Georgetown Class of 2021

It was a banner year for Georgetown’s admissions office this year (photo credit: Patrickneil).

The data is in for the Georgetown Class of 2021 and we’ve got it for our readers — although we did report early word on these numbers before Regular Decision notifications went out. In all, between Early Action and Regular Decision, 21,465 students submitted applications to the alma mater of Patrick Ewing — who incidentally is the newly installed men’s basketball coach for the Hoyas. Of those students, 3,313 were offered admission. That marks a record-low admission rate for Georgetown of 15.4%. In fact, over the last five years, the overall admission rate has stood between 16.4% and 16.6%. So this is a statistically significant change indeed. Georgetown also boasted the largest applicant pool in the university’s history this year.

As reports Aly Pachter for “The Hoya,” “Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon (CAS ’64, GRD ’69) attributed the increased applicant pool to the school’s focus on the individual student and a national spotlight on Washington, D.C., during the 2016 presidential election. ‘We did not do anything different to increase the pool. In fact, we actively try not to increase it, because we really would like it to be representing people who really are interested and are willing to go through the extra effort,’ Deacon said. ‘Even though we make it harder for people, the pool goes up, which is good. That partly is because the combination of Georgetown’s identity and the location together.'” Oh sure. Sorry Dean Deacon but every dean of admissions at every highly selective college in America wants to increase their applicant pool to invariably lower their admission rate and any statements to the contrary simply don’t ring as true. You love that your applicant pool was big this year. You love that your admission rate was low. And you wouldn’t want it any other way.

Applications were up at Georgetown College, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, and the School of Foreign Service, though applications dipped at the McDonough School of Business this year (3,304 students applied to McDonough last year compared to 3,283 this year). Congratulations to our students at Ivy Coach who earned admission to Georgetown! We’ll be rooting on the turnaround of Georgetown basketball under the leadership of our favorite player of all-time.