Anonymous wrote:Georgetown moving to the Common App is odd. Why did the school do it? The Georgetown app seemed to provide the school with the kinds of applicants it wanted, while weeding out kids it didn’t want.
Now, the school will be getting thousands of more applications, but to what end? Are there applicants it wanted, but wasn’t getting? If so, who are they? And will the school get them?
It is possible that the admit rate will fall, but that the impact upon the kind of high stats applicant that Georgetown wants will be slight.
They needed to switch to the Common App. I have two kids who applied to Georgetown and their application is terrible. It is glitchy, doesn't load very quickly, you cannot "preview" a section until you've finished the whole thing, when you preview it, the checkmarks are on the wrong categories but it's just a glitchy thing, etc.
Importantly, it took up way more time to add all of the demographic info and to input essays. If I'm remembering correctly, they allow you to include only 6 activities (instead of Common App's 10) and have different word counts than the Common App. As another poster noted, it would not be worth the hassle if my kids didn't consider Georgetown one of the schools they really wanted to attend.
Just like all of the top schools, Georgetown wants more applicants so that they can show a lower acceptance rate and these days people want their kids to get into the most selective schools. Also, there is no reason they need a special app - they are a liberal arts school not MIT.