I know that the ED percent is consistently way smaller than the RD, but I know quite a few students who decide to apply to Georgetown wait until the spring because if they don’t get into the more prestigious schools they use GT as their fallback. Logically wouldn’t this just make the RD pool more competitive than the ED since those who are applying to the Ivy’s are now applying to GT?
THERE IS NO ED AT GEORGETOWN, ONLY EA.
Competitiveness is sort of a tricky thing to measure… is it just absolute number applicants divided by target number of admits? Does one take the average quantitative factors (GPA, class rank, test scores, etc.) into account?
In any case, keep in mind the following:
- The Regular Decision pool is much larger than the Early Action pool, and it includes many more non-competitive applicants (early admission programs are very self-selecting and weighted toward high-information, high-SES applicants - that's one of the oft-cited strikes against them).
- The Regular Decision pool includes (most) recruited athletes
- The percentage of students who apply to at least one Ivy and also Georgetown, relative to the percentage of applicants to Georgetown as a whole, may not be as big as you think it is
- Georgetown is not simply a 'fallback' school for any and all Ivy applicants - there are plenty who rank Georgetown higher than some or all of the Ancient Eight schools to which they apply
Having muddied the waters with all of that, here’s a simple, blanket principle that Georgetown puts forward: it will only admit someone Early whom it is positive it would accept in Regular. This is something that can be validated pretty well using data from past applicant pools. So while the picture is kind of complicated, it would be hard to argue that the bar in Regular Decision is higher than in EA.
Gtown had an acceptance rate of 14.5% this year – it would be unwise for anyone to consider it a “fallback school.”
And @MrElonMusk is correct – there is no ED option at Gtown.
@MrElonMusk I apologize. I confuse EA and ED. And @happy1 I agree, for many it is definitely not a fallback school, however last year the Valedictorian at my school won the world’s science fair and had MIT name a star after him even though he took a full ride at Harvard so if that’s just the talent at one school then I can’t imagine how many more like him are out there haha. The idea of that terrifies me
@emilykatem No matter how accomplished you are or how talented you are, you are still subjected to the whim and will of admissions. No school this selective is ever a fallback school, and to think that is folly. MIT rejected a kid who built a fully-functioning nuclear reactor–if they’ll reject an applicant like that, any applicant can get rejected.
@emilykatem Georgetown is not a fallback school to anywhere. Many who apply and are admitted EA wait till spring to commit because the FA package doesn’t come with the EA admission, it comes later. Georgetown is competitive both EA and RD. I know of 3 students in this admission round that have turned down admissions offers to the “Ancient Eight” for Georgetown and considered it their top choice from the start.
Certainly not a fallback school. There are no guaranteed admits anywhere. Apply to schools when you can present your “best” application package.