Georgetown or HYP

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgetown University
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I’m a little bit hesitant to ask this, because I feel so lucky to have these options. Accepted HYP, Georgetown (College), Cornell, and my home state school. I’m from one of those large rectangular states and don’t know anyone who ever attended any of these schools. Everyone assumes I’ll pick from HY or P, but I really liked Georgetown when visiting schools out east.

Candidly, I’m a bit of a country kid with conservative values (not a Trumper – please! Politically independent, but I’m not sure how well I’ll fit in a ultra left leaning environment either.

Academic plans – who knows? Most likely major in English, but very open minded.

In short, would I be crazy to choose Georgetown?

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yes you would be crazy. I made the mistake of choosing “fit” over prestige as a high schooler and regretted it so I had to transfer. If you hate HYP then you can transfer to Gtown, nearly impossible to go the otherway.

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Agree with 20transfer20 100%

Your question strikes a chord with me for personal reasons that I won’t go into.

A few thoughts:

Georgetown is an excellent school. I did not attend, but still have some personal knowledge of the place (friends and colleagues who did). It is very pre-professional. Students tend to choose their majors and often their extracurricular activities as part of a “master plan” of sorts. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and as much as it pains me to say this, undergraduates these days are consumers who have to weigh return on investment carefully.

Here’s the thing that most people won’t come out and actually say: there is nothing special or elite about pre-professional education. That’s why you can’t major in business or accounting at Princeton (you can at Georgetown). Among colleges where pre-professionalism is the norm, Georgetown probably is at the very top. However, you frankly don’t sound like someone who’s looking to do that. If you told me that you absolutely want to be a Foreign Service Officer, then maybe it wouldn’t be crazy to choose Georgetown SFS over HYP (but I personally think it would still be a mistake).

Another difference between HYP and Georgetown is a relatively small, but very special, cohort of students who attend HYP. Georgetown is full of smart kids, many of them are extremely smart, and obviously there is overlap with HYP in GPA, SAT’s, etc. Not everyone at HYP is a genius. However, the kind of students who major in mathematics at Princeton, or classics at Harvard, or humanities at Yale do not attend Georgetown. I am not and never will be on that level of brilliance, but there are advantages to getting to know these extremely rare, gifted people. I learned that during my post-doc training at Yale.

As far as the “fit” goes, I can definitely identify with being from a place where people don’t normally attend these schools. I also grew up in a very traditional American family and community. Don’t be insecure about who you are, but recognize that it’s a good thing to feel a bit uncomfortable in college. That doesn’t mean you should attend a school where you’ll be miserable, but a school that seems like a good fit now may not prove to be a good in a few years.

Now this is just opinion, but over my adult life I’ve observed the following:

  1. It’s not difficult to find Harvard College alums who say “I hated Harvard.” The unifying thread seems to be institutional arrogance and faculty indifference to undergraduates.
  2. Most Princeton alums love the place. However, there is a small cohort of students/alums who absolutely hate it. They usually speak disdainfully of the eating clubs, extremely preppy vibe, and beautiful people culture. It is difficult for me to imagine that these individuals would have loved Georgetown.
  3. It’s very uncommon to find a Yale College alum who speaks negatively of the experience. The environment is a very unique blend of staunch traditionalism and the avante garde. Think very carefully before you turn it down.

Either way you go, congrats on the wonderful achievement of getting these acceptance letters!

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As an English major, I will provide advice that is at odds with my regular advice, and recommend HYP over Georgetown. English is one of those fields for which the reputation of the school is directly related to chances of employment.

Princeton is, IMO, the best college of your list for an English degree, with Harvard as #2, and Yale as #3. If you had some liberal arts colleges there, I would place a number of them higher than these colleges, though.

According to Niche, Georgetown is actually more liberal-leaning than any of the HYP.

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Many thanks for the thoughtful replies. I actually decided Princeton but am full of doubt and anxiety.

Money ironically isn’t a huge factor. My dad is retired military and transferred GI Bill benefits to me. In 8th or 9th grade I put my sights on West Point, but junior year found out that a medical issue would be a deal breaker. My disappointment lasted until the standardized testing results came back. 1600/800/800/800. Guidance counselors and teachers start telling me to that I should look at the Ivies. There’s nothing exceptional about my extracurricular activities (usual all-American kid stuff), and I haven’t published a book or solved world hunger. My suspicion is that I got these acceptances because of the testing and the fact that I’m from one of the large sparsely populated rectangular states.

Again, my family is very conservative. I mean that more culturally than politically – again we’re not Trump supporters in any way. Georgetown actually came on my radar because it seemed like the only religious affiliated school on the Ivy League level. My family isn’t even Catholic, but it did feel more my style.

So it’s off to Princeton, but I’m probably not as excited as I should be, which has filled me with all sorts of complicated, conflicted emotions.

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I’m late to the party but would like to share some thoughts.

My daughter is at Georgetown and chose it over Dartmouth. Not the same as HYP, I realize. She loves it but she wanted Wall Street and will be returning (virtually) this summer for her junior year internship at a big bank (she did it last summer, too). She’s hoping for an offer. All of her friends have similar offers. Financial recruiting is great, even for non business majors.

I think I overall agree with the posters that have said go with HYP mainly because of your choice of major.

If you had your sights on Wall Street or Politics/Foreign Service, I think Georgetown would have been a fine choice as well. Don’t think you can go wrong with HYP for English ever.

My biggest reason for wanting to post is about the Conservatism topic. My daughter is more left than right, but most of her friends are right leaning and are also NOT fans of Trump. One of her good friends wrote Mitt Romney in in 2016. Another Ted Cruz. I think most of them now will go with Biden over Trump just to get him out and save the Republican Party from itself (but maybe not all).

Believe it or not the political vibe on campus according to my daughter is pretty apathetic. There are some active groups but, surprisingly, at least in her group, it’s not really talked about a lot. (Which is even more surprising now with such a controversial White House). There are Pro-Lifers and some Anti-Gay groups which I’m going to guess are more respected/active than similar groups (if there even are any) at HYP. I would NOT agree with the poster that said Georgetown is more liberal than HYP. I do think it is overall more left leaning (despite my daughter’s group experience), but I don’t think it’s more left than any of the Ivies. But I do NOT think there is a lot of clashing between groups with different ideologies. I just think for the most part, kids don’t discuss politics.

Congrats on Princeton. I’m sure you will find your people. My hunch is it’s an open-minded and accepting group overall. To get in there, you have to be pretty special and I would think overall admissions has done a good job of finding amazing students like yourself. Congrats!

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