Applications Down 2.6% for Class of 2018

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgetown University
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<p>By Molly Simio</p>

<p>Hoya Staff Writer</p>

<p>Regular decision applications declined by 2.62 percent this year from 20,025 for the current freshman class to 19,500 for the Class of 2018.</p>

<p>This slight decrease continues a trend from last year, in which applications plateaued, declining by 0.1 percent from the year before.</p>

<p>The Class of 2018 applicant pool, however, has an average critical reading SAT score of 674, up seven points from last year. The average math SAT score rose four points to 681.</p>

<p>“Even though the pool has gone down a little bit, it’s gotten stronger,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said. “From an admissions committee’s point of view, it will be every bit as competitive [as] or even more competitive than it was two years ago when we had that peak number.”</p>

<p>The applicant pool includes 1,875 self-identified African-American students, or 9.6 percent of applicants, and 2,200 self-identified Hispanics, or 11.3 percent of applicants. Fewer than half of this year’s applicants self-identified as white.</p>

<p>“Although the pool hasn’t grown, it’s become more diverse, both socioeconomically and in particular by ethnic background,” Deacon said.</p>

<p>While this year’s applicant pool saw higher levels of diversity, the number of international applicants declined. International students made up 12.8 percent of applicants to the Class of 2017 but just 10.5 percent of applicants for next year’s incoming class.</p>

<p>“We hadn’t counted on the rather significant drop-off in international applicants,” Deacon said. “We would have been even [with last year] if it hadn’t dropped off internationally.”</p>

<p>After receiving a record number of 3,370 applicants last year, the McDonough School of Business experienced decreases of 1.63 percent. The School of Nursing and Health Studies which had approximately 1,250 applicants last year, experienced decreases of 8.47 percent.</p>

<p>“We had been seeing a pattern where there was a big growth for the McDonough School of Business and the School of Nursing and Health Studies, which are job creators, but that has leveled off,” Deacon said.Applicants to the School of Foreign Service decreased by 5.28 percent. The College’s pool decreased by 1.83 percent, with fewer applicants indicating a major in hard sciences or entering as undecided, a change Deacon sees in line with an economy that has yet to settle since the 2008 recession.</p>

<p>Last year, Deacon attributed a 4.2 percent jump in applications to the NHS to an increased interest in the sciences.</p>

<p>“Students are more interested in job security. They are gravitating [toward] science and pre-med tracks,” he said in February 2013.</p>

<p>This year, Deacon analyzed pre-professional trends differently.</p>

<p>“If you’re in college today, you really want to say that you want to be adept at being flexible and making moves that make sense based on what the economy is going to be like when you graduate,” Deacon said. “It’s hard to know what it’s going to be because the world is changing so quickly.”</p>

<p>Deacon anticipates an acceptance rate of between 16 and 17 percent across the four schools for an incoming freshman class of around 1,580 students. Last year’s acceptance rate was 16.6 percent.</p>

<p>This year’s admissions process included the debut of an individualized online form for secondary school reports and teacher recommendations. The form requires teachers and counselors to answer Georgetown-specific questions, rather than sending identical information to each school to which a student is applying. Two-thirds of applicants, or those who chose to submit the form electronically, utilized the new form.</p>

<p>“For those who did use the system, we have much better information about the students. We know a lot more about them personally, and we have individual comments about how great this person would be, especially for Georgetown,” Deacon said.</p>

<p>The Office of Admissions will release regular application decisions in late March.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thehoya.com/news/applications-down-2-6-for-class-of-2018-1.3136133#.UvE9EfldW-E"&gt;http://www.thehoya.com/news/applications-down-2-6-for-class-of-2018-1.3136133#.UvE9EfldW-E&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Even though our admit rate will remain stable, if you look at the admissions cycles this year for the rest of the nation’s elite schools, Georgetown was (is going to be) unique by means of not experiencing a large increase in applicants nor a decrease in overall admit rate. It’s time Deacon start seriously considering adopting the Common Application. The comments on that article are well thought out and reflect this same view, they provide more evidence as to why a switch might be necessary. For all those who don’t know: Georgetown is the ONLY school to not use the common application. </p>

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<p>To make some edits to the previous post: Georgetown is not the ONLY school to experience drops in applicants, but it is among the few who have. Also, Georgetown is the only ELITE national university to not use the common app. </p>

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<p>Wrong. MIT does not use Common App. UC Berkeley and UCLA also dont use CA. </p>

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<p>While an acceptance rate below 10% would allow me to inflate my ego a lot, I really don’t see the practical point. If people want to apply here, they’re doing it. The Common App will just add those students who just put Georgetown down as another school on the list. It’s not necessary.</p>

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<p>Agreed. Yield and quality of applicants in my opinion is more important. But yes having a sub-10% acceptance rate would definitely make my degree a little bit more valuable.</p>

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<p>The goal of the admissions process is to enroll the highest quality and most well-rounded class possible, balancing a wide range of demands and criteria. The goal is most definitely not to have the lowest admit rate possible. </p>

<p>The quality of this admitted class actually increased in terms of standardized test scores, while a good (not great) level of diversity was maintained. That is what matters, not getting a few hundred or thousand extra people to apply who have no real intention of ever attending and are merely using Georgetown as their 4th safety or 7th reach school.</p>

<p>Having a more unique, less easily transferable and duplicable process will inevitably cause some folks who are not all that excited about Georgetown to not apply. That’s fine. A meaningless quest for ever-greater perceived selectivity pales in comparison to the importance of having applicants and matriculants who have made the effort to put more of themselves into their application to Georgetown. </p>

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<p>Georgetown continues to seek the best and the brightest and I commend them for not using the Common App. The Common App has made college admissions much more of a numbers game and it is no longer a hand-selected process (both from the student applying and the admissions office). The competition that students feel in the process isn’t real. There are many families who add in a few more colleges to their Common App because it’s easy, however they have no intention of attending those schools. Spots are given away constantly to students who will never attend a specific college but applied because the Common App made it easy. Such a shame that the process can’t be more authentic. </p>

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<p>Really ?? What part of Georgetown app is so different than common app as to call it unique ? Other than having kids regurgitate the same information in Georgetown format ??</p>

<p>Commend Georgetown for what ?? Have kids go through cut and paste their common app and stuff in GTown format. No different for the teachers writing recommendations.</p>

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<p>It’s not a radically different application, but there are some things that the admissions folks wanted to see that they weren’t getting out of the Common App. Moreover, there is a sense that the actual fact of it being separate from the Common App will result in a more committed applicant base - if you’re not willing to put in the relatively minor effort to fill out a separate application, you’re probably not all that interested in Georgetown (or not that motivated of a person, period, and who wants that?).</p>

<p>As to your question of “What part of Georgetown app is so different than common app as to call it unique” - well, you can look at the application and compare it to the Common App as well as anyone else. Knock yourself out: [Part</a> I](<a href=“http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/document/1242799011470/FirstYearAppOne2013-2014.pdf]Part”>http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/document/1242799011470/FirstYearAppOne2013-2014.pdf) and [Part</a> II](<a href=“http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/document/1242799011510/FirstYearAppTwo2013-2014.pdf]Part”>http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/document/1242799011510/FirstYearAppTwo2013-2014.pdf).</p>

<p>If applicants want to just copy & paste the Common App contents into the Georgetown application, that’s their business. But that frequently shows through because of how generic the content is, and it is not a point in the applicant’s favor.</p>

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<p>Filing out the Georgetown application requires substantial additional effort (especially since you have to write school specific essays). Filing out the administrative portions of applications is just a copy and paste job, the most time consuming part is the essays. When you are applying to 10+ schools (as a lot of kids these days are), filing out a school specific application package (not just a supplement) shows demonstrated interest.</p>

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<p>I agree, taking the time to fill out the additional application really shows commitment and genuine interest in the institution. It shows that Georgetown is not just another check box to you.</p>

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<p>

As a parent of a Georgetown junior, I have to fully agree. After the initial visit he felt strong enough about the school that he made the effort to complete their application. There was more commitment there than if he just had to add another school on his CA.</p>

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<p>I think that the supplemental essays that other schools require as part of the Common App serve the same purpose and have the same benefits as those stated above for Georgetown’s app. Georgetown’s app requires no more additional work or commitment from the student than other schools such as ND. However, the Georgetown process does seem to require more effort from the often already overburdened schools and some stress on the students to make sure that GTown’s “non-conforming” process is followed by all involved.</p>

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<p>The above article refers to the regular decision applicants. This article says that early action applications were basically the same as last year.
<a href=“http://www.thehoya.com/early-applications-stable-diversity-up-1.3115484#.Uvmnks5ALAk”>http://www.thehoya.com/early-applications-stable-diversity-up-1.3115484#.Uvmnks5ALAk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>My son was accepted EA. The Georgetown app was the first he worked on, and he did appreciate the chance to attach a resume, which was not available on the Common App. I believe there may have been some more generous character counts for the EC’s as well. And if I remember right there wasn’t a strict word limit on the essays like there is on the CA.</p>

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<p>Did the school speculate on why RD applications are down?</p>

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<p>People don’t really see it as “going down” in the dramatic sense, it’s more that applications have reached a plateau of around 20,000 flat (give or take a few) and without the CA it’s not going to go up.</p>

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<p>Applications are down just a little bit this year at Georgetown. It’s a good thing to imagine a day when the admissions at highly competitive universities will open up just a bit. I would rather have my daughter studying at Georgetown where she is happy, thriving and learning than at any other single digit admission school and she got into 2 of them. Look past the little change in numbers and try to find the right fit for you whether it is Georgetown or another school. Good luck class of 2018!</p>

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<p>2.6% for Georgetown
~10% for U Chicago
~14% for Dartmouth</p>