Hi,
I just recently was accepted to both UPenn and Georgetown. I love Georgetown’s campus and location, but I also love Penn And have already met some wonderful people who would be my classmates if I went there.
At Penn I would double major in Environmental Science and Political Science. At Georgetown, I’d probably major in Gov.
Any tips on how to make this difficult decision?
Thanks!
Penn and Georgetown have pretty different social cultures, so that’s something to keep in mind. If you’re looking to do political work, DC’s obviously a much better place to be, but Penn also has a good polisci department. Really depends on what you value in a university
Sounds like you can’t go wrong as you sincerely love elements of both of these excellent schools! Have you had a chance to visit and stay overnight with a current student? If not, I would highly recommend that as a next step. Have you spoken with faculty in your chosen department(s)? Another good idea. Also, the climate (actual weather) will be quite different at the two schools. Do you have serious preferences about that? Imagine that you were to make employment connections at the university you choose… would you rather spend several more years (or even a lifetime) in one location over the other? These are steps and considerations I’d recommend. But, again, these are both fabulous choices. Congratulations on your admissions successes!
For us, it comes down to cost. Penn would cost half what Georgetown would…based on their NPC.
@jjac233 - I am confused why someone would choose Georgetown over UPenn unless you are a recruited athlete who wants to play D1 sports OR want to be located in DC OR there is a significant disparity in cost. Penn is stronger in almost every discipline. It is significantly more selective. Its ranking is significantly higher. My guess is that Penn wins against Gtown in cross-admits about 90% of the time. You are very lucky to have 2 wonderful options but I think Penn is the winner here. The majority of students at Gtown could not get into Penn or did not get into Penn. I know some people will disagree but that is the truth. Just compare their admissions stats (7%, 1500 SAT average) compared to Gtown (north of 16%, 1420 SAT average). The students at Penn will be more accomplished on average.
Oh I don’t know OP. There’s plenty of reasons you can choose Gtown.
Perhaps because of DC. Perhaps of IR and SFS. Perhaps the Jesuit commitment to service. Perhaps access to the activities off campus in an awesome Georgetown community. Perhaps the vibe. Perhaps nothing more than you like it better.
It’s not like you’ll have to look down at your shoes when someone asks here you go to school.
But the extra cost for Georgetown makes me think Penn on an ROI basis alone makes more sense.
However, with the stand alone application, non binding ea, all test scores and three subject test requirement. Some feel Georgetown is actually the tougher ticket in 2019. But probably not.
It does receive many fewer applications except for the truly committed.
If they were on the common app their acceptance rate would fall by 50 percent. Imho. Not that the quality of competition would by increase much, but a lot of Hail Mary and “why not” applications would drive only one side of the equation. Total applications.
And probably 95 percent of the class would be the same exact class profile as this year or tad higher.
It’s funny, I did an exercise for another student looking at the professors of English at Harvard and Neuroscience at Yale. Which are both considered to be better than the elite schools like Penn and the other ivies, Stanford etc. it was eye opening how many came from public schools ug and grad. FWIW.
And of course you can clearly choose Penn without the cost advantage. And most probably would. For the same exact reasons mentioned in other posts… And it’s Penn and all the perceived value it brings. Plus the academics are spectacular.
Penn is generally considered a bit more selective.
But if you take out the Wharton cohort, I doubt it is much different at all.
One thing to note, is Georgetown has a been getting a growing reputation of being super intense and hyper competitive. Not sure if it’s true. But that’s the word on the street. . And being involved in clubs and activities seems to have its own social hierarchy and expectation level on campus.
Congratulations on your fine results and hope you have a great four years wherever you choose.
@StanfordGSB00 Sorry, but I have to disagree with you there. There are tons of students at Georgetown and schools like Georgetown that can get into and have gotten into schools as selective as the University of Pennsylvania. I believe it is wrong of you to assume just because the acceptance rate is lower, the students there are more accomplished and can score higher. Average standardized test scores mean nothing here. Schools are accepting based on a holistic process that can often times admit those with possibly a 1230 over a student with a 1600. In current times when the college admissions process is extremely cutthroat and competitive, it is unfair of you to generalize Georgetown students as overall less accomplished and less high achieving than those at a school like Penn when every day there are students being rejected from those über selective schools with comparable if not more impressive applications than students who have been accepted.
I am surprised that Georgetown is twice as expensive as UPenn for some people. Usually, it offers comparable financial aid packages to those of its ivy peers. After all, it is need blind.
@hzhao2004 Georgetown doesnt have comparable resources to most ivies so it is not a surprise they are not as generous when it comes to financial aid.
Penn has a ~$14B endowment and ~$630k endowment per student.
Georgetown has a ~$1.7B endowment and ~$90k endowment per student.
@jjac233 I will echo @StanfordGSB00 here. I am not sure why this is a difficult decision unless there is a very personal reason why you would want to go to to Georgetown. Penn is stronger in all fields across the board, it is always ranked higher and it is an ivy. There are also quite a few Georgetown undergrads transferring into Penn as sophomores every year.
According to Parchment (which is not perfect but still representative), 86% of cross admits choose Penn over Goergeotown.
https://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=University+of+Pennsylvania&with=Georgetown+University
They are about equal for Poli Sci, which is a basic department at most colleges. if you like both equally, Penn at half the price is a no-brainer.
I do love how people becry the use of development candidates to selective schools. Then people bring up the size of the endowment and better aid as demonstrations of superiority.
Of students who begin at Georgetown, 90% (among the highest in the nation) graduate within four years (for Penn, the figure is 86%). It doesn’t appear that Georgetown students commonly transfer anywhere.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/highest-grad-rate
@merc81 the statistic you show doesnt answer the question. You need the reteNtion rate. Btw the six-year graduation rates are more or less the same: 95% of GU, 95.5% for Penn. I tis very common at Penn to do dual degrees/double majors etc so many of these kids need another year or semester to finish.
Anyway back to retention rates:
-Penn : 98.3% of students who entered Penn in Fall 2017 were still enrolled in Fall 2018
-Georgetown: 96% Of students who entered in Fall 20`6 were still enrolled in Fall 2018
I wasn’t saying it is common but at least anecdotally it happens. In my year at Penn (not too long ago, I graduated in the past decade), I knew 3 people in my year who had transferred from GU.
Penn at half price is a no-brainer.
@privatebanker I’m very pro developmental candidate provided they’re a negligible fraction of the student body. If letting in 5 rich kids pays for 500, count me in. If 30% of the student body is comprised of developmental candidates, that would obviously be a major issue. Even the handful of under qualified students who make it to these schools take up a disproportionate amount of faculty time. It’s really a question of doing a cost-benefit analysis. How many entitled and under qualified developmental candidates is too many? 1%? 5%? 15%?