Chance Me (To Ease My Crippling Anxiety)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgetown University
1

(I’ve posted one of these a couple of months ago but my information is a bit more updated now)

School Profile:
I go to the #1 private school in my Michigan, 30% of students are international. It’s extremely competitive and the school limits AP classes per year to two and rarely allows any freshman to take them due to workload of our standard classes. My school only offers 14 APs none of which are English. My school has no class rank system and offers very few honors classes.

Background:
I’m male. Ethnically I’m mixed Arab and Circassian while nationality wise I’m a first-generation American. Both of my parents immigrated from Syria and most of my family remains there. I’m culturally muslim but religiously an atheist. I speak fluent Spanish, semi-fluent Arabic and am currently learning Japanese outside of school.

Academics:
Unweighted GPA: 3.8 Weighted GPA: 4.0
ACT: 32 (essay: 11) and 33 (essay: 10).
I took one honors class as a sophomore, two APs as a junior and taking two APs as a senior (Spanish V Honors, AP Spanish, AP US History, AP World History, AP European History). Didn’t submit my SAT II for early action.

Extracurricular / Leadership / Awards:
Middle Eastern Cultural Association President (2 years and club founder), Model UN (4 years, 5 conferences, 2 awards), Community Service Gardening Club (4 years, president senior year), Stagecrew Costuming (4 years, 9 productions), JV Rowing (1 season), Varsity Rowing (1 season), Principal Chair Oboist for the Detroit Youth Philharmonic, 8 years of private oboe lessons, Private Japanese lessons (2 years), Japanese Club (2 years), Gay-Straight Alliance Club (4 years), 3 weeks studying abroad over the summer in Spain, 2 months studying abroad over the summer in Japan, two writing awards, one Spanish Achievement award.

Essays:
ESSAY ONE (Talent) 9/10: Wrote about my oboe playing and my achievements and wrapped it up by saying how I’m now tutoring a 7th grade girl on the instrument
ESSAY TWO (Extra-Curricular) 8/10: Wrote about visiting Japan for the first time and subsequently joining my school’s Japanese club and taking Japanese lessons and how that inspired me to study abroad for two months. Finished it up by talking about how sharing cultural experiences is necessary for global unity.
ESSAY THREE (Personal Essay) 7/10: This one was kind of a mess because of how open ended it was. Talked about growing up in Detroit, going to an independent school and being gay, Arab, Muslim and racially ambiguous and how that spurred me into international relations. Although this one was not very well written it definitely sets me apart.
ESSAY FOUR (School of Foreign Service) 11/10??: I was made to write this essay. I obviously wrote about the Syrian conflict from the perspective of a Syrian-American. I hit on Obama during the proliferation of violence in Syria, the influence of Russia and ended with a strong statement condemning Vladimir Putin.

Other:
I have a contact on the Georgetown School of Foreign Service Master’s Program Board who sent a letter of endorsement to the regional admissions counselor in my area. I think he also may have spoke to the Dean of the SFS who he’s apparently close friends with.
I visited Georgetown and did a scheduled tour and a SFS interest session for demonstrated interest if that counts for anything.
Applied to the SFS with a Culture and Politics focus.

Please give me your insight! Thank you!

2

You sound like you would be a terrific fit for the school! Good luck! :slight_smile:

3

Thank you!! @Samsmom2019

4

Just an FYI—Georgetown requires ALL tests taken (sat, act, sat subject tests) to be submitted, so in accordance to their policy, if you’ve taken the tests and not submitted them, that is breaking their policy. Further, it is unfair to the applicants who do follow the policy with full integrity, and submit all their scores.

5

@bonjour1 Since subject tests aren’t required for early action I thought that wouldn’t be a problem. My college counselor agreed and told me to send them in for regular decision.

6

You look like an excellent applicant, the only issue you might have is not having Subject Tests as Georgetown strongly recommends them, but you look like the ideal SFS student tbh, I envy your ECs

7

for what it’s worth, my D had similar stats to yours though her profile (white, F, straight) is not yours…and ECs that varied from yours but had their own strength. She applied EA to SFS and was first waitlisted…then, in May, she made it onto the “extended waitlist” which is maybe 25 to 50 candidates worldwide and they’re placed into slots should another student drop out. While she didn’t make it off that list, she received very positive feedback and now – 4 years later – is in consideration for grad school there. (also, she did not take subject tests).

Good luck!

8

Where did you learn that subject tests aren’t required for EA? Now you might get deferred because they think you’ll take them this fall and submit in time for RD. Were you thinking you have a better shot in the regular round? If so you probably should have applied then.

9

@JBStillFlying
“If you are a senior and have not yet taken recommended SAT Subject Tests you may still apply Early Action and your application will receive full consideration.”

10

Did you take them? I am questioning your counselor’s advice to “send them in for RD” when you were applying EA. Honestly, he/she should have advised you to take them in time for EA as they are strongly recommended.

I wish I could help you with chances but my son is admittedly a far reach so I’m out of touch of what more matchy applicants look like in terms of stats. Are you first gen? That should help. And your contact recommendation might give you a little bump. I believe that SFS admittance is more competitive than the other programs, though, right?

Answers come in a few days, try to relax. I think this board is anxiety-promoting for many people!

11

@TS0104

Thanks for your response! I did take the subject tests but I did poorly (all above 600 at least but not great). My college counselor told me submitting them for the EA would hurt me more than it would help considering Georgetown gives full consideration to EA applications without subject tests. It only hurts my application if I don’t send them in RD in the event I’m deferred.

I’m not first gen by any means hahaha my mom has an MBA from University of Michigan and my dad got his PHD in Syria.

I hope the best for your son, anything is possible with college admissions. I’ll try my best to relax a little bit haha.

12

@charbonneau, I’m sure that if that scenario you quote in #8 actually applied to you, it would be true. Not sure it applies because you took the tests, right? They will see the dates once you submit everything (which you will need to so at some point, even if you have re-taken recently). And among other things, you were supposed to list those dates on your application. Hopefully you did so.

13

@JBStillFlying

I literally just did exactly what my college counselor told me to do. Their language is vague and I really don’t think I’m going to be penalized especially since I was advised not to submit my scores, I wasn’t going to go against what my college counselor told me to do.

14

Understood, @Charbonneau. Be honest, however. You know that, in fact, the Admission website directions are NOT vague and that your counselor wasn’t “telling” you what to do but was just helping you wiggle around disclosing those tests for REA. You may, in fact, NOT be penalized, especially if you are accepted, but there is no way to look at this other than that you cheated on your application.

15

@JBStillFlying

Ahhhhhh you caught me!! Clearly I was intentionally trying to cheat the system. Are you okay?

16

@Charbonneau. If you or your counselor thought the instructions were vague, you should have called admissions. That is what most honest people would have done. I feel that you cheated on your application. It is 100% clear that you must submit ALL of your test scores and disclose ALL of the dates you sat for a test on your application. It is shame for all of us who were honest and disclosed all of our scores, whether or not those scores were what we hoped for. I am sure and hope that whether or not you are accepted or deferred, Georgetown will find out.

17

@charbonneau it doesn’t matter how intentional or thoughtless you were. Some pretty clear rules were either ignored or discarded. And now you have a problem that somebody has pointed the obvious out to you, after you posted your information and asked for feedback? What exactly were you hoping to accomplish here?