Hoyas' Success May Boost Admissions

The Hoyas’ success may translate to more applicants and more generous donors.

When the basketball team was last dominant over 20 years ago, applications to the university skyrocketed, and Georgetown began to take on the status of a selective university that it boasts today. Now that the Hoyas are back in the Final Four for the first time since 1985, officials hope that the team’s success will propel the university even higher in the national academic rankings and attract a stronger applicant pool.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said that the success of the men’s basketball program has increased the university’s national visibility, in turn bolstering applications. In the fall of 1982, the first time that the Hoyas reached the Final Four in nearly 40 years, the university received 8,309 undergraduate applicants and accepted 31 percent of the applicant pool. Five years and two Final Four appearances later — including a national championship in 1984 — applications had risen over 43 percent to nearly 12,000, and the university’s acceptance rate plummeted a full 10 percentage points, to 21 percent.

Although application totals have increased in the past 20 years, the university’s acceptance rate has remained largely unchanged since its last Final Four appearance. In 2006, Georgetown accepted 22 percent of its undergraduate applicants.

“Basketball was certainly making us more visible. The Georgetown name was on the tongue of a lot of people,” Deacon said.

Deacon added that while the interest in the basketball program in the last few seasons has definitely increased, the Hoyas’ recent success will probably not have as big of an effect on the university’s admissions as it did in the 1980s, because Georgetown is more nationally recognized now than it was a quarter-century ago.

“[Basketball] was a bigger factor back in the ’80s,” Deacon said. “Back then, Georgetown’s name recognition was not there. Now, it’s very high.”

Associate Director of Admissions Melissa Costanzi said that the basketball program’s impact on the school’s national prominence was stronger in the 1980s.

“The name getting out there in the ’80s changed it to being known as a national institution rather than a regional institution,” Costanzi said.

While there is an expectation that this year’s Final Four will lead to an increase in applications, Deacon says that he is more concerned with giving each application its proper attention. He says that the admissions office always hopes to maintain a 10 -1 application-to-admission ratio.

“We are not chasing the false god of a lower admit rate,” Deacon said. “The bigger [the applicant pool] is, the less justice you can give to each kid.”

Admissions are not the only factor that may be boosted by the basketball team’s revival. William Reynolds, the associate vice president for alumni relations and the Annual Fund in the university’s Office of Advancement, said that the team’s recent success has helped increase contributions from alumni.

Donations for athletics have increased 48 percent from last year, and have reached $2.4 million since the fiscal year began on July 1, a new record, Reynolds said. Donations for the basketball program have nearly doubled, although Reynolds attributed the increase to a number of factors.

“Basketball giving is up 92 percent a year to date thanks to a more aggressive marketing plan, a great team effort and the trajectory of the program among other reasons,” he said.

— Hoya Staff Writer Sarah Mellott contributed to this report.