Georgetown- A good match?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Georgetown University
1

<p>I’ve been lurking around here since my freshman year, but now that I’m finishing up my Junior year, I’ve finally mustered up enough courage to post my stats. </p>

<p>Frankly, I'd like an honest opinion of whether or not Georgetown would be a good match for me.</p>

<p>Background:</p>

<p>Daughter of immigrants from Poland/Ukraine (albeit very well educated immigrants- both of my parents are physicians; still- no legacies in the US). Still spend quite a lot of time in Europe and have EU citizenship. Speak 5 languages (potential hook?)- Polish, Ukrainian, and English with native fluency and pronunciation, Italian and Russian with good fluency, etc., but not native. </p>

<p>I plan on majoring in political science and either sociology or philosophy in college.</p>

<p>Live in NJ, attend a tiny Catholic all-girls school. Though they don’t rank us, from what I’ve managed to gather, I’m probably in the top 10%, possibly salutatorian (or even valedictorian, if next year goes well.)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.2-something weighted (should be around a 4.3 after my last trimester)</p>

<p>Have taken all the honors/AP available. I skipped Italian II Honors after a very intensive summer course in Italy.
This year I took the only 2 APs offered to non-seniors:
AP U.S. History and AP Lang. & Comp. (I’m hoping for 5s, or at least 4s)</p>

<p>Next year I’m taking:
AP Lit. & Comp.
AP Psych
AP Physics
AP Italian
AP Euro
Calc Honors (maybe AP Calc, but math isn’t my thing, really)</p>

<p>I’m also doing a guided study on Dante’s Divine Comedy, culminating in a 30-page thesis.</p>

<p>PSAT: 219 (National Merit Commended/Semi-finalist may be in the works)
SAT I: 2200 (800 v, 760 w, 640 m) (hoping to raise the math in the fall)
SAT IIs
US History: 800
Lit: 760</p>

<p>Clubs/Activities/Etc. (as of Junior Year)</p>

<p>Academic Team, 2 years (Varsity Captain)
Forensics, 3 years (Extemporaneous Speaking- 2nd place at regionals this year, going to Nationals this month)
Italian Club, 3 years
Italian Honor Society, 2 years (Treasurer, President next year)
Photography Club, 2 years
Echoes (Literary Magazine), 1 year (Editor)
Philosophy Society (Founding Member), 1 year
United Cultures Club, 2 years (Eastern European Captain)
National Honor Society, recently admitted</p>

<p>Senior Citizen Computer Outreach, 1 year (1-2 hrs/week)
Various school fundraisers, most notably organizing a library drive
Tutoring in Italian, help in organizing Italian lessons for lower levels
This summer, I'll be teaching children English in Poland (about 100 hrs. total)</p>

<p>1st Place in Physics at Science Fair
1st Place in 2nd level Italian competition (annual ITANJ event)
Various High Honors, Italian awards, etc. on school level ("Distinguished Scholar," etc.)
3rd Place at World Cultures Day tournament at Montclair State U.
Semi-finalist in NJ Scholar Program
Will be published in 2nd edition of "Blue Jean Buddha," an anthology of essays by young Buddhists/religious seekers)</p>

<p>Summers
Freshman: 1 month in intensive immersion course in Italy, otherwise in Poland with family
Sophomore: 1 month in intensive immersion course in Italy, otherwise in Poland with family
Junior: 2 months teaching English to Polish kids, 1 month touring Eastern Europe/Bulgaria</p>

<p>Hmm... I also read philosophy, political commentary, and economic theory avidly, and can make funky Ukrainian gerdany (beaded jewelry) and recite A. C. Swinburne, Nietzsche, and Marcus Aurelius on demand. I'm also quite the Italian cook and am active in my local Libertarian Party (plan on being more active in the fall). Should make for interesting interview material...</p>

<p>Ah, yes and I've played the Ukrainian flute (sopilka) for the past 8 or so years, performing regularly when I was a tad younger. </p>

<p>Occasionally, I go to <a href="http://www.jewishgen.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jewishgen.org/&lt;/a> and translate documents from Ukrainian or Polish to English for American Jews researching their Eastern European roots. This tends to be done around 2am, mostly on impulse, but I find it very satisfying, even though I'm not Jewish.</p>

<p>Well, if I remember anything else, I'll post it. Any and all questions are welcome, as is any and all advice. Otherwise, I'd be interested to see if you'd consider Georgetown a good match for me. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Obviously, admissions is somewhat random these days, but to me Georgetown would seem like a good match.</p>

3

<p>If the question was will you get into georgetown, the answer would be of course. But is it a good match? You have to visit it and feel it out, see if its what you want. Getting in and being a good match are 2 totally different things.</p>

4

<p>gospodi...ty hot' kogda-nibud' spish ili net? heh, seriously that's a very impressive resume and I think you would make a very good candidate, especially given Gtown's predilection for people with international backgrounds. Like griffsta said though, whether it's a good match or not depends on what you're interested in, what kind of environment and atmosphere you're looking for, etc.</p>

5

<p>Lol, yeah I do sleep dzleprechaun. Well, sort of...</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the advice. It's a good point that while I may get in, whether or not it's the right school for me varies. </p>

<p>So I'm interested, what's Georgetown really like? Naturally, I've read about it online, saw the campus in passing when I visted DC a while back, and know about its general rep, but I'm interested to see what kind of people go there, what the general atmosphere's like, etc.</p>

6

<p>Like just about any college over a certain size, it's going to have people of just about every stripe and type and the general atmosphere will be a mish-mash. Having said that, there's a few generalizations I can make that might give you a general sense of what it's like.</p>

<p>Because of the lack of a real strong fraternity/sorrority presence, social organizing ends up being a little different than at other schools. As everywhere, you will probably have some friends on your floor, friends who you met in class, and friends who you came to know randomly through luck or during one of the NSO events or in some other happenstance way. The mix varies with each person obviously. But student organizations and groups play a pretty big role, much more so, I think, than elsewhere.</p>

<p>The student orgs really take the place of frats/sorrorities. I'm talking about anything from The Hoya to The Corp, the credit union to the club volleyball team. They throw parties, they have initiations (which are, as a rule, just particularly debaucherous parties), they will introduce you to alot of new people, especially upperclassmen, who you wouldn't otherwise know. Plus, you will probably keep interacting with them, so chances increase that you'll find alot of friends through these orgs - and clearly you already share some common interests because you're in the same group and that speeds things along.</p>

<p>So student groups, for a lot of people, take care of the whole feeling of "needing to belong." It's a nice balance I think, because these groups aren't so exclusive like frats can be, where everyone outside the social circle is an outsider that is not to be interacted with. </p>

<p>In terms of the people, there's alot of people with an international background of some sort. Many Catholics, many people from New Jersey and the Northeast in general, which is where the preppy element comes in. To be really cliche, there's a "work hard, play hard" mentality among many. With some exceptions, Sunday through Thursday afternoon are generally for studying. Thursday night through Saturday are for amusement, which generally involves drinking in one form or another. It all depends on your particular social circle, of course.</p>

<p>I think I've already written waaay too much but if you have any more questions ask away.</p>