Hello, I am currently a high school junior. As of now I am making good grades and have a lot of unique extracurriculars. I have not taken the ACT nor the SAT yet.
Next year, I am hoping to get apply and be accepted to Georgetown University. It is my top choice and I just love the school. I am a conservative and you will clearly be able to see that on my extracurriculars because I am in the Teenage Republicans Club at my high school and I have created a politically themed online tshirt website. I am also planning to apply for an internship with one of my Senator’s local offices this summer as well as work for the local GOP.
I am worried that my conservative stances may negatively affect my chances of being accepted to Georgetown. I know that Georgetown is an extremely liberal college and I also don’t care if I will be surrounding by people with different beliefs than me.
Will my conservative views/extracurriculars help, hurt, or have no affect on my application? Please help me, thank you.
Should we be so confident that this is true now, as opposed to not that long ago?
It was not that long ago that people could disagree about politics and policy but still accept each other as decent people. But politics today is more often hate politics that is like racism (perhaps at least partially because racism and accusations thereof are now much more prominent in politics now), where the other is the sworn enemy who cannot be decent people. When more people take this view, that makes it more likely that an admission reader at a college has this view, which increases the risk that political differences can affect his/her rating an application that expresses political views.
While it is liberal for a Jesuit university, on the continuum it’s certainly not “extremely liberal”. You’ll find plenty of Conservative-minded students at Georgetown.
Also, Georgetown admits a very small % of applicants. So it’s great to have a top choice, but you’ll want to have several other choices that you’ll be happy with on your application list.
OP, other than listing a club and a t-shirt co, maybe working for the senator and the party, how will they learn your personal stands? How do they figure in your app?
Lots and lots of conservative kids go to all sorts of colleges, are welcome and feel comfortable. (It’s up to you to take this further, check the clubs and activities on campus, for some feel for your opportunities. Otoh, ha, no better place for a politically interested kid than DC.)
And admissions readers are not looking for freaking clones. All the top privates want diversity.
My understanding is that Gtown has a healthy mix of students all over the political spectrum. I know an ultra conservative student there. I can’t imagine there are many excessively left liberals.
@ucbalumnus in context of the info this person has provided, I can’t imagine this student being branded and denied just becasue of political views. FWIW, I agree with you.
I hope there is not a bias against students of certain political beliefs but agree with the statement above that political feelings are so embittered today it is pretty easy to imagine an AO with one set of beliefs responding negatively to a candidate with the opposite. I would think this could especially come into play at an extremely competitive school like GU where that AO might only be recommending approximately 1 of every 9 applicants.
Bottom line: Unfortunately, it’s just impossible to know, regardless of school policy, how politics might sway an individual AO given today’s political environment. Good luck and hope you get an objective review, at Georgetown and elsewhere. (I don’t view Georgetown as especially liberal.)
An AO would likely be more negatively swayed by a poorly written essay or some random weird or immature comment, than one’s party affiliation. Or ECs all of one sort. Or no stretch.
You believe adcoms come in only one flavor? No Repubs, conservatives, and in DC, of all places? And that, at a top school, with kids of all sorts, they’re going to sink to some petty ‘hate politics?’ Come on.
The answer to the original question is No, it won’t hurt you. And there are plenty of conservative students at Georgetown, even if the majority are not.
Agree, conservative views won’t hurt you at Gtown. They should not hurt you at any school . On the off chance that there is a school that you feel denied you because of your political beliefs then it probably isn’t the right school for you anyway.
Really, no issue with it at any school. I understand why you are concerned: The conservative media are pushing a victimhood narrative that conservatives are a persecuted minority, and it’s probably very stressful for you.
It is tue that you might be more comfortable at some schools than others, but you are not going to experience discrimination in admissions.
I go to Georgetown, and no, you will not be penalized in the admissions process for having conservative organizations on your resume. If anything, the administration (while generally liberal) pushes political equality to an almost comical degree.
It’s true that generally speaking Georgetown is pretty liberal, but there are definitely conservatives on campus, and they tend to be fairly close-knit because they are in the minority. The only qualification I’ll make is that the conservatives here are overwhelmingly of the Alex P. Keaton/Mitt Romney Republican variety. The College Republicans have in fact denounced several of Trump’s policies, including the recent executive order on immigration from the seven Muslim-majority countries.
In any case, from an admissions standpoint you should be fine as long as you don’t make your political beliefs the focal point of your application, which is advice that applies regardless of what your political beliefs actually are.
As a current student, I can tell you that the simple answer is that no, you will not be penalized in terms of your application. Georgetown’s policy on discrimination of any kind means that they cannot penalize you simply for your political views.
However, I should warn you that conservatives over here are treated like absolute scum. I am a conservative just like you, and my political views in a highly liberal, polarized environment meant that it was hard to make friends and find a lot of like minded people while I was here, and it is because of this that I am considering transferring (Refer to my thread from a few days ago).
Also, FYI, I am a member of the Republican club and we have a very very swampy leadership right now. The entire board voted for Hillary in the last election.
^What do you mean, 'swampy '?
By definition you’re all college kids, you can’t be entrenched in the legal /financial/political establishment yet. Unless you mean all students in the Republican club are scions of the political/financial/legal elite in which case the issue is diversity in recruitment for the club.
@randomstudent789 :
The only situation where it’d be a problem is if you use ‘conservative’ as a euphemism for 'racist /homophobic ', such as the boy who discussed youth activities with the KKK as life affirming scouting.
G’town is middle of the road politically and certainly not American, let alone Oberlin. of course it’s not W&L or TAMU but there’s a wide variety of viewpoints. In fact, adcoms will appreciate your political involvement and your attempt at making the world better through direct action.