed to stabilize and improve the nation's credit through the management of government revenue and the regulation of currency.

As part of this financial strategy, Hamilton also advocated for the federal government to assume state debts, totaling approximately $21.5 million, to centralize economic control and build federal authority. 

In 1793, following the outbreak of war between Britain and France, Washington declared the United States neutral, refusing to join either side despite the 1778 Franco-American alliance.

This decision reflected his understanding of the precarious position of the United States, which lacked the military and economic strength to engage in European wars. 

In addition, Washington's administration focused on stabilizing relations with both Britain and Spain.

The Jay Treaty, negotiated by John Jay in 1794, aimed to resolve outstanding tensions with Britain.

It successfully averted war, settled boundary disputes, and facilitated ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain.

Following this, the Pinckney Treaty with Spain in 1795 secured navigation rights on the Mississippi River, vital for the economic development of the western territories. 

What did Washington do after he retired?

By the time he left office in 1797, the United States had a strong framework in place that would allow the country to develop and prosper on the world stage.

In his Farewell Address of 1796, Washington set forth his vision for American foreign policy by urging future leaders to maintain commercial but not political ties to other nations.

This stance was aimed at protecting American sovereignty while allowing economic flexibility.  

Washington’s final years were spent at his beloved Mount Vernon estate. He had set a precedent by voluntarily relinquishing power after two terms.

At Mount Vernon, Washington dedicated himself to various agricultural experiments, hoping to improve crop yields and livestock quality.

In addition to these pursuits, he also oversaw the completion of his expansive distillery and gristmill, which by 1799 was one of the largest whiskey producers in America. 

Washington's health began to decline in late 1799. On December 14, 1799, after riding through freezing rain to inspect his properties, he developed a severe throat infection.

Despite the best efforts of several doctors, Washington died on the same day. His death was widely mourned throughout the United States and internationally.  

The dark side of Washington's life

As much as George Washington has been lionized as part of America’s history, there are some problematic parts of his life that are difficult for modern readers to discover.

Firstly, Washington’s foreign policy decisions were not always successful. For example, his administration's enactment of the Jay Treaty with Britain in 1795 was seen as too conciliatory toward a former adversary.

It sparked widespread protests. While the treaty aimed to settle outstanding conflicts, it failed to address the issue of British impressment of American sailors, which was a major point of contention. 

In addition, Washington's approach to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was widely criticized at the time.

This was an uprising by Pennsylvania farmers against a federal excise tax on distilled spirits.

Washington had sent federal troops to suppress the protestors, which was the first time under the new Constitution that the federal government used military force to exert authority over the states.

Critics argued that Washington's response was an overreach of executive power; but supporters saw it as necessary to maintain law and order. 

Probably most controversial of all of Washington's decisions was his ongoing ownership of enslaved people , even through his years as president.

Although he freed his slaves in his will after his death; his decision to wait until then allowed him to benefit from their labor throughout his lifetime.

This contradiction between his role as a leader of a nation founded on principles of freedom and his personal participation in slavery is a complex issue; it underscores the profound inconsistencies in America's early history concerning human rights. 

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George Washington: Impact and Legacy

From the moment Washington announced his retirement, the American people have remembered him as one of the greatest presidents in the nation’s history. The name of the Capitol City, the Washington Monument, his inclusion on Mount Rushmore, and his regular place near the top of presidential polls attests to the strength of his legacy. Indeed, generations of Americans have used Washington’s uniquely popular memory for their own political purposes. Most notably, after the Civil War, northerners and southerners valorized Washington and the founding era as a shared history they could both celebrate.

There is much to honor in Washington’s legacy. He was the only person who could have held the office in 1789. He was the most famous American, the only one with enough of a national platform to represent the entire country and overwhelmingly trusted by the populous. Americans knew they could trust him to wield immense power because he had already done so once during the Revolution and willingly gave it up.

The trust and confidence Washington inspired made possible the creation of the presidency and helped establish the executive branch. Once in office, he cultivated respect for the presidency, regularly exhibited restraint in the face of political provocations, and attempted to serve as a president for all citizens (which admittedly meant white men). He was always mindful of the principles of republican virtue, namely self-sacrifice, decorum, self-improvement, and leadership. Our modern notions that the president should be held to higher standards and the office carries a certain level of respect and prestige began with Washington’s careful creation of the position.

Washington also left an inveterate imprint on the political process, especially through his formation of the cabinet. Every president since Washington has worked with a cabinet, and each president crafts their own decision-making process. They select their closest advisors and determine how they will obtain advice from those individuals. Presidents might choose to consult friends, family members, former colleagues, department secretaries, or congressmen, and the American people and Congress have very little oversight over those relationships. Some presidents, like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, flourish with the flexibility; others, including James Madison and John F. Kennedy, find their administrations undermined by domineering advisors or cabinets. That legacy is a direct result of Washington’s cabinet.

Washington’s decision to step away from power, again, solidified his legacy and had a powerful impact on the future of the presidency. All his successors, until Franklin D. Roosevelt, willingly followed his example of retiring after two terms, and the 22 nd Amendment made sure that no future president can serve more than two terms. More importantly, Washington recognized the structural importance of leaving office willingly. He knew that Americans needed to learn how to elect, transition, and inaugurate a new president. That process was fraught with potential missteps, and Washington concluded that it would go more smoothly if it was planned, rather than haphazardly done after an unexpected death. Washington understood how much of the political process is based on norm and custom, and that those had to start with his example.

For all these achievements, and there are many, recently Washington’s legacy lost a bit of its sparkle as Americans grapple with his personal failures. Of the many political choices in his long career, Washington’s decisions in retirement were perhaps his worst. In 1798, Congress created the Provisional Army as the Quasi-War with France accelerated. President John Adams asked Washington to come out of retirement one more time to lead the army.

Washington reluctantly agreed but extracted two promises. First, he wanted to stay at Mount Vernon until a French invasion. Second, Washington insisted on naming his subordinate officers who would manage the army in his absence. When Adams reluctantly caved, Washington named Alexander Hamilton as his deputy. Hamilton and Adams hated each other, and Washington knew it. By forcing these concessions, Washington undermined the presidency and civilian authority over the army. As Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Washington had studiously upheld Congress’s authority. His failure to make the same choice in his retirement is often overlooked but should be viewed with considerable criticism.

However, Washington’s ownership of enslaved humans is by far the most challenging part of his legacy. To be sure, Washington’s ideas about slavery and the potential for Black emancipation evolved over his lifetime. He did free the enslaved people he owned in his will, which is much more than most people in his generation. This commitment required decades-long planning to leave his estate unencumbered by debt which could only be reduced through the sale of enslaved individuals. And he did so in the face of resistance from other Virginians, including his wife. When the terms of Washington’s will were published, the emancipation of his enslaved community sent ripples through the country. He had issued a forceful statement about the morality of slavery from the grave.

Yet, Washington clearly benefitted from exploiting enslaved people. And by the end of his life, he knew the institution was wrong and could have done more to end it. Washington pursued enslaved people who escaped when he could have left them to their freedom. He could have freed the enslaved people he owned during his lifetime but elected to enjoy the fruits of their labor until his last days. He also chose not to deprive Martha of that care either, which is why the enslaved people he owned were not to be freed until her death.

On a public scale, Washington could have made the terms of his will public before his death or spoken against slavery while he was alive. His words would have had an enormous impact—which is perhaps why he remained silent. Washington worried that if he forced the issue, southern states would secede from the Union. There will be no way to know if he was right or if these concerns were correct. But much of Washington’s lifestyle and personal wealth were dependent on slavery, and that must be considered a part of his legacy.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky

Senior Fellow The Center for Presidential History Southern Methodist University

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Published on: February 16th, 2021

The Top 5 Greatest Speeches of George Washington

While many have come to celebrate the third Monday in February as President’s Day, in reality, this day was originally set apart to celebrate only one president— George Washington. 

According to Dr. Matthew Spalding , Vice President of Washington Operations and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., the tradition of celebrating Washington’s birthday began in 1870 and was written into law in 1968. The language in the law still calls the holiday “Washington’s Birthday” not “President’s Day.” 

Therefore, in honor of George Washington, here are 5 passages from the first president sure to re-inspire awe for American founding principles.

Washington’s Newburgh Address: March 15, 1783

Without George Washington’s indispensable leadership and practical wisdom there would have been no independence, no Constitutional Convention, and no model for a Constitutional executive. As Dr. Spalding explains , Washington was pivotal to every stage of the American founding. 

Take for instance Washington’s leadership during the Revolutionary War. For eight years he led the Continental Army through treacherous conditions, with few supplies against the greatest army in the world. No one else could have held such a ragtag army together for so long. 

Several months before the end of the Revolutionary War many officers in the Continental Army were frustrated with Congress’ delay in providing back pay and reimbursements to the army. Some officers developed a plot to use the military in order to force Congress to provide the money. Some politicians backed the plan and Alexander Hamilton even suggested to Washington that he lead the charge.

Washington flatly refused and instead called his officers together in Newburgh, New York. There he gave a nine-page speech where he sympathized with the officers’ concerns, but roundly condemned their methods. He stated :

“While I give you these assurances, and pledge myself in the most unequivocal manner, to exert whatever ability I am possessed of, in your favor—let me entreat you, Gentlemen, on your part, not to take any measures, which, viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity, & sully the glory you have hitherto maintained—let me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your Country, and place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress… And let me conjure you, in the name of our common Country--as you value your own sacred honor—as you respect the rights of humanity, & as you regard the Military & national character of America, to express your utmost horror & detestation of the Man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our Country, & who wickedly attempts to open the flood Gates of Civil discord, & deluge our rising Empire in Blood.”

To conclude Washington read a letter from Congress to the officers, but before doing so he drew out of his pocket a pair of glasses that he had never before worn in public. He said, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but almost blind, in the service of my country." Several of the officers were so ashamed of their actions that they were reduced to tears. The conspiracy died that night. 

Washington’s Inaugural Address: April 30, 1789

It is because of Washington’s influence that so many of the day’s esteemed statesmen were willing to meet in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. It was also his influence that kept the Convention civil despite the presence of many strong personalities, hot tempers, and contentious issues.

As President of the Convention, Washington did not say much during the debates, but his influence was heavily felt behind the scenes. As James Monroe once said to Thomas Jefferson, "his influence carried this government."

Though primarily a man of action, Washington was also a man of word and deep thought. In fact, Hillsdale in DC recently acquired Washington’s full set of writing, speeches, and correspondence. The collection is massive— taking up several bookcases. Reading through Washington’s writings elucidates his commitment to establishing a self-governing constitutional republic.  

Washington shared his vision for the nation in his First Inaugural Address . This address describes a view of liberty that is undergirded by the natural law. In Washington’s view, freedom is always linked with duty, and liberty is always linked with order. Washington said, 

“I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my Country can inspire: since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity: Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained: And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

George Washington’s First State of the Union: January 8, 1790

According to Dr. Spalding, George Washington was governed by “immutable principles of private morality” or what has come to be known as character. Washington believed that character had implications for politics, especially in a Republican government. 

In his chapter of Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition , Dr. Spalding writes, “Just as the individual government of the self requires rules and good habits of behavior, so popular self-government requires laws and good habits of citizenship. Washington set out to create a nation of both.”

Washington often spoke and wrote about the importance of education and knowledge in character formation. In his first address to Congress in 1790 Washington drew out this connection between education and morality. Washington stated :

"Nor am I less persuaded, that you will agree with me in opinion, that there is nothing, which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of Science and Literature. Knowledge is in every Country the surest basis of public happiness. In one, in which the measures of Government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the Community as in ours, it is proportionally essential.  To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those, who are entrusted with the public administration, that every valuable end of Government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people: And by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of Society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy, but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws."

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation: October 3, 1789

In Alexander Hamilton’s first Federalist Paper he remarked that it has been left to the United States to determine whether societies of men are capable of establishing government by reflection and choice, or whether men must rely on accident and force. Washington seems to give an answer to this question in his Thanksgiving proclamation when he states that God himself gave the United States the opportunity to establish their own form of government. He said, 

“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

After thanking God for the chance to form their own government, Washington then thanked God for directing the Founders to establish a constitutional government that protected civil and religious liberty. The trick it seems isn’t just being able to form a government, but being able to form a good government. 

“That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.”

Washington’s Farewell Address: September 19, 1796

Washington was an ambitious man, but his character and desire to see a lasting Constitutional republic caused him to do something almost no other ruler has ever done before — give up power. Not only did Washington refuse kingship twice and resign his military commission at the end of the war, but he also retired from office after only two terms as president.

It is because of Washington’s example that America has had more than 200 years of the peaceful transfer of power — the jewel of our republic. 

Dr. Spalding argues that Washington’s Farewell Address ranks with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution among the greatest documents of the American Founding. The Address is still so highly revered that the Senate maintains a tradition to this day of reading it out loud annually on or near Washington's birthday.

Though much of the Address focuses on foreign affairs it also offers important advice about the character of the American political system. 

In the address Washington warns America to guard the Constitution because it is the Constitution that limits government and defends rights and liberties. He also warns the people to guard against political passions and partisanship. Lastly, Washington encourages public virtue and points to religion and morality as its source. 

Perhaps most powerful in the Address is Washington’s endorsement of our great experiment and his exhortation to cling to unity and the Constitution. He wrote: 

“To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable...Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns.  This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty.  The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.”

Just as Washington’s legacy cannot be overstated, neither can the importance of his example for our country today. After decades of being led by self-serving politicians, the American people could use a reminder of what true statesmanship looks like.

Washington’s life and legacy serve to remind America of what the human mind and the human will are capable of. Washington won an impossible war and conducted an impossible experiment — all to form a self-governing nation. The best way we can honor his legacy is to once again become a nation worthy of self-government and liberty.

About Hillsdale in D.C.

Hillsdale in D.C. is an extension of the teaching mission of Hillsdale College to Washington, D.C. Its purpose is to teach the Constitution and the principles that give it meaning. Through the study of original source documents from American history—and of older books that formed the education of America’s founders—it seeks to inspire students, teachers, citizens, and policymakers to return the America’s principles to their central place in the political life of the nation.

About Hillsdale College

Hillsdale College is an independent liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis , with a circulation of more than 5.7 million. For more information, visit hillsdale.edu .

91 George Washington Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best george washington topic ideas & essay examples, 🎓 simple & easy george washington essay titles, 📌 most interesting george washington topics to write about, ❓ questions about george washington.

• George Washington and Abraham Lincoln: Similarities and Differences George Washington and Abraham Lincoln appear to be the most prominent personalities in the entire history of the United States. Considering the fact that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln lived in different historical periods, it […]
• “Farewell Address” by George Washington The significant aspect of the president’s speech was the value of unity, loyalty to party over the nation, and the danger of foreign entanglements.
• The Life of George Washington Truett Due to the strong conviction of the church leadership and its congregation, he was persuaded to become a minister in 1890.
• George Washington’s Achievements and Farewell Address Washington was a successful leader because he promoted democracy, led the country through the revolutionary war, and achieved most of the goals which he had promised the people.
• Washington’s Farewell Speech Analysis With the help of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Washington composed a letter in Philadelphia in what later became described as the “Farewell Address”.
• George Washington’s Farewell Address He considered the most important element of the success of the state and society to be the preservation and promotion of peaceful coexistence with all forces.
• George Washington’s and John Adams’s Policies George Washington is the first popularly elected President of the United States of America, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, a participant in the War of Independence, and the founder of the American institution of the […]
• Madonna Enthroned and Washington Crossing the Delaware: Art Analysis However, artists during the Renaissance sought a rebirth, and this aspect explains Giotto’s attempt to incorporate elements of humanism in this painting by portraying the Virgin as a queen.
• Colonialism Questions: George Washington and Monroe Declaration He believed that the US was in danger if it would entangle itself in the foreign affairs of other nations particularly those from Europe. The convention of 1800 saw an end to all the treaties […]
• George Washington: The First President of the Great Free Country He was recognized not only as the commander in chief but also as one of the leaders who assisted in crafting the new constitution.
• Americans, Here Me Now: G. Washington’s Farewell He explained the different advantages to each region of the United States and understood that the only way to align a complete nation was for these regions to recognize each others’ contribution to the whole.
• The Death of George Washington He is considered to be one of the most prominent politicians in the history of the United States. The twentieth century was marked with increased attention to the death of George Washington.
• The Heroic Deeds of George Washington This presentation explores the heroic deeds of George Washington. The most admired qualities of George Washington include courage, confidence, and statesmanship.
• George Washington: Leader in the United States In this regard, the founders of the American nation were simply hypocrites who never had the interests of the poor and Africans at heart.
• George Washington’s Leadership Style and Character From an in-depth analysis of his presidency and leadership the three events, it is worth noting that Washington was a visionary leader and a skilful individual whose patriotism, courage and dedication to the people and […]
• George Washington: Servant Leadership and Communication To him, the Americans were the master in this new country, and they had the power of choosing the person they wanted to serve them as their president.
• Napoleon’s Siege of Toulon and Washington’s Siege of Boston General Jean Francois Carteaux led the first phase of the siege with the assistance of the “Carmagnoles” army troops. On the other hand, General Jean Francois Cornu de La Poype led the Alpine Maritime Army […]
• Washington, Jefferson and Parker’ Role in the US History As one of the founding fathers of the US and the third president of the post independence America, Thomas Jefferson is attributed with several achievements which permanently changed the history of the US in a […]
• General George Washington. Life of the Commander in Chief Ever strategic, Washington was quick to support fellow commanders of the American troops as seen in some of his letters to Major General Greene and other George Washington’s leadership skills came to the fore once […]
• Washington’s Farewell Address: The Importance of Unity to the American People On top of that, Washington underscores the importance of education in development of a nation. Though he is leaving office, Washington wants Americans to know that they are moving in the good direction.
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Collection George Washington Papers

The worlds of washington.

Despite ongoing links with the great outside world, Washington felt happiest within his neighborhood, bounded on the south by the James River and on the north by the Potomac.

As he rode about Mount Vernon on his daily inspection trips, Washington could turn his eyes frequently to the shipping traffic on the Potomac, his principal link with the great outside world. Vessels with such names as the Fair American , the Betsy , and the Charming Polly plied the river, some trading with the ports of Virginia and Maryland and some bound for far more distant anchorages in North America, the West Indies, or Europe. Most of the schooners, brigs, and ships that Washington watched come upriver were bound for Alexandria's docks and warehouses, and often their cargoes included goods for him: fine clothing and fabrics, bridles and saddles, books and surveying instruments, tools and nails, delicate chinaware and jewelry, fruits and spices, and great wines from France and the Madeiras. Outward bound, they carried the tobacco--and in later years the wheat or flour--that were sent to pay for his imports.

Now and then his commercial representatives in London, Robert Cary & Co., would err and place his shipment aboard a vessel bound for another Virginia river, such as the Rappahannock, and he must endure not only the inconvenience of further transportation but also the risk of loss. On one occasion he warned the Cary company never to ship by any vessel not bound for the Potomac, for when a recent cargo via the Rappahannock finally reached him, he found "The Porter entirely Drank out" ( 10 Aug. 1760, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress ).

Moving along the growing network of roads that ran from New England to Georgia were more goods and the all-important packets of letters and newspapers that kept Washington in touch with an expanding nation in a restless world. Besides the English journals that came to him, he regularly read American newspapers and periodicals from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Williamsburg.

There was little isolation from the world at any time during his life. His diary for 1751-52 relates a voyage to Barbados when he was nineteen, with his dying half brother Lawrence. The next two accounts concern the early phases of the French and Indian War, the momentous struggle for control of the North American continent in which he commanded a Virginia regiment. By the 1760s, when Washington's diaries resume, young George III was on the British throne, and the American colonists were beginning to feel an ominous sense of discontent that during the 1770s grew into rebellion and placed Washington in command of a revolutionary army.

After the War of Independence, Washington never again fought on a field of battle, but military matters and political affairs of national and international import continued to engage his attention. In 1787 he journeyed to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention, which he chaired. During his two terms as president of the new nation there were no wars, but serious diplomatic problems arose with Great Britain, France, and Spain in 1793 and 1794. Even in retirement near the end of his life, Washington could not escape the turmoil among nations. When in 1798 relations with France deteriorated to the point that a sea war was developing, old General Washington was placed at the head of a nominal land force that never took the field.

In such a world, Washington felt happiest within a much smaller region bounded on the south by the James River and on the north by the Potomac. This was his neighborhood, somewhat extended, a world of very different responsibilities and pleasures that is best revealed in his diaries.

At the heart of this world lay Mount Vernon, the Potomac River plantation that Washington's father Augustine had established in the 1730s on an old family patent and which his half brother Lawrence had inherited and built up before his death in 1752. It was to Mount Vernon that young Colonel Washington came when, in 1758, his involvement in the French and Indian War was finished, for the plantation was now his home, Lawrence's widow having leased it to him four years earlier. It would become permanently his by right of inheritance when she died in 1761. In the meantime, Washington settled at Mount Vernon, thinking that his military career had ended forever. He was prepared for country living, a bit of politics, and plenty of riding to the hounds. The good life truly began for him in January 1759 with his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis, a sensible young widow with a handsome dowry and two small children nicknamed Patsy and Jacky.

Washington was passionately devoted to Mount Vernon, eagerly extending its borders during the next three decades with numerous purchases of surrounding lands and striving constantly to improve its buildings, fields, and furnishings. But he did not neglect his immediate neighbors in Fairfax County nor did they disregard him. He became a vestryman of the local parish, a magistrate of the county court, a trustee of Alexandria, and one of Fairfax's two burgesses in Virginia's legislature, a position that he held from 1765 to 1775. In the course of carrying out the duties of those offices and of conducting the daily business of his plantation, he came to know well a host of local merchants, craftsmen, farmers, and planters. One of the most notable was George Mason of Gunston Hall, with whom Washington traded horticultural specimens and with whom he sometimes disagreed politically.

But Washington's closest ties, both of friendship and personal interest, were with the Fairfax family, members of the British aristocracy, whose principal American seat was at Belvoir only a few miles down the Potomac from Mount Vernon. There until 1773 lived George William Fairfax, member of the governor's Council and collector of customs for the south Potomac Naval District. His influence was derived from his father's cousin, Thomas Fairfax, sixth Baron Fairfax of Cameron, proprietor of all the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers from their mouths to their headwaters, the area that was known as the North Neck of Virginia in Washington's time. Lord Fairfax had the exclusive power to grant lands in the Northern Neck and the right to collect annual quitrents of two shillings per one hundred acres on lands the he granted, privileges that he retained until the Revolution.

The proprietor's home was a hunting lodge called Greenway Court, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Frederick County. It too was an area that Washington knew well, for as a youth he surveyed dozen's of Lord Fairfax's grants in the Shenandoah Valley and the valleys beyond. He himself acquired lands along Bullskin Run, a tributary of the Shenandoah River, lands which he retained until his death. During the French and Indian War he was charged for a while with the defense of this region, and for seven years before he was elected a burgess from Fairfax, the freeholders of Frederick sent him to Williamsburg as one of their representatives. In the 1770s and 1780s two of Washington's three younger brothers, Samuel and Charles, also found opportunities west of the Blue Ridge, settling on lands of their own within a few miles of Bullskin.

At the other end of the Northern Neck, south and east of Mount Vernon, lay another part of Washington's extended neighborhood, a region of concern to him mainly because of family ties. Westmoreland County, stretching for about forty miles along the Potomac, was the first home of the Washington family in the New World. There lived Washington's half brother Augustine and his favorite younger brother, Jack, and it was there, on the bank of Pope's Creek, that Washington was born. Farther up the Potomac, about halfway between Westmoreland County and Mount Vernon, was the Chotank area, part of Stafford County until 1776 and then of King George County. In that locality lived a number of Washingtons: brother Sam until 1770, and many distant cousins, some of whom Washington had known from his childhood. Several miles west of Chotank, at Fredericksburg on the south bank of the Rappahannock, was the home of Fielding Lewis, husband of Washington's sister Betty, and before 1780, the home of brother Charles. Across the river from Fredericksburg was the Ferry Farm, where Washington lived as a boy and where his mother, Mary Ball Washington, resided until old age obliged her in 1771 to retire to a house in the town, there to spend the last eighteen years of her life.

At the southern extremity of Washington's extended neighborhood was the provincial capital of Williamsburg and near it, on the York and Pamunkey rivers, were the principal lands of the Custis family and the homes of their relations, the Dandridges and the Bassetts. For Washington this was an area to which he came to fulfill his duties as a burgess, to settle accounts with merchants, and to see that the affairs of his Custis stepchildren were properly managed. But it was also the place in which he attended the theater and balls, dined with men of note, and began to move into the role of an American leader, which eventually took him away from his beloved neighborhood again. Indeed, the network of interconnecting regions between the Potomac and the James that made up that neighborhood helped to develop in Washington that broad feeling of kinship and responsibility for men of differing experience and outlook which enabled him to enter the larger world beyond with ease.

But seldom was his home on the Potomac far from his thoughts, and never did he fail to return there when he could, for it was at Mount Vernon that all his worlds came together. From both inside and outside his extended neighborhood came a galaxy of people from all walks of life to visit him. Some were friends and relatives who came for a holiday, to play cards, to ride to the hounds, or to shoot ducks. Others came on business, to discuss politics and land transactions, to deal in wheat, flour, fish, and other commodities, to bring their mares for breeding, to call at his mill and, in the last years, at his distillery, or sometimes just to ask for help in solving their problems.

After the Revolution he wrote his mother, who had suggested that she might wish to move to Mount Vernon, that "in truth it may be compared to a well resorted tavern, as scarcely any strangers who are going from north to south, or from south to north, do not spend a day or two at it. . . . What with the sitting up of Company; the noise and bustle of servants, and many other things you would not be able to enjoy that calmness and serenity of mind, which... you ought now to prefer" ( 15 Feb. 1787, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress ).

With this endless flow of friends, neighbors, and the idly curious coming to his home, Washington must have thought it an unusual day indeed when on 30 June 1785 , at a time when he truly believed that he was done with service to his country, he wrote in his diary that he "dined with only Mrs. Washington which I believe is the first instance of it since my retirement from public life."

Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — George Washington — The Importance Of George Washington For America

The Importance of George Washington for America

• Categories: George Washington

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Words: 1393 |

Published: Jan 29, 2019

Words: 1393 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Works Cited

• Chernow, R. (2010). Washington: A life. Penguin.
• Ellis, J. J. (2004). His Excellency: George Washington. Vintage.
• Ferling, J. E. (2010). The ascent of George Washington: The hidden political genius of an American icon. Bloomsbury Press.
• Flexner, J. T. (1984). Washington: The indispensable man. Little, Brown.
• Fischer, D. H. (2004). Washington's crossing. Oxford University Press.
• Freeman, D. S. (1999). George Washington: A biography (Vol. 1-7). Simon and Schuster.
• Grizzard Jr, F. E. (2002). George Washington: A biographical companion. ABC-CLIO.
• Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. (2022). George Washington's Mount Vernon. https://www.mountvernon.org/
• National Park Service. (2022). George Washington Birthplace National Monument. https://www.nps.gov/gewa/index.htm
• The Papers of George Washington. (2022). University of Virginia. https://gwpapers.virginia.edu/

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5 George Washington University Essay Examples by Accepted Students

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Essay example #1 – journalism, essay example #2 – letter to the author, essay example #3 – honors at gw, essay example #4 – changing the world, essay example #5 – civil discourse.

• Where to Get Your Essays Edited

George Washington University is a private research university best known for its programs in international affairs, government, public policy, and journalism. Situated in the heart of Washington D.C., GW students have an incredible opportunity to gain first-hand experience in the nation’s capital.

Because of it’s great location and academics, GW has become increasingly competitive so you’ll need a strong essays  to stand out. In this post, we will share five essays real students have submitted to GW, as well as explain what each essay did well and were they could be improved. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).

Read our George Washington University essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Prompt: Journalism and Mass Communication major: Write a profile of yourself in news or news feature style, as if you had interviewed yourself (500 words).

Mira Patel sat at her desk, her finger tapping on the side of a water glass as she welcomed me into the Zoom meeting. “It’s been a busy few months, but I’m excited to talk about it,” she said, heaving a nervous but excited breath.

Patel, age 17, has been serving as the Co-Editor-In-Chief of [name removed] High School’s student-run newspaper, the View, for the past year. She, along with her two fellow Co-Editor-In-Chiefs, have re-evaluated the newspaper to fit a socially-distant setting. Despite the stress of finding a way to amplify the voices of [high school]’s  student body in 2020, Patel’s tone sparks as she discusses the team’s progress thus far.

“There’ve been a lot of bumps in the road. [High School] initially cut our Journalism class this year due to budget concerns so we had to find a way to connect those that were interested in forming a club,” she added, her intonation highlighting her enthusiasm.

“But we did it, and our first issue will be out in time for the Holidays!”

Patel detailed the intricate planning that went behind the issue, as she helped garner interest and developed a platform for the student body to share their voices digitally. 2020, in her words, has been a year “paramount for developing young voices” in the wake of the pandemic, monumental social justice movements, and the direct impact of wildfires exacerbated by climate change in her home state Oregon. 

When asked how she initially developed a passion for communication and media, Patel pondered and continued to recount the experience that sparked her “infatuation” with forms of media.

“In the summer before my sophomore year, I was selected for an internship at AASPIRE, the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education,” she said.

Her experience consisted not only of technical strides in data analysis and visualization but also in developing creative solutions to communicate with her diverse team at the Regional Research Institute for Human Services at Portland State University. She described how many in her department, including her mentor, had disabilities like autism and ADHD. As she realized that these differences were not a hindrance but rather an opportunity to empathize and expand her viewpoint, she recognized how crucial communication was in developing perspectives. 

“It took off after AASPIRE,” Patel stated regarding her interest in media. As a young Indian-American activist, she actively sought opportunities in media, finding a “home for [her] voice” at [name removed] community radio, a grassroots radio initiative in Portland. 

“[Community radio] gives leverage to the voices of the marginalized—we focus on building communal mobilization around social issues through communication.”

Patel specializes in social media strategy and outreach at [community radio], an experience which she states strengthened her leadership and interest in media and policy by providing opportunities to network with “skilled communicators and changemakers”.

As a driven young communicator and changemaker, Patel uses her platform at The View and [community radio] to leverage the stories that often go unheard.

“That’s what motivates me for the future,” Patel states. 

What the Essay Did Well

For a journalism prompt, the key to this essay is the structure and writing style, and this essay did a fantastic job mimicking the style of a journalistic expose. Phrases like “ Patel, age 17, ” “ she added, her intonation highlighting her enthusiasm, ” and “ in her words ” make the essay feel like an authentic interview. Writing in third-person might feel unnatural, but in this case it works perfectly in creating the desired feel.

This student also took advantage of the open-ended prompt to truly showcase multiple aspects of her personality. We learn about her work at the newspaper her research internship at AASPRIE , and the community radio she was a part of. Although focusing on multiple extracurriculars in one essay can sometimes become too general and overcrowded, this one is successful because of the common theme of media and communication the student incorporated in each paragraph.

The transitions in this essay are particularly strong because they focus on her interest in media. For example, “ When asked how she initially developed a passion for communication and media, Patel pondered and continued to recount the experience that sparked her “infatuation” with forms of media ” bridges the gap between the paper and her experiences at AASPRIE. Similarly, the transition between AASPIRE and the radio is communicated nicely with these sentences: “ ‘It took off after AASPIRE,’ Patel stated regarding her interest in media. As a young Indian-American activist, she actively sought opportunities in media. “

What Could Be Improved 

This essay is already fairly strong, however one way to make it even better would be to include more descriptions of the student as she’s being interviewed. The essay starts off with imagery like “ her finger tapping on the side of a water glass ” to communicate possible anxiety before the interview and it describes her intonation and expressive voice to help place the reader in the moment. As the essay goes on though, these descriptions get lost.

It would be nice to see this student continue describing her physical and vocal features throughout the essay so the reader can feel like they are there witnessing the interview. Details like “ her eyes lit up at the memory ” or “ her face broke out into a toothy grin when asked about her experience ” would have made the essay even more engaging if they were weaved through the piece.

Prompt: Write a letter to the author of a book you loved (300 words).

Dear Ms. Picoult,

I placed a hold on Small Great Things two months before I received it— it was 2016, the book had just come out, and I was in eighth-grade, enveloped in my adamant reading phase. This was my time of self-discovery, when I took heed to expand my knowledge through books. Your book was prime in my development. 

Small Great Things was the first book that I read of yours; the storytelling structure thus caught me by surprise, pulling me through the internal dialogue and context of each character. An empathetic tribute to race in present-day America, you tackled complex multiple racial perspectives of primary characters through an overarching storyline. Small Great Things is groundbreaking in this regard— you wrote on a foundation of empathy, putting each reader through the story of each character. 

I glimpsed the agony Ruth felt as she navigated a racism-based lawsuit; I witnessed Turk’s frustration as a childhood experience metamorphosed into white supremacist belief; I saw transitions Kennedy underwent as she recognized the width of structural racism. As you put me in the shoes of each character, I understood how these experiences manifested their perspective in the overriding plot. Your intelligent story structure let me notice how each character, no matter how they present, has haphazard ideological wavelengths that curate their viewpoint.

Small Great Things is a piece of art—as an eighth-grader, it stimulated my mind intellectually and beckoned me to apply this empathetic mindset to my daily endeavors. I began to delve into stories of all forms, curating my passion for media and drawing me to participate in research and communication internships, ranging from. Thank you for developing my soul multidimensionally and for helping me understand that every person has a story worth telling.

Sincerely, 

This is a beautifully written essay that is quite successful for multiple reasons. First, the student didn’t pick a mainstream author like Shakespeare or Colleen Hoover. They chose someone the reader might not necessarily know, but that author has a deep significance to them. Because this student picked their author intentionally, half the work was done for them: the essay comes across as genuine and their enthusiasm for the book jumps off the page. 

Another positive aspect is how this student explains the general gist of the book they found so influential. Yes, it doesn’t totally make sense to tell an author the plot of their story, but if you are picking a less well-known book, the admissions officers need to get a feel for what the novel is about. The line, “ An empathetic tribute to race in present-day America, you tackled complex multiple racial perspectives of primary characters through an overarching storyline ,” is a succinct summary that helps the reader of the essay immediately gain an appreciation for the book.

However, the student doesn’t just stop at the one-liner summary. They give tangible examples from the book to exemplify the topics this book exposed them to and the impact that has had on them. This is both a great way to demonstrate how the author moved you (if you actually wrote a letter to the author) and your intellectual maturity to grasp the significance of smaller details.

The conclusion is also well done because it expands beyond the book to the student. Including details about their passion for media and their internships in the communication field once again demonstrates this student’s connection to the book, but goes further to show how they have internalized story telling and it has become a part of their personality. 

On the whole, this essay does a great job covering both the author and the student. That being said, there’s one small error that takes away from the essay. In the last paragraph, there is an incomplete sentence: “ drawing me to participate in research and communication internships, ranging from.”  For such a well-written and well-communicated essay, this mistake is hard to ignore and looks a little sloppy.

This could have easily been avoided if the student had other people read over their essay before submitting. Whether that’s a friend, parent, teacher, or college advisor , getting an extra pair of eyes to catch little slip ups like this one is super important. Alternatively, this student could have just cut out “ ranging from ” as it wasn’t really necessary to tell us the exact internships after already mentioning the communication field. Either way, proofreading can never hurt!

Prompt: As you think about your four-year experience at The George Washington University, how do you see the University Honors Program shaping your time with us and what most excites you about joining the UHP? (300 words).

The George Washington University Honors Program is a community filled with talented individuals, each working to succeed individually and collectively. With a smaller crop of diverse students, the camaraderie embodied in the UHP excites me; I value peers who are driven and empathetic.

The UHP seeks to attract “intellectual omnivores”, a label I strongly identify with. I find myself fascinated by nuances in nearly every subject I have explored—the UHP’s strong liberal foundation will satiate my multidisciplinary interests. I am intrigued by the social structures that govern belief systems, the policy that allows society to function, and the environmental processes that let life thrive. Thus, I have developed a primary passion for media studies and environmental policy; I hope to grow and narrow my foundational interests into a comprehensive educational experience. UHP’s emphasis on intellectual and academic stimulation suits my interest in discussion-based, tactical, and experiential learning.

The top-tier faculty and research opportunities at the UHP will help me grow my practical knowledge. With research grants such as SURE open to honors students, I will hone my interdisciplinary skills into a tangible, impactful experience. I plan on taking advantage of the myriad of opportunities the UHP offers. The research skills I have cultivated through my internships, alongside my skills in leadership, teamwork, and strategic communication will help make the best of my UHP experience.

The UHP will satisfy my curiosity by helping me explore the multiple fields in which I am interested. It will develop my primary interest in media and policy while growing my networks socially and academically. These cultivated skills and global perspectives will let me leverage professional opportunities in media positions in change-making environments, from digital-media companies to NGOs. The UHP will challenge me personally and academically, helping me grow as a learner, innovator, and changemaker.

This is a nicely written essay with a good structure. Every paragraph is focused and it is easy to follow along and pick up key ideas. The student also has a good grasp of their diction, making the essay sound professional, but not out of place in a high schooler’s vocabulary.

We are given a nice background to why the student has chosen their area of study: “ I am intrigued by the social structures that govern belief systems, the policy that allows society to function, and the environmental processes that let life thrive. ” The student also clearly demonstrates what they will get out of this program: “ These cultivated skills and global perspectives will let me leverage professional opportunities in media positions in change-making environments, from digital-media companies to NGOs. “

The biggest problem with this essay is the lack of specificity. Although the student nicely explains their interests and how they want to grow, you could pretty much replace UHP with any other  honors program and the essay would still work. 

In order for this essay to demonstrate to admissions officers that this student actually wants to attend GW, they need to include specific details like classes, clubs, or professors and research opportunities that are unique to the UHP. Rather than telling us “ UHP’s emphasis on intellectual and academic stimulation suits my interest in discussion-based, tactical, and experiential learning,”  they should describe their excitement at taking a class that takes students to Capitol Hill to get hands-on experience with environmental policy.

Applying this strategy to every sentence—replacing broad generalized statements with specific UHP offerings—would make this essay much stronger.

Prompt: At the George Washington University, our students frequently interact with policymakers and world leaders. These experiences and those of our alumni can shape the future of global affairs. If you had the power to change the course of history in your community or the world, what would you do and why? (250 words).

As I stood in a crowd of echoing voices at the Oregon Youth Climate strike, I observed. Our collective grounded me; our young perspectives were crucial as those affected generationally by the impending climate crisis. 

In my community, I would change the course of history in the realm of intersectional environmentalism—I would integrate my experience in sustainability and communication to help inform diverse subsets of individuals. Surpassing communication across boundaries would build a coalition of informed and empathetic environmental communicators. 

I have been fortunate to integrate climate-consciousness in my lifestyle from a young age. When purchasing food and clothing, documentaries I was raised on such as “Food Inc.” and “The True Cost” informed my choices; when the 2020 west-coast wildfires left the atmosphere smoky outside my home, I acknowledged the expansive history behind these increasingly frequent ecological crises. As I grew to see that resources needed to implement sustainable lifestyles and make environmental connections are inaccessible to many, I placed importance on intersectional environmentalism. 

With a communication movement in this field, we would inform those with a lack of accessibility of equitable ways to integrate sustainability into their routines, while advocating for their rights as those disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. We would learn from those with novel cultural experiences, such as indigenous techniques of prescribed burns for wildfire mitigation. 

With this movement, sustainability would be both an individual and communal effort, informing representative policy while pervading implementable sustainable lifestyle changes, together leading to an equitable climate justice initiative.

This essay has a unique take on this version of the common “global issues” prompt , which works quite well because of how well it relates to this student and their interests. Rather than focusing on a historical moment, they chose to take a future-looking approach and explain how they plan to change the course of history moving forward. Demonstrating your ability to look to the future is an important skill in college essays, as it shows you are thinking about making positive change.

The student also does a good job of connecting the topic to them with concrete examples. Sharing the specific documentaries that influenced them when “ purchasing food and clothing ” and the “smokey atmosphere outside [their] home” as a personal connection to the wildfires are great ways to demonstrate how environmentalism is at the forefront of this student’s mind. By including these small details the student humanizes themself and legitimizes their interest.

In general, this essay is very focused and cohesive. It serves as a good example of how you should dive deeply into one specific topic you are passionate about—environmental inter sectionalism in this case—and fully expand on that interest, rather than trying to tackle too much at once. Anyone walking away from this essay can say with confidence what this student’s niche is, a goal you should always try to hit for each essay.

One thing this essay struggles with is the tone and diction. The use of overly-formal words makes the essay feel rigid and pedantic rather than natural and casual. Take the first paragraph for example:

“ As I stood in a crowd of echoing voices at the Oregon Youth Climate strike, I observed. Our collective grounded me; our young perspectives were crucial as those affected generationally by the impending climate crisis. “

With the convoluted sentences structure and phrases like “O ur collective grounded me “, the simple message of the paragraph gets lost in a web of words. This could instead be far more straightforward, demonstrate the student’s authentic voice, and include more active imagery in an introduction like this:

“ The echo of thousands of voices demanding climate justice rippled through the air. ‘No more fossil fuels!’ ‘We deserve a future!’ ‘Climate justice for all!’ The cacophony of chants blended into a beautiful chorus of young voices fighting for our future. I watched on in awe, amazed at the possibilities collective action could bring. “

Prompt: The George Washington University encourages students to think critically and to challenge the status quo. Thus, civil discourse is a key characteristic of our community. Describe a time when you engaged others in meaningful dialogue around an issue that was important to you. Did this exchange create change, new perspectives, or deeper relationships? (500 words)

This past summer, I engaged in contentious yet civil discussions in Brown Pre-College’s “Contemporary Moral Issues” course, where I learned about five salient topics and exchanged insight with peers. 

We discussed vegetarianism on the first day, specifically the ethics of killing animals for food. While I had not previously held a strong standpoint on whether this practice is morally permissible, our lecture and small group discussion centered on Tyler Doggett’s argument outlined in “Moral Vegetarianism” elicited a further understanding of the topic, and encouraged me to more deeply introspect. I quickly gained an eager curiosity; as someone who consumes meat, am I truly equipped to share from experience? I felt like animal slaughter for food is unethical, but does my position, as an omnivore, enable me to justifiably contribute in conversations?

During a conversation with a peer, my beliefs were challenged, yet strengthened. This student believed that killing pigs for food is morally permissible, and they contested one of Doggett’s claims, that “humans are smarter than pigs,” to support their argument. I struggled to resonate with their rationale, as my perspective on such ethics, and the context of my understanding, differed greatly from the experiences that informed my peer’s belief. This specific notion of permissibility felt too disparate from my general ethical comprehension, and with a more explicit understanding of the opposing argument, I discerned that my perspective on this issue would not waver. 

Although I did not agree with this student’s argument, I listened actively and expressed how I appreciated their perspective; the student demonstrated what “the other side” of this argument looks like, and helped inform my comprehensive understanding of vegetarian ethics. I acknowledged, nonverbally, that this student and I did not share backgrounds, and their perspective was shaped from unique lived experiences just as mine had been. We continued with healthy conversation, exchanging our viewpoints with an eagerness to learn, and concluded on a symbiotic footing.

Some prompts are open-ended, while others ask you to be more specific. This prompt falls into the latter category, by asking students to write on the specific topic of civic discourse — defined as meaningful dialogue around an issue that creates change, new perspectives, or deeper relationships. 

This student does a great job of staying on topic and discussing only civic discourse. They do not get distracted by community service, leadership experience, or anything that falls outside of the prompt. They are focused.

Additionally, they answer the question. While you should fill up your word count with personal details, insights into your mind, and a description of your values, when a prompt is highly specific like this, it’s important that the reader can easily identify your answer. For this kind of prompt, we recommend students use the “one-sentence test.” After reading your essay, could an admissions officer summarize your answer to one of their colleagues in just one sentence?

Let’s try it out.

Prompt: What were the effects of the student’s experience with civic discourse?

One sentence: Civic discourse did not change their perspective, but helped reinforce the strength of their beliefs.

This student passed the one-sentence test!

The goal of your college essays is to humanize yourself to admissions officers. While this student does a good job of describing their experience discussing a contentious topic with a peer, that description stays relatively surface-level, and as a result they miss an opportunity to tell readers about their background, personality, values, and the way they see the world. 

Yes, the prompt asks what experiences you have with civic discourse, but if you read between the lines, what admissions officers really want to know is why you value civic discourse . Instead of leading with a factual sentence — “I engaged in contentious yet civil discussions in Brown Pre-College’s ‘Contemporary Moral Issues’ course, where I learned about five salient topics and exchanged insight with peers” — this student should have started with a story about why they were drawn to taking this course on moral issues in the first place.

Similarly, the student writes “our lecture and small group discussion centered on Tyler Doggett’s argument outlined in ‘Moral Vegetarianism’ elicited a further understanding of the topic, and encouraged me to more deeply introspect” — which is a ‘what’ sentence. In other words, the student is just telling us what happened, and while that is important, what matters even more is answering why reading arguments, having conversations, and practicing introspection are important to them.

The student does try to give us a window into their mind when they list questions this experience prompted them to wonder — “am I truly equipped to share from experience? I felt like animal slaughter for food is unethical, but does my position, as an omnivore, enable me to justifiably contribute in conversations?” — but ultimately fall short of their goal as they fail to actually reflect on these questions, and that reflection is what would give us true insight into their psychology. Simply put, these are obvious questions that anyone would wonder about — what will set you apart is your answers to them. 

So, to summarize, we need to learn more about the student. As an added bonus, if the student were to incorporate deeper personal reflections, that would not only teach us more about them, but also take better advantage of the space given to them. 500 words is on the long side for a supplement, but this student is only using 319 of them — almost 40% of the words are going unused! 

Remember, while you don’t have to hit the word limit on the dot (your exact word count depends more on particular phrasings than actual content), you should be within 20ish words of it at most. College essays are already restrictive by their nature, so you don’t want to voluntarily restrict yourself even further by not using as much of the space given to you as you can.

Also on a structural level, the writing is a bit wordy and repetitive at times, particularly in the last paragraph. Last paragraphs are dangerous because students tend to summarize. In a longer academic essay, that’s a reasonable strategy, but in a college essay with limited space, you want to keep your readers engaged with new details through the very end; ideally, they’ll even be left wanting more.

Some fluffy sentences/lines elsewhere in this essay include:

• “While I had not previously held a strong standpoint on whether this practice is morally permissible”
• “I struggled to resonate with their rationale, as my perspective on such ethics, and the context of my understanding, differed greatly from the experiences that informed my peer’s belief.”
• “Although I did not agree with this student’s argument, I listened actively and expressed how I appreciated their perspective; the student demonstrated what “the other side” of this argument looks like, and helped inform my comprehensive understanding of vegetarian ethics.”

Make sure each sentence adds something unique to your essay. These lines aren’t exactly bad, but they aren’t giving us any new insight into who this student is, as all three of them are basically saying the same thing: this student encountered a peer who held different beliefs from them. That event is even less exciting since, given the prompt, it goes without saying that this student didn’t agree with their peer.

If you notice that two or more of your sentences say the same thing, pick the one that makes the point most effectively, and use the words you’ve saved to sprinkle in more details about your personality at other points in your essay.

Where to Get Your George Washington University Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your George Washington University essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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