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

Early Admissions Rate Declines to Record 13%

With a 13 percent admission rate, Georgetown accepted the lowest-ever number of early action applicants for the Class of 2017, in a year with a record number of students applying early.

Of the 6,850 candidates who applied to the early action pool, 880 were accepted, marking a dip of about 2 percent from last year, when 1,012 students out of 6,699, or about 15 percent, were admitted.

Across the four schools, the College had the lowest acceptance rate with only 12 percent, or 436 hopefuls, admitted, while the Walsh School of Foreign Service had the highest acceptance rate, at 16 percent or 218 students.

McDonough School of Business and the School of Nursing and Health Studies both had rates of 13% with 154 and 72 students accepted, respectively.

“The overall attitude of the admissions committee is to make sure you have plenty of room left over at the regular time because there’ll be 20,000 applicants all told,” said Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69). “But there was no intention to admit fewer. It’s just that when all was said and done, those were the ones who [are] strong enough to be said yes to now.”

Deacon attributed the lower overall acceptance rate to caution from the admissions committee.

“I guess it was just a willingness to be a little bit more conservative this time around,” he said.

Some groups, however, experienced higher acceptance rates than the average of 13 percent.

Fourteen percent of international applicants, or 74 students, were admitted early compared to the total 311 international students who were accepted in from the regular and early pools in 2012.

According to Deacon, the number of black students accepted early increased from 39 in 2012 to 49 in 2013, a 26 percent jump after applications from that group increased 12 percent this year.

Although statistics varied by classification, he indicated that the number of early admissions was generally lower across the board.

However, Deacon noted that the academic makeup of the applicant pool was similar to last year’s.

Median SAT scores were 700 to 770 each for the critical reading and math components.

Peer institutions such as the University of Chicago had a similar early acceptance rate to Georgetown’s for the Class of 2017, at just under 13.4 percent, while Harvard and Yale Universities, which both have restrictive early action policies, accepted 18.4 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively, according to an article in The New York Times’ Choice blog.

Deacon said that Georgetown will likely be one of few schools in this admissions cycle with early acceptance rates that are lower than those from regular decision. He estimated that due to Georgetown’s non-binding early action policy, only about half of the 880 accepted students will matriculate to the university and account for less than a third of the final makeup of the Class of 2017. In contrast, he said that schools with binding early decision policies are more likely to accept higher numbers of students early.

“I think … it’s tempting for schools, especially early decision, where you know the students are going to come … to take a lot of people to make sure you have a good yield in the long run,” he said.

Deacon added that the early admission numbers would not affect the combined statistics for early action and regular decision.

“We still expect the admit rate percent overall to be 17 percent when all is said and done,” Deacon said.

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