Chances for Georgetown - off to a good start? (9th grade)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgetown University
1

Although I am still in my early years of high school and shouldn’t be worrying about being admitted to certain colleges quite yet, I find my studies imperative to my future success. Here’s an overview of my situation. I live in a town where everybody is extremely wealthy, successful, and religiously prodominant in Judiasm. Part of the reason for wanting to study at Georgetown is for its catholic backgrounds considering I am catholic. I am a white male. Anyways, I can surely pay for the education and Georgetown. Here are my actual presumed statistics as of the conclusion of my freshman year:

Grade: Freshman
Weighted GPA: 3.9
Unweighted GPA: 3.75
Courses freshman year: Honors History, Honors Algebra, Honors English, CP Biology, CP Spanish, Technology and Design, and Introduction to Business. (3 Honors, 2 CP, 2 Electives)

AP Courses for rest of HS: AP US History II, AP Economics, AP Environmental Science, AP Human Geography, AP Computer Science, and (Possibly AP Physics).

Most other courses of mine will be Honors courses throughout the rest of HS besides Math, Spanish, and certain Sciences.

GOAL GPA/SAT by end of HS:

Weighted GPA: 4.3+
Unweighted GPA: 3.8+
SAT: 1400+ (I have been practicing vocabulary words every single day and will be taking the PSAT very seriously and will enroll in multiple courses along with thorough study)

EC’s:
-Future Business Leaders of America Club
-(Adding Key Club or another club by end of HS)
-(Adding another club by end of HS)
-200+ hours of volunteering during the summer at a summer camp for children and adults with special needs.
-Will be volunteering under the presidential campaign of Cory Booker by fufilling different volunteer jobs to boost the campaign
-(Looking to form my own club by the end of High School. Any ideas?)
-High School Basketball Team
-National Business Honors Society (Senior)

Concluding: will surely be interviewing with people from Georgetown and am thinking of apply for early decision to make sure the admissions officers know Georgetown is my first choice.

Town ranking:
-16 in state
-Avg SAT score is 1320
-Avg ACT score is 30
(NO AP classes allowed for Freshman and I don’t know my class ranking as of now but it must be decently high)

Major: Business

I HAVE LEGACY AT GEORGETOWN - GRANDMOTHER WENT TO GEORGETOWN. CONSIDERED A SECONDARY LEGACY WHICH STATISTICALLY BOOSTS CHANCES OF ADMISSION BY 13%.

I really appreciate whoever is reading this!

2

As you know, it’s too early to say, and even at application time it will be impossible to predict with certainty. Your goal-oriented mindset is terrific, but it would also be a good use of your energy and drive to diversify your college interests a little.

Being sure that you want a Catholic college is a fine first filter, and being excited about Georgetown is great. But get to know some of the other great schools that could be reaches, matches and safeties in that same category. College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Fordham, Santa Clara U, Gonzaga, Creighton, and SLU for example, are other strong Jesuit schools. Notre Dame, Villanova, and LMU (and the other Loyola’s - Chicago, New Orleans, Maryland…) are Catholic but not Jesuit. Use the next few years to get to know a range of schools and appreciate what there is to like about them, and which ones especially resonate with you. Getting your heart set on one and only one school, years ahead of time, (especially one with a 14%-and-dropping acceptance rate), is not only a recipe for heartbreak but can also blind you to other wonderful opportunities.

As of now, G-town has non-binding Early Action but does not have binding Early Decision. And G-town admissions denies that applying EA confers any admissions advantage - it only allows applicants the opportunity to possibly get an early acceptance, if they are not deferred. (Early applicants do have a significant advantage at some schools, but not so much at Georgetown.) But BC, which is highly selective as well and only had EA up until this year, is introducing ED https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/campus-community/announcements/early-decision.html so who knows, perhaps this will change at G-town at some point as well. The reality is that these need-blind schools use ED as a vehicle to attract full-pay students without sacrificing their official need-blind policy; students who need to compare aid offers before committing to a college are less likely to apply ED.

What are your strongest academic interests so far? Looks like maybe business?
Do try to enjoy high school and don’t stress too much; you will have great options for college!

3

Georgetown is REA, not ED.
You need to get your goal stats up - both GPA and SAT. 1400 is just about the 25th percentile for Georgetown. Closer to 1500 would be much safer.I assume you know you need SAT subject tests for Georgetown too.
When we went for an info session there, the college’s commitment to social justice came across very strongly. You might want to consider that. There were actually a handful of sophomores in our info session, and if you can get to one it may help you consider for example the range vs depth of ECs you are planning. “Adding club by end of HS” sounds like “adding an EC to try impress adcom”, which doesn’t work at Georgetown (or many other top schools)
So that may help you focus on Georgetown but as aquapt notes, don’t get hung up on one selective school.

Also… I’m not sure exactly how you characterize a “catholic” university. While Georgetown is obviously very strong in its Jesuit philosophy, it is far from exclusively a catholic school. Less than half the undergrads are catholic. You mention you are in a predominantly Jewish district, so it’s perhaps worth mentioning that (along with representatives from other religions) Georgetown has enough of a Jewish student population to have a full time rabbi on site.

4

@SJ2727 thank you so much for the input! I will definitely try to increase the SAT and GPA by the end of HS.

Instead of adding the EC clubs just for the heck of it, would it benefit me if I tried to find a leadership position in those clubs? By creating my own club, I was making an attempt at standing out, honestly. What do you recommend that I should try for EC’s?

Also, would my legacy help? Although it is secondary due to my grandmother graduating there in about 1950, many sites concluded that having a secondary legacy at GTown would increase admissions by about 13%.

Considering I am finishing Freshman year with a Weighted GPA of 3.9 with absolutely no AP’s freshman year, because they are not allowed for freshman, would it be realistic that with 5 or 6 AP’s and multiple Honors classss that I can move my GPA up? What would be that magic number?

Anyway, I really appreciate the response. Everything you said really, really helped me. We need more people like you!

5

@aquapt thank you so much for the response! I appreciate the valuable information! I totally agree that I shouldn’t be blinded towards other opportunities that will arise and not only set my mind on Georgetown.

Just a question. Not to be a braggart, but my family be able to pay for Georgetown’s tuition and fees. As a result, would they try to take advantage of that if I applied for ED? That is something I wouldn’t want because there are plenty of other schools who offer a great education in which would probably give me a bunch of scholarship money.

Does their ED program call for a commitment in accepted or is that EA? Whichever isn’t the commitment, would applying through it let them know that they would be my full choice?

Thank you so much!

6

Georgetown only has EA and RD, no ED. Here is the link to the EA info—it does have certain restrictions regarding your other applications, for example one can’t apply ED anywhere. https://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/firstyear/early-action

7

First of all, Georgetown does not currently offer binding ED, so the question is moot. (Although you will find plenty of threads on CC on which it is debated whether particular schools give as much merit aid to ED applicants as they would to those same applicants in the RD cycle.) Their EA program is restrictive (meaning you can’t apply ED to another school while applying EA to Georgetown) but it’s not binding at all; once accepted, you’re still free to go anywhere you want, and you need not commit until the same May date as students accepted in the spring.

Secondly, the question is doubly moot because Georgetown does not give any merit-based scholarship money to students without demonstrated need. (From G-town’s website: “Financial aid at Georgetown is based on demonstrated need; we do not offer academic or merit based scholarships.” https://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/financial-aid ) You would be full-pay at Georgetown, period. The fact that, as you say, you’ll likely be able to get some nice merit scholarships at schools that are more generous with merit is another reason to broaden your horizons… but at any rate, you don’t need to worry about anything you do changing your merit potential at G-town, because it’s zero regardless. (You could still apply for outside scholarships that you could use there, of course, but few of those are very large.)

Boston College, by comparison, states “Boston College is committed to meeting the full demonstrated need of every admitted student, and therefore we offer a limited number of merit scholarships. In fact, the Presidential Scholarship is our only academic merit-based scholarship, covering full tuition for 15 qualified applicants each year. There is no separate application for the Presidential Scholarship - both Early Decision and Regular Decision candidates are eligible for scholarship consideration as long as they meet the November 1 priority scholarship deadline.” So that’s a school where we’d be able to speculate as to whether Early Decision, while probably boosting your chances of acceptance, would also lower your chance of a Presidential Scholarship. Like many colleges, they do state that applying ED won’t change how scholarship decisions are made; but many would contend that these scholarships exist to recruit top students, and why would a college waste a recruiting tool on a student who’s already submitting a binding application? And of course it’s impossible to prove one way or the other whether the scholarship process completely disregards ED-vs.-RD, or not - all one can do is take their word for it and hope for the best.

8

@Mwfan1921 thank you so much!!

9

@aquapt much appreciated!

10

Honestly: re ECs, do stuff that you are passionate about. That will shine through.

Legacy will give you a little bump on a really good application among a bunch of stellar applications. It’s not something to rely on, at all.

11

@SJ2727 I am really interested in business and I love helping the population of childrens and adults with special needs. I have a little over 200 hours of volunteering at a summer camp for children and be adults with special needs. I was thinking of making a club that revolved around my business interests.

12

@GeorgetownDude , if you’re interested in the population with intellectual disabilities, then it could be worth looking into the Catholic faith-based organization, L’Arche , which I believe is best known via the writings of Henri Nouwen. L’Arche promotes, not a “charity model” of disability, but one of self-determination and collaboration between people with disabilities and those who support them. https://www.larche.org/en/welcome I know that the parochial HS nearest my home has a L’Arche club, so that’s proof-of-concept.

There’s also a lot going on politically/economically right now with the launch of ABLE accounts to allow people with disabilities (of all types) who are on public benefits to save for their future needs https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2018/12/13/irs-reminding-able-account-rules/25812/ ; but there are also significant threats to the benefits grid itself, and the associated services and supports upon which many PWD’s depend. There are a lot of angles you could consider to blend these areas of interest, with or without a faith-based component.

13

@aquapt wow thanks for the research! I looked into the website and it said that there were many fundraising opportunities / voluntary duties which I am genuinely interested in fufilling. Thank you so much! Do you have any recommendations for EC’s for business related topics that can fall under economics, marketing, finance, accounting, etc? Besides clubs, I am having trouble finding some in which I can participate in. Additionally, I am a very good history student especially when it comes to World War history. I have a fascination for war and have studied it for many years and practically know every little fact that there is to know. Do you know of any opportunities where I can bring these talents to life? Again, I really appreciate your help!

14

I’m more of a disability-advocacy person than a business/finance-type person, but… perhaps look into getting VITA certification as a volunteer tax adviser, and then targeting your volunteer efforts through whatever Independent Living Center in your area serves low-income people with disabilities? (And then possibly augment that knowledge with expertise about ABLE accounts, which is a knowledge base about which many people are still playing catch-up…)
https://veinternational.org/blog/students-take-stress-tax-season/
https://journaltimes.com/news/local/education/case-high-school-students-volunteer-to-give-tax-prep-assistance/article_26f1ea9c-7d46-572a-9746-7d66831ede8d.html

I don’t know if the tax aspect interests you but it’s definitely an area of overlap between financial stuff and disability advocacy, in which high school students have proven they can make a real impact.

As for being a history buff, look into https://www.nhd.org// which allows students to choose areas of interest for their research projects. (There’s also the National History Bowl, but that’s more of a quiz-bowl type thing where you have to prepare for a wider range of questions.) Perhaps, if you want to tie your interest in the World Wars in with your interest in disability, consider the T4 program, in which people with disabilities were killed as essentially the first wave of the Holocaust, as a research topic. https://allthatsinteresting.com/aktion-t4-program

15

@aquapt you’re literally the best… thank you for all of your help! Concluding, if I can take around 8AP’s by the end of HS with additional Honors courses and participate in many of these EC’s do you think I have a shot?

My goal is to finish with:

Weighted GPA: 4.3+
Unweighted GPA: 3.8+

By the end of this Freshman I should have:

Weighted GPA: 3.9
Unweighted: 3.7 or 3.75

With those AP’s I think I can move everything up very high.

SAT: 1450+
(Along with the other SAT Subject tests)

Hopefully my legacy can help at least a little bit. I will of course go for interviews and try to farmiliarzie myself with many people at Georgetown.

Again, thank you for all of your generous help! Your information proves seriously beneficial to me.

16

Certainly you’ve got a shot. And I think that if you research some of the other Jesuit/Catholic institutions, you’ll find some exciting opportunities there for your areas of interest as well. In particular, Boston College could be another great target for you. Boston is one of the most exciting incubators of disability advocacy (in part because the long-established progressive benefits structure and the cutting-edge health care innovation in Massachusetts make it possible for leading advocates to live and work there, more so than in the DC metro area), and there’s a fair amount of crossover between the disability organizations (Boston Center for Independent Living, Disability Policy Consortium, Disability Law Center, etc. etc.) and the BC community and faculty. BC has a great business school as well as strong liberal arts with a social justice focus - similar to Georgetown in some ways but not as poli-sci/IR-centric. (Holy Cross in Worcester is also within this same orbit and is a terrific school as well. https://www.holycross.edu/academics/ciocca-center-business-ethics-and-society ) I’m not saying that you won’t have a shot at Georgetown - you will if all goes as you envision - but there are no sure things in college admissions and it’s healthiest to build excitement about more than one possible future. In fact, as challenging as that can be to do, it’s a valuable life skill for young people and adults alike! :slight_smile:

17

You really need to relax and enjoy high school.