Insight into the Admissions Process

Colleges & Universities Georgetown University
1

<p>I found this really helpful post by hoyasaxa1, which describes the admissions process quite extensively and could clarify a lot of doubts, figured I’d post it here:</p>

<p>At Georgetown, admissions decisions are determined by admissions committees. Each school at Georgetown has its own admissions committee (some schools at Georgetown have multiple admissions committees–for instance, the College has separate committees for humanities/social sciences, premed, natural sciences). Each committee consists of multiple members, each of whom has the same voting power: admissions officers, faculty members, deans, and students are on each committee. Each member rates each applicant on a 10 point scale: 5 points possible for academics and 5 points possible for personal. The academic evaluation looks at course selection, grades in those courses, class ranking, recommendations, and standardized testing. The personal evaluation looks at essays, extracurricular activities/leadership/work/volunteerism, recommendations, and alumni interview. In general, for most committee members, standardized testing is the least relevant academic qualification and is noteworthy only at the extremes (for Georgetown, that generally means SAT-CR and Math Totals above 1550 or below 1300). If the SATs are in the 1300-1550 range, the committee members tend to focus more on the other academic aspects of the application. Often, the specific testing relevant to the program/school is more heavily emphasized in the academic rating–e.g. SAT-II scores in foreign language for the School of Foreign Service or Faculty of Languages and Linguistics applicants, science/math SAT-II for premeds/natural sciences and Nursing/Health Studies applicants, etc…</p>

<p>Because of the equal weighting of academic and personal ratings, it is VERY common to find individuals with perfect SAT scores and #1 class ranks denied admission while their classmates at the same high schools with lower scores/ranks accepted (obviously with more compelling personal aspects). Also, because each school at Georgetown has its own admissions committee, applicants from the same high school are not necessarily competing against each other (unless they are applying to the same program) and may be reviewed by entirely different individuals/committees.</p>

<p>You can find it here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/georgetown-university/989601-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/georgetown-university/989601-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>I doubt anyone can answer this, but could “perfect” essays, recs, interviews…outweigh less than stellar ECs and get you a 5? If what you say about testing is correct, than I doubt I’ll get higher than a 2/5 on academics because of course rigor, but maybe I’m not giving myself enouh credit.</p>

3

<p>The way I understand it, the order of precedence is something like GPA>SAT>Essays>ECs and Reccos>Interview. But, for SFS, it’s a little different with more importance being given to Essays and ECs. I honestly can’t answer the question, because it’d be merely speculation and there’s no way to figure out what’re perfect essays and recs. But, sometimes, if they are just THAT “perfect”, they can certainly outweigh a few weak aspects of your applications. But, then again, that’s just my understanding and I could be very wrong. So, I guess you should take whatever anybody says with a mountain of salt.</p>