No. Your average smart kid, hooked or unhooked, is unlikely to get into Georgetown.

That’s not because your average smart isn’t great, but because Georgetown, like other super competitive school, rejects that vast majority of applicants. I think this year’s acceptance rate was 12%, and even that is likely a misleadingly high rate, insofar as Georgetown engages in two practices that probably weed out many potential applicants before they apply: it won’t accept the Common App, but makes applicants fill out its very own onerous and sui generis application, and it requires all test scores and does not super score. I don’t know how many talented potential applicants fall by the wayside because they are out off by these things, but it’s a safe bet that if Georgetown ended these practices, they be rejecting an even higher percentage of applicants.

As it every top school, Georgetown gets many thousands more superbly qualified applicants than it can accept. Like every top school, each year it rejects many valedictorians, class presidents, team captains and kids with perfect test scores.

So: definitely not saying “don’t apply,” since at least the odds are way better than Powerball— but no kid, however talented, should think of any school with an acceptance rate over 30% or so as a “likely.” Best to think of all these competitive schools as lotteries, and plan application strategies accordingly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if parent works at GU the child goes tuition free.

So it is assumed the child will go there whether they like it or not.

Dh is a physician at Georgetown and is considered a professor at the med school. He was told our kids get no tuition at Georgetown or any other schools.

All full-time faculty and staff get this benefit. If he has an adjunct or courtesy professorship, he is probably not considered a full time employee. https://benefits.georgetown.edu/tapchildren/

Both faculty and staff kids get a big boost at Georgetown. Not enough to help a very under-qualified kid get in, but if a faculty/staff kid's scores are in the ballpark, Georgetown gives their applications an extra read and will generally consider their parent's affiliation as a tie-breaker.

That said, at DD's private school (not catholic), the unhooked kids who got in to Georgetown were the kids at the very top of the class-- the same kids who were applying to Ivy's and top ten SLACs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if parent works at GU the child goes tuition free.

So it is assumed the child will go there whether they like it or not.

No, it’s 2/3 off tuition, not free (except for people who have worked at Georgetown for a very long time and are grandfathered into the old tuition assistance program, which is free).

Georgetown provides the equivalent of 1/3 of tuition to use at any other school, which makes state schools as cheap as if not cheaper than Georgetown for employees.

+1

It is never assumed a child will attend, because the applicant, no matter what - has to qualify for admittance, first and foremost. AND the tuition benefit is only for full time employees that have worked at GU a very long time (many years).

Each university is different, so people sometimes try to apply a different university's policy, one that might be very generous, to GU.

It’s five years of full-time service to get the full (2/3 to Georgetown, 1/3 to put toward another school) benefit.

And faculty kids, like legacy, get a huge bump. Much easier for them to get admitted. Don't know about staff, but faculty, definitely.

Yes, staff, too.

Anonymous wrote:Your kid will need top grades, test scores, and ECs. Legacy status is helpful as long as you went there for undergrad not grad.

Kid should apply early. Good luck.

May not apply to GU. They said apply early or not make no difference. If you look at the rate, early action actually has lower acceptance rate.