Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Admissions Releases Transfer Decisions, Aims to Enroll 140

Over the past three weeks, Georgetown notified 222 transfer applicants of their acceptance to the university. These 222 students were selected from an applicant pool of 1,964, indicating an admissions rate of just over 11 percent.

The university seeks to welcome 140 transfer students to campus this fall, according to Senior Associate Director of Admissions Bruce Chamberlin, a year after the university enrolled 228 transfer students in fall 2013.

According to Chamberlin, the target reflects multiple factors, including the rate of current students who transfer out and the number of students who study abroad.

“A lot of it depends on the percentage of students who study abroad. We certainly look at student attrition, which is very minimal — in other words, 98-plus percent of freshman come back as sophomores,” he said. “We look at all those variables that come into play.”

The number won’t be finalized until the university is sure on the number of students studying abroad.

“Really, the variable comes to the number of students who study abroad for the fall semester in particular,” Chamberlin said. “There’s still a little bit of fluidity in that number.”

The university must stay under the enrollment cap of 6,675 students imposed by the 2010 campus plan agreement.

The Georgetown University Student Association Transfer Council welcomed accepted transfer students June 3 via phone call. GUSA executives Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) and Omika Jikaria (SFS ’15) established the council in March.

“They reached out and called just about every admitted transfer student,” Chamberlin said. “I overheard some great conversations students were having with the transfer students.”

Jikaria pointed to the council’s role in attracting transfer candidates.

“[The council] consists of a group of transfer students who have been working tirelessly to improve the transfer experience at Georgetown. We believe that this will continue to grow as one of the many groups and offerings at Georgetown that attract such a large transfer applicant pool,” she wrote in an email. “The admitted transfer student calling was one of example of the great work this organization has been undertaking with the help of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.”

Tezel agreed and cited other initiatives the council has planned.

“The Council has been hard at work with other initiatives as well. They have put in place a transfer mentorship program that should allow new students to more easily integrate into the Georgetown community,” he wrote in an email. “We believe that this will all lend to an improved student experience for transfer students.”

The rolling transfer admissions decisions started in the second week of May.

“We want to try to give students a final decision on their applications as soon as we can,” Chamberlin said.

Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania also release transfer admissions decisions in mid-May. The Universities of California, by contrast, release decisions in March and April.

Accepted transfer students have until June 15 to decide whether or not to enroll. The Office of Admissions keeps a transfer waitlist, but, according to Chamberlin, the office expects a yield rate of about 60 percent, meaning that the university will most likely not have to delve into the wait list to meet its target of 140.

Chamberlin expressed his belief in the quality of the incoming transfer class, which will include rising sophomores and juniors.

“The transfer class coming in this fall will be a fantastic one,” he said.

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