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

16.6% Admitted to Class of 2018

WEB_AdmissionsJust as the university wrapped up its first GAAP Weekend for students through accepted early action Sunday, 2,277 high school seniors began receiving word of their regular decision admission to the Class of 2018.

Out of 19,501 total applicants, 2,277 were accepted through regular decision. The overall admission rate in the combined early and regular decision cycles was 16.6 percent, slightly lower than last year’s 17 percent for the Class of 2017.

The McDonough School of Business was once again the most selective school with an acceptance rate of 16 percent, slightly higher than last year’s rate of 15.7 percent.

“There has been more growth in the MSB than other schools, and partly that is because of job opportunities,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69) said. “The yield is pushing up towards 60 percent in the MSB. Perhaps the MSB pool is a little more self-selective and less dependent on financial aid, so people have the ability to say yes more easily.”

Georgetown College admitted 16.4 percent of applicants, slightly higher than 2013’s 16.3 percent acceptance rate. Both the School of Nursing and Health Studies and the Walsh School of Foreign Service admitted 17.5 percent of applicants, slightly lower than last year’s rate of 17.7 percent for the NHS and 18.7 percent for the SFS .

The number of first-generation college students leveled at 12 percent, the same as last year, a number which, according to Deacon, is consistent with national trends.

“Colleges are recruiting harder in that population to bring more equity, and there is a lot more attention given to it. Kids in first-generation backgrounds are beginning to believe they have that chance,” Deacon said. “We have some pretty good partnerships with scholarships and that helps us get students in the pool that might not otherwise apply to Georgetown.”

Additionally, the accepted class is 56 percent female, two points lower than the national average of 58 percent female.

California and New York were again the two most represented states in the admitted class, with 391 and 382 students, respectively. New Jersey had the next largest representation with 259 admitted students.

Although Georgetown admitted students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 64 countries, the percent of international students, at 8.5 percent, saw a nearly three-point decrease from last year’s pool. The majority of international applicants came from South Korea, China and the United Kingdom, respectively.

Deacon attributed this decrease in admitted international students to the total decrease in international applicants, down 10 percent from last year.

“We may have hit a ceiling, or at least a pause, in this growth of international applicants. It could be the law of averages catching up to us,” Deacon said. “Our staff is going to India in the next couple of weeks, and that we see as an area to grow more in terms of applicants.”

The acceptance rate for minority students increased 0.6 percent from last year’s record number of 39 percent to 39.6 percent. Within individual minority groups, there was a 4-point bump from 2013 in the number of accepted students who self-identified as Asian-American, from 13 to 17.3 percent. Ten percent of admitted students identified as African-American, a slight increase from last year’s accepted class of 9 percent, while almost 12 percent of accepted students identified as Hispanic, up slightly from 11 percent. At 7 percent, the rate of students identifying with multiple ethnicities remained the same as last year.

Georgetown still distinguishes itself from peer universities by remaining separate from the Common Application and requiring an alumni interview. According to Deacon, the separate application process results in fewer applicants every year and consequently a higher acceptance rate compared to peer institutions such as University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College and Emory University, which had admit rates of 12.3, 10.4 and 26.5 percent, respectively, according to their websites.

Accepted Georgetown student Sian Rigby praised the university’s separate, unique application.

“I enjoyed the personal ‘Georgetown touch’ apparent in the application. Georgetown has been my dream school since middle school, and I felt I could demonstrate that sentiment more effectively with the Georgetown application than I would have been able to through the Common App,” Rigby wrote.

According to Deacon, Georgetown offered 2,123 students spots on the waitlist this year and expects to accept around 50 waitlisted students in May after deposits have been sent for a target class size of no more than 1,580 students, in accordance with the 2010 Campus Plan Agreement’s cap of 6,675 undergraduates.

Over the next few weeks, the university will push to woo accepted students through alumni-sponsored receptions across the country and the Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program events running throughout the month of April leading up to the May 1 decision date. Last year, 47.4 percent of accepted students in the Class of 2017 enrolled in Georgetown.

With one GAAP weekend already held, some prospective students already find themselves attached to the Hilltop.

“GAAP weekend was incredible. I already loved Georgetown, but GAAP weekend convinced me that extra little bit I needed that it would be worth it to fly all the way across the country to come here. It was the most well-organized, well-planned open house I’ve been to, and I enjoyed it thoroughly,” said Aislinn McNiece, an accepted senior from Lafayette, Calif.

View Comments (5)
Donate to The Hoya

Your donation will support the student journalists of Georgetown University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Hoya

Comments (5)

All The Hoya Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Leave a Reply to Small Mistake Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • S

    Small MistakeAug 4, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    Those are the acceptance rates for Penn and Dartmouth’s classes of 2017. This year Penn’s acceptance rate was 9.9% and Dartmouth’s acceptance rate was 11.5%.

    https://www.thedp.com/article/2014/03/breaking-admissions-numbers-released
    https://now.dartmouth.edu/2014/03/2220-students-offered-acceptance-to-the-class-of-2018/

    Reply
  • G

    GtownJul 23, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    Lol Penn and Dartmouth are not peers of Georgetown.

    Reply
  • N

    noneApr 2, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    does The Hoya have access to average accepted SAT scores for this year?

    Reply
  • N

    N/AApr 1, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    Hello – Will you be able to specify what is the percentage of international students accepted and how that affects the per race numbers?

    Reply
  • S

    Seriously?Apr 1, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    The admissions rate by year graph is misleading and the accepted students by region graph is too small to be useful…

    Reply