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The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown Sees Record-Low Acceptance Rate for Class of 2022

A record-high number of students applied to Georgetown University in this year’s undergraduate application cycle, resulting in a 14.5 percent acceptance rate — the lowest rate in the university’s history.

In total, 22,897 students applied to Georgetown’s Class of 2022, and 3,327 of them were admitted. The applicant pool is the university’s largest ever, breaking the previous record of 21,459 applicants set last year, according to university documents provided by Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69).

“It’s the most competitive group ever admitted,” Deacon said.

This year marks the second consecutive record-breaking application pool. Before last year’s cycle, Georgetown’s applicant pool had been relatively steady since at least 2012, according to Deacon.

Georgetown admissions officers believe a surge in youth political engagement since the 2016 presidential election has attracted more students to the university’s location in Washington, D.C., according to Deacon. Deacon said students pursuing a variety of fields, and not just Georgetown’s popular government and politics programs, are increasingly drawn to “being in the presence of things that matter.”

“There is definitely more of a feeling among more young people that they need to get more engaged in their country,” Deacon said. “I do think there is sort of a magnet that makes Washington, D.C., interesting.”

FILE PHOTO: ALEXANDER BROWN


All four of Georgetown’s undergraduate schools saw an increase in applicants compared to last year. Georgetown College’s applicant pool increased to 13,809 applicants from 12,920; the Walsh School of Foreign Service’s pool rose to 4,166 from 3,994; the McDonough School of Business pool increased to 3,422 from 3,283 and the School of Nursing and Health Studies pool rose to 1,500 from 1,268.

Other top-ranking school have seen soaring applicant numbers as well. Out of the nation’s eight Ivy League schools, seven saw record-low acceptance rates this year, according to an analysis by the University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian.

Deacon explained that some of the reasons for recent application pool increases are not Georgetown-specific. Rather, the increase was partly caused by a nationwide rise in SAT test scores. As students’ scores increase, Deacon said, an increasing number of high school graduates see top schools such as Georgetown as being “within their reach.”

But the continuing rise in test scores, according to Deacon, is “largely a factor of the the revised testing system itself.”

The national average SAT score increased dramatically last year after the SAT’s overhaul in 2016, which made the test more curriculum-focused, combined the previously separate reading and writing sections and made the essay section optional. Average scores on the redesigned test were about 20 points higher on the math section and about 40 points higher on the combined reading and writing section compared to previous years.

At Georgetown, the average SAT scores of admitted students this year were the highest ever: 725 on the evidence-based reading and writing section and 742 on math.

Because so many Georgetown applicants had high test scores this year, exceptional scores alone were no guarantee of admission: Of this year’s applicants who scored a perfect 800 on the SAT evidence-based reading and writing section, less than half were admitted.

Students with high scores were still substantially more likely to be admitted than their peers. Yet, rising scores required admissions officers to give greater consideration to students’ talents and achievements outside the classroom — what Georgetown has called its “holistic admissions process.”

“I think because so much of the testing went up, the holistic process actually took greater effect — in the sense that it took more than just good grades and test scores. You also had to back that up with a pretty interesting set of accomplishments,” Deacon said.

Students were admitted from all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The top states for admitted students were California and New York, followed by New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

Admitted students also came from 81 foreign countries, though slightly fewer self-identified foreign nationals were accepted this year compared to last year: 255 in 2018 compared to 274 in 2017.

Twelve percent of students admitted to Georgetown’s Class of 2022 are black, 12 percent are Hispanic and 19 percent are Asian. Georgetown admitted slightly more black, Hispanic and Asian students this year compared to last.

Eleven percent of admitted applicants — 354 students — are first-generation college students. Deacon said administrators are “anxious” to accept and enroll more first-generation students in the future.

Looking forward, Georgetown plans to stick with the same admissions policies it has had in the past: no Common Application, no early decision and no “score choice” — a policy now adopted by most schools, which allows students to send schools only their best test scores rather than sending scores for every SAT or ACT they took.

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  • M

    Marshall K PoseyNov 3, 2019 at 7:56 am

    Always comical to see the social warrior types whining. Just because one is of a certain group should have no bearing on admissions. If the applicant is top notch in the scoring areas, then offer admission….if not, then don’t. No school owes anyone admission just because one can check a certain block. Like is full of disappointments….. take your lumps and act like an adult. DeGioia is doing a fantastic job.

    Reply
  • B

    Bill PaulsMay 12, 2018 at 8:43 pm

    To all you Social Justice Warrior types, if you are truly interested in “Fairness” I would like to make a suggestion to aid in your cause. I propose we do away with all questions that deal with race, ethnicity, gender, and origins. In their place, we will only have an identifying number to differentiate the candidates. Each application will truly be blind and evaluated based on achievements alone. Yes, we may not guarantee equality of opportunity but we will certainly have equality of outcome. There is your fairness test.

    Reply
    • S

      stuart fongJul 25, 2018 at 2:18 am

      i agree. universities claim to want diversity in ethnicity and social-economic at the expense of well qualified students.
      The messages they are sending are 1) merit doesn’t count and 2) american born asians need not apply.

      Reply
      • S

        Stephen VergesJun 5, 2019 at 11:36 am

        You nailed it

        Reply
  • S

    Stephen VergesApr 24, 2018 at 9:22 am

    @TheHoya How many Washington, D.C. Public Schools students were in the matriculation running for application and acceptance? I don’t believe the answer is protected by FERPA, but I do think that if there is any real commitment to minority students who are from Washington, D.C., if the applied and the accepted aren’t in numbers reflecting fair numbers of local incoming students, Georgetown University lacks an amount of cultural diversity it dilettantishly pretends to partake in.

    Questions concerning this article:

    “Students were admitted from all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The top states for admitted students were California and New York, followed by New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.”

    Were any minority students accepted from Washington, D.C. Public Schools for this “as well as” pool of students, and why is DC on a short list for students when the university is located in DC? Is DeGioa that much of a cryptic racist tricoteuse, that he would earn so much from Washington, DC but give back so little to local people of minority backgrounds for college matriculation in a public school system?

    “Admitted students also came from 81 foreign countries, though slightly fewer self-identified foreign nationals were accepted this year compared to last year: 255 in 2018 compared to 274 in 2017.”

    The statistic above suggests foreign national students numbers dropped by 19 students when comparing 2017 to 2018, if this drop was to make room for incoming local students from DC, how many more DC students from minority backgrounds attending public schools were accepted from comparing 2017 to 2018?

    “Twelve percent of students admitted to Georgetown’s Class of 2022 are black, 12 percent are Hispanic and 19 percent are Asian. Georgetown admitted slightly more black, Hispanic and Asian students this year compared to last.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/opinion/the-case-for-black-with-a-capital-b.html

    Capitalize the word “Black”, since it denotes with respect to the social sciences an idea of proper named ethnicity. Does your statistic claim “more black, Hispanic and Asian students” are African American or African in origin, Hispanic of Latin American or Spanish heritage, and lastly Asian as Asian American or Asian personhood?

    I am not impressed by the article for many reasons, and if these questions are answered, I’m sure 2018 will be another year Georgetown feigns absolute ignorance and piggishness for the matter of the Jesuitical rock Georgetown University claims it was built on whether it suggests the university is a piedmont of Catholic social action and service or it is just a slime ball center of academia with nothing but the intellectual parsimony of a ‘university business model’ school for privileged Whites.

    This lack of meaningful applications and acceptance process has gone on for too long and always steered towards Whites, and I would ask Georgetown students to petition the immediate removal of DeGioia as a result. I just don’t think Georgetown students are able to protest in such fashion, certainly Georgetown students don’t have the courage of the well published student protests which happened a few miles away at Howard University as of recent. From my experience and presently speaking, Georgetown University students are mostly philosophical cowards who care more for this type of Whiteness than anything else in the academic world open to all walks of life.

    Reply