Current Freshman Answering Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgetown University
1

<p>Hey Future Hoya (Hopefuls)!</p>

<p>I'm just finishing my first (amazing) semester at Georgetown and need something to do on my study breaks for finals. I remember how helpful College Confidential was for me last year, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys have about the admissions process, classes, social life, living in DC, etc. Choosing Georgetown was the best decision I have ever made, and I can't imagine life at another school after being here for only 4 months.</p>

<p>P.S. Georgetown is now ranked number 18 in basketball. Just sayin'.</p>

<p>Hoya Saxa!</p>

2

<p>I’ve heard rumors that instead of December 15th as the day notification is sent out that it could come as early as the week before like the 8th or 9th? I have heard this for other EA schools last year and wanted to hear from a student to confirm or defunk this myth. Also…my situation would make it to where my brother might have to come live with me IF i happened to get accepted…which i rly hope so cuz i LOVE georgetown. Are off campus housing availiable for first years and if they are, how pricey?</p>

3

<p>If you apply for exemption from the first-year on-campus housing requirement, you can be exempted from it. </p>

<p>Here’s the official statement on this:</p>

<p>“Students who meet one of the exemption criteria before the beginning the start of classes are not required to live on campus.
The student has attained the age of 21 prior to the start of the academic year.
The student’s local residence is with parents, legal guardians, or immediate family over the age of 21.
The student has a documented medical condition which necessitates living off-campus.
The student is married or must live with a dependent.”</p>

<p>Your brother being dependent on you would definitely be taken into consideration. They’ll be understanding of your situation and will work with you to make it possible for you to attend.</p>

<p>About the release date, I remember Georgetown being very discreet about its admission letters and process. Unlike other schools, it only notifies via snail mail. Also, I applied regular decision, so I’m not sure about EA. I do remember the envelope being very small and only containing one sheet of paper, compared to the huge acceptance packets I had gotten from Vanderbilt and W&M in the preceding weeks. I immediately assumed it was a rejection but was pleasantly surprised.</p>

<p>Also, a friend of mine is a current senior and was on the board of admission last year. He gave me a brief breakdown of the process:</p>

<p>The committee is broken down into small groups containing a variety of reviewers: one professor, one student, one admissions dean, perhaps one Jesuit? (I’m not sure who is included.) The top-tier is immediately accepted, and the bottom is immediately rejected. Most people are discussed in the small group. I will say that, from what I’ve heard, the school takes a lot of pride in its students who have triumphed over negative life experiences and have been academically successful despite adversaries.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for that great information. I REALLY REALLY appreciate that. I’m rly hoping that my life situation and success during it will really overshadow my overall numbers. I’ve done everything i could outside of school volunteer, musical excellance, and a yr of baseball…haha mann i rly wanna get in…thank u so much for the info…it was very helpful</p>

5

<p>In terms of EA acceptance letters, they do tend to come a bit early…I believe they mailed them out the Friday before for many people, I remember most people received them Monday and Tuesday (the 15th was a Wednesday). I live in MN and got it Tuesday the 14th. Good luck to you! Hoya saxa!</p>

6

<p>Hi, could u post ur stats? thx!</p>

7

<p>What do you know/think about the dorms there? For some reason I remember that when I visited the dorms seemed to be the least great thing about the school.</p>

<p>Also do they have campus-wide wifi yet? If not, 1) is it coming soon and 2) is there wifi in the dorms or are there plenty of places with wifi to comfortably get things done?</p>

<p>And do you know, by any chance, if the new science building is on track to be completed by fall 2012?</p>

<p>Sorry for all the random questions, they’re just things that have been on my mind while wondering if I’ll attend if accepted.</p>

8

<p>@SeekingUni</p>

<p>Great questions. The freshman dorms, like those of any school, are worse than upperclassman housing. However, I don’t know anyone who is unhappy with their living environment. The first-year dorms are divided in this way:</p>

<p>1) Darnall - notoriously the worst dorm: far away from everything, oldest dorm, smallest rooms, crappy elevators. Of course, with my luck, I am in Darnall. However, everyone is extremely happy here, ironically. We joke over the negative aspects of the dorms and are actually closer to our floormates than residents of other buildings are. Also, we have an easily-accessible laundry room, lots of great parties, and a restaurant in the ground floor (that serves sushi!).</p>

<p>2) New South - the newest dorm (the lobby looks like a 4 star hotel). This is the place where most of my friends live, so I’m there a lot. The floors are the biggest of any building, with over 100 people on each floor, so they’re a little less personal. However, New South is traditionally a crazy fun place in general. I would love to live there. Also, you get your own sink if you live here.</p>

<p>3) Village C West/East - small rooms, but you get your own bathroom in your dorm, which is good (in my opinion). I have a few friends there, and they seem to be very happy. The building is near the dining hall.</p>

<p>4) Harbin - organized in “clustered” subgroups of each floor, so you generally are closest to the people in your cluster when school starts. I don’t know as much about Harbin as the others, but my friends there are happy.</p>

<p>About the science building: It is supposed to be open before the fall! Everyone is excited about it. It was actually part of the Stimulus package and will be a very nice building.</p>

<p>WiFi - I’ve never had a problem with this. There is WiFi in every freshman dorm (unless I’m misinformed?) and in all the academic buildings. This isn’t a problem like it used to be.</p>

<p>@RAMNAMBI I’m not sure if you were directing that question at me, but I’ll include my stats (I thought I was done with this last year :P) SAT: 2260, SAT II (800 US History, 780 Bio M), 4.0</p>

9

<p>What is the social life like? Do people usually stay on campus? What do people do on a typical Friday night?</p>

10

<p>@dancetilldawn</p>

<p>Hoyas are notoriously master procrastinators and are able to have fun on weekends while also getting everything done academically. According to a lab I just finished in my freshman bio class, 80% of the freshmen drink, but you can definitely still have a good social life if you choose not to drink.</p>

<p>The upperclassmen are very inclusive when it comes to parties. Most of them take place in townhouses off-campus, where a lot of students live. Because Georgetown doesn’t have fraternities or sororities, a lot of parties are club-centered. For instance, I’m on a newspaper staff on campus, and they have parties about once every 2 weeks. However, I’ve also gone to parties thrown by other organizations and have never felt unwelcome. There’s also a big club and concert scene and lots of fun parties for LGBTQ students.</p>

<p>On the other hand, no one is judged for staying in. There’s no such thing as an easy courseload at Georgetown, and everyone will understand if you need to or want to stay in and work on a Friday or Saturday night.</p>

11

<p>So when should regular decision applicants expect to get an acceptance/rejection letter from Georgetown?</p>

12

<p>@ddb: April 1st.</p>

13

<p>Hey, I was wondering if you could just tell me if I have any sort of chance to get in early action. I have a 33 ACT, a 4.27 weighted, I had a good interview, my dad went to Georgetown Medical School, and I worked for a federal judge so he wrote one of my recommendation letters. I also have a variety of extracurriculars. Do I have a chance with my lower GPA?</p>

14

<p>@deepad89: whats your unweighted gpa?</p>

15

<p>How hard is it to interact with new people?
Was Georgetown your 1st choice, and why did you choose it?
What is the party scene like?</p>

16

<p>What’s it like to go to university in DC?</p>

17

<p>@cuddlemecozy Actually, I have never learned my unweighted gpa because my school only shows the weighted gpa on the transcript.</p>

18

<p>How many courses do Georgetown students take each semester? I’m looking over the BSFS requirements (just got into SFS!) and it seems to be 32 classes which works perfectly with 4 classes/semester in 4 years but I want to study abroad for a semester or two, probably at a non-Georgetown location (their programs look great but I want to go to Jordan or the West Bank), so how would that work? Is 5 courses a semester doable or the norm?</p>

<p>Also, how conservative is the political climate at Georgetown? I’m quite liberal, and while I like having a challenge and I prefer to be around conservatives so I’m not surrounded by people who agree with me (which is super boring), but I also don’t want to be surrounded by people who aren’t really open to my views. Is Georgetown overwhelmingly conservative or are both sides represented?</p>

19

<p>^Changing my first question, I looked it up and found out that 5 classes was the norm- so now I’m wondering if you know anything about the intensive language programs- if they’re 6 credits, is it normal to take those with 4 other classes or would it make sense to make that a 4 class semester (since it’s the same amount of credits as 5)?</p>

20

<p>Hi jwilliams93! I was wondering, does Georgetown offer large amounts of financial aid? I was just accepted, but I don’t know if I can go there if I don’t receive a generous amount of money. Income is between 55K-65K. Also my sister is attending college.</p>