Hi! I’m a junior at a small public high school in suburban Ohio looking to apply to the Walsh School of Foreign Service to major in International Relations next year. Based off the following, what do you think the odds of me getting in are?
GPA: 4.03 weighted, 3.7 unweighted
ACT: 30
Honors/APs: taken honors Biology. honors English 1, AP European History and AP Seminar (3 on both), currently taking AP English Language and Composition (probably a 4 or 5) and Spanish 4, and I’m taking AP Statistics, AP Spanish, and AP US Government next year!
ECs: National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, Art Club, Activism and Awareness Club, Spanish Club, AFS Club (president), Sources of Strength/HOPE Squad, Gay-Straight Alliance, the Spring Musical, homecoming float construction, and working as a volunteer camp counselor for the Red Cross
Community Service: I get about 100-150 hours a year for my volunteer work at the Red Cross (graduating with 200-300 service hours)
important notes to consider!!!
I’m graduating with 6 math credits instead of 4 bc I’m taking calculus as a junior
this year I am taking AP English, US History, Spanish 4, Chamber Choir (kind of like honors choir bc you must audition to get accepted), Physics, and Calculus
next year I am taking English 4, AP Gov, AP Spanish, Chamber Choir, Sociology, Law & Criminal Justice, and AP Statistics
I plan on taking at least 1 SAT subject test
Please be honest with me about my chances. If you don’t think I can make it in, let me know if there’s anything I could do to increase my chances! If you think I should look at another school for any reason please let me know!!! I appreciate any feedback you may have
Unless that religion is Catholicism, I wouldn’t. Gtown is pretty proud to be Catholic.
That being said, Georgetown would be a major reach. Your ACT is in the bottom 25% of all applicants. Your weighted GPA is also pretty low for the school. What’s your class rank? 89% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their class.
Hmm, when we toured, Georgetown was also proud of the on-campus representation of and support for other religions. I think the essay topic is ok as long as it shows something profound about OP’s life journey.
That said, I agree standardized scores look too low, especially for Walsh. I would try get that up. The middle 50 ACT for Walsh is 32-35. A positive is your community and volunteer service, that’s something they really value a lot. Overall though, it’s definitely a reach. Make sure you have good matches and safeties on your college list.
Georgetown provides a lot of information on its entering class profile, including ECs and other angles that most colleges don’t. I believe this is the latest, it might be informative if you haven’t see it yet: https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/z4tgwmps28jo4hd83i1migipgjw43uuo
@SJ2727 I guess we both got different vibes then. I didn’t apply for many reasons, but one of them was because to me it seemed too religious for my comfort level.
Definitely the opposite impression to what we got (we even got shown where the rabbi etc have their offices). I guess the fact that our tour guide was proudly and openly LGBT, and made sure we knew how accepting Georgetown was of people like him, also contributed to our impression of tolerance. He did say that the Jesuit tradition comes through strongly in the culture of service, which was also something they said in the info session.
My daughter took it off her list because she felt her ACT (also 30) was too low, and I believe it changed this year but last year they were still looking for 3 SAT II tests which she didn’t want to do as Georgetown was the only college she was looking at that wanted them. The only vibe she didn’t really like though was from the other people on the tour! Most of the kids were very preppy, it was probably the only tour we were on where a majority of would be students were smarter than jeans.
Agree that Georgetown is a reach and SFS has even higher stats/standards. At our Georgetown info session by the Dean of Admissions about the SAT Subject test, he explained that their policy is that “they are ‘highly recommended’…now who in this room thinks that means they are optional?” and further that they have found that SAT II scores are the highest predictor of success at Georgetown, so they take those very seriously! It is also one of the few schools that require ALL test scores to be sent. So if Georgetown is a goal, work super hard on SAT subject test prep but know that is is definitely in the reach category…so you’d be putting a lot of effort in for a reach (unless other SAT II recommended schools are also on your list).
As for religious tolerance, Jesuit schools of which Georgetown is one are known for religious tolerance. It is completely possible to for a school to have a strong religious feel (whether Georgetown’s is “strong” is a personal subjective thing) AND be accepting off all faiths, and/or no faith…religious tolerance is a Jesuit philosophy that focuses more on education and service than pushing a particular religious denomination.
OP: Your odds of admission to Georgetown University SFS appear to be low. There is nothing that stands out on your profile other than volunteer work while your ACT score is in the bottom 25%, no athletics, no leadership positions, and nothing that indicates a strong interest in or knowledge of world affairs.
Current Georgetown student here. A lot of people on this thread seem to be slightly misinformed.
@SJ2727 is correct, Georgetown prides itself on being a place where there can be a lot of inter-religious dialogue- you often hear them mention how they were the first university in the country to hire a full time Muslim Imam and a full-time Hindu chaplain (who, by the way, was the Resident Minister on my dorm floor last year). The chair of the Theology department studies Buddhism.
Also, the College is not “visibly preppier” than the SFS, in fact I’m not sure how that would be visible since there are basically no classes or groups in which you would see only College/no SFS students-the schools are pretty mixed especially when it comes to social life. There are some preppy people at Georgetown but I’d say that stereotype is pretty exaggerated compared to reality. I wouldn’t judge based on a tour group too much as that represents the group who think they might want to attend Georgetown, not the group who get accepted and end up enrolling.
As for admission, I would focus on increasing your ACT score if you can, as it’s a little on the low side for Georgetown. Definitely take the SAT subject tests if you can, although I know people accepted who had fewer than the 3 that are “highly recommended.”
Hello, I am a rising senior looking to apply to Georgetown’s business school. This school is no the top of my list, and I really want to go here. I toured the school and nothing came close. I want to EA here but I am struggling because I don’t if I have enough.
My grades are:
weighted: 4.2
unweighted: 3.81
I am taking the SAT at the end of the month, and I am getting around 1480s on the practice. I am a lot of extracircullars so I am not worried about that, but it is just my grades that are concerning, what do you think?
