<p>It’s been six months since I last visited this board because my D is now a freshman at another university. But since a lot of posters are posing EA questions, I thought D’s Georgetown EA experience might be useful to some of you.</p>
<p>A lot of applicants seek out an EA opportunity because they feel it will enhance their chances of acceptance. Gtown’s EA seems to be unusual. It’s acceptance rate is the same as for RD, and there are no rejections - only deferrals. Accordingly, it’s nice for getting a sure thing early in the process (if it works out), but your chances at Gtown EA are actually somewhat less than in RD. Here’s my D’s story.</p>
<p>D was planning on applying to Harvard and Yale as reaches last October, but her prime target was Georgetown. We thought she was the classic Gtown prospective student - strong SATs (above the EA median) despite coming from a lower-achieving HS, her school’s valedictorian, and unusual ECs and awards, including state champion in an all-around competition for HS women, and in the top three in state at two other different disciplines. Her Gtown interview had gone well, and having taken advantage of joint enrollment at a local college to get in four levels of Arabic as her foreign language, she was applying to Languages and Linguistics as an Arabic major. We thought she was a sure thing and encouraged her to sew up EA at Georgetown in lieu of needing safeties. When she didn’t get in EA, she was disappointed and quickly added a couple safety schools to her apps.</p>
<p>The Gtown approach is that unsuccessful EA apps get reviewed by an entirely different committee during the RD period. Nevertheless, D heard nothing from Gtown during the next three months and shifted her primary attention to other schools on her list. She was somewhat surprised on March 31 when she was not only accepted at Gtown but awarded a merit scholarship by the Arabic Dept.! Later on that evening, she got in at Harvard and Yale and decided to attend Harvard.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how the same candidate who wasn’t considered strong enough for EA in December can be given a merit scholarship to try to keep them from getting away in March. It’s an unusual approach, and one that in my opinion may not serve the university well - for every top candidate that Gtown identifies early and begins to woo, there are more who like my D, probably get discouraged and stop thinking about them.</p>
<p>I believe the figure is that about 10% of unsuccessful EA candidates ultimately get accepted during RD. So my message to those of you who are EA applicants is to remember that EA at Gtown is not necessarily an easier path to an acceptance, and that the RD path is still a viable possibility after an unsuccessful run at EA. Take your best shot early, but be prepared to wait it out if necessary.</p>