Georgetown University

Georgetown admits students into one of five undergraduate schools: Georgetown College (Arts and Sciences), the Walsh School of Foreign Service, the McDonough School of Business, the School of Health, and the Berkley School of Nursing. Applicants choose a school at the time of application. Each school has its own admissions committee, its own essay prompt, and its own admit rate. The overall rate of roughly 11.7% is a blend of five distinct pools.

That structure is the most important thing to understand. Choosing the wrong school for your record is not a minor error; it is the most common reason a strong applicant does not advance. Internal transfers after admission are permitted but limited.

Georgetown is also the oldest Jesuit Catholic university in the United States, founded in 1789. That identity is not decorative. The Jesuit framework of cura personalis, care of the whole person, and the goal of graduating people oriented toward the common good shape how every committee reads every file. Applicants of all faiths and no faith are welcome, but engagement with those values is expected.

For fall 2027 entry, Georgetown accepted the Common Application for the first time alongside its traditional Georgetown Application. The university states there is no advantage to submitting one over the other. Both routes include a separate writing supplement with school-specific essays. Standards and holistic review are unchanged.

School-level fit. Georgetown's five schools have distinct academic cultures. The Walsh School of Foreign Service was founded in 1919 and is ranked the top international relations program globally by Foreign Policy. McDonough frames business through Jesuit ethics, global perspective, and analytical rigor. Georgetown College centers a liberal arts core with a theology requirement. The School of Health and the Berkley School of Nursing each have their own health-service orientation. A record that points clearly to one school, applied to a different one, reads as a mismatch to that committee.

Character before achievement. Georgetown's stated admissions goal is to welcome students of character, intelligence, motivations, and achievement. The ordering is deliberate. Essays that surface moral reasoning, ethical commitments, and a developed sense of purpose connect to the Jesuit formation mission. Achievement lists without a values dimension do not.

Service orientation. Georgetown's core curriculum documents state that the university aims to graduate people who maintain an active and sustained pursuit of the common good as a central life commitment. Admissions reads activities and essays for evidence that this orientation has already begun. A profile of scores and titles with no engagement in improving something outside the applicant misses a named criterion.

Rigor and preparation. Georgetown has never gone test-optional. Enrolled students show a mid-50% SAT range of 1450 to 1550. McDonough requires calculus preparation and three or more years of math. The Walsh School rewards sustained foreign language study. Academic preparation specific to the chosen school matters as much as overall GPA.

Socioeconomic access. Georgetown is need-blind for domestic applicants and meets full demonstrated need. Since 2024, Pell Grant eligibility has been an explicit factor in admissions review. The Class of 2028 reached 15% Pell-eligible students, the highest share in over a decade. First-generation status is read as context, not deficit.

Testing is required. Georgetown maintained its SAT or ACT requirement throughout the pandemic and has never offered a test-optional pathway. Score Choice is not permitted; applicants must submit their full testing record. The enrolled mid-50% SAT range is 1450 to 1550.

Common Application now accepted. Beginning with fall 2027 entry, Georgetown accepts both the Common Application and its traditional Georgetown Application. Georgetown states there is no advantage to either route. Both include a separate writing supplement. Alumni interviews begin in September and are assigned sooner for early submitters, so submitting early secures an interview slot.

REA is non-binding but restrictive. Georgetown's early round is Restrictive Early Action. It is not binding, but it bars applicants from applying to other schools' binding Early Decision programs during the same cycle. Applying EA elsewhere and RD elsewhere are both permitted. The REA admit rate for the Class of 2030 was approximately 11.1%, close to the overall rate. Former Dean Deacon noted that Georgetown structurally limits its admit count even when more applicants meet the quality threshold, so REA does not carry the statistical lift that ED does at many peer schools.

Pell eligibility is an active factor. Georgetown increased its financial aid budget to $285 million for the current academic year. Pell Grant eligibility continues to be factored into comprehensive review, a practice that began in 2024.

New dean, same approach. Melissa Costanzi, a three-decade Georgetown admissions veteran, became dean of admissions in 2026. She has described her plan to maintain a high-touch, relationship-driven review through the Common App transition.

• Restrictive Early Action: November 1, 2026. Non-binding. Bars applying to other schools' binding ED programs. Decisions by December 15.
• Regular Decision: January 1, 2027. Non-binding. Georgetown does not offer Early Decision. Decisions by April 1; enrollment reply due May 1.

For 2026-27, Georgetown requires three universal essays and one school-specific essay. All four are submitted through the Georgetown Application or, this cycle for the first time, through the Common Application with its separate writing supplement.

The three universal prompts are:

• Activity significance (250 words): Briefly discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved.
• Viewpoint encounter (250 words): Describe an event in which you interacted with someone holding a different viewpoint. What did you learn?
• Personal or creative essay (650 words): A brief personal or creative essay describing you in your own words, reflecting on your background, experiences, skills, and talents.

The school-specific essay (500 words each) varies by school:

• Georgetown College: Describe your interest in studying in the College of Arts and Sciences, with reference to its Jesuit traditions of integrated education and research across the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and fine arts.
• Walsh School of Foreign Service: Describe your primary motivations for studying international affairs at Georgetown and dedicating your undergraduate studies toward a future in global service.
• McDonough School of Business: Describe your primary motivations for studying business at Georgetown, with reference to the school's global, ethical, analytical, financial, and diverse perspectives.
• School of Health: Describe the factors that influenced your interest in studying health care at Georgetown, specifically addressing your intended major: Global Health, Health Care Management and Policy, or Human Science.
• Berkley School of Nursing: Describe the factors that have influenced your interest in studying nursing at Georgetown, with reference to the school's commitment to ethical, empathetic, and transformational nursing leaders.
• McCourt School of Public Policy: Describe your primary motivations for studying public policy at Georgetown and dedicating your undergraduate studies toward a future in public service. Note that McCourt undergraduates spend their first two years on the main campus and their final two years at the Capitol Campus.
• Earth Commons Institute (joint with Georgetown College): Describe your primary motivations for studying environment and sustainability at Georgetown to effect positive change in the world.

The activity essay rewards a small, specific story that surfaces how the applicant served others or worked toward change, not a summary of accomplishments. The personal essay explicitly invites creative forms; a single anecdote that reveals a core value tends to outperform an identity overview. The school-specific essay is the primary fit signal. Naming specific courses, faculty, or programs within the chosen school is the baseline expectation.

Choosing a school for its admit rate. Applying to the Walsh School or the Berkley School of Nursing because the published rate looks higher, when the record and essays point to McDonough or Georgetown College, produces a file that reads as a fit mismatch to that committee. Readers see this pattern.

Treating REA as equivalent to Early Decision. Georgetown's REA admit rate is close to its overall rate. The round does not carry the statistical lift that binding ED does at many peer schools. Applicants who apply REA expecting a significant advantage, and who restrict their other early options in the process, misread the policy.

Generic Jesuit engagement. Mentioning cura personalis or the Jesuit tradition without connecting it to a specific experience, activity, or intellectual commitment reads as surface research. Georgetown readers distinguish between applicants who understand the values and applicants who have memorized the vocabulary.

Ignoring Washington, D.C. For Walsh applicants in particular, D.C.'s policy and diplomatic ecosystem is integral to the curriculum. Essays that treat the location as background rather than a substantive reason to choose Georgetown over comparably selective schools miss an expected signal.

Achievement without service. A profile of strong scores, leadership titles, and academic awards with no evidence of orientation toward others misses the criterion Georgetown names most explicitly in its own curriculum documents.

Per-school admit rates below are Class of 2027 vintage from The Hoya and Georgetown institutional data. Treat them as relative selectivity indicators, not current rates.

Georgetown College (Arts and Sciences): approximately 12.3%. Georgetown's largest undergraduate school and the default for liberal arts applicants.

Walsh School of Foreign Service: approximately 15%. The higher rate reflects a more specialized applicant pool, not lower standards. Language proficiency and a sustained international affairs record are expected.

McDonough School of Business: approximately 12% overall, with an EA rate of 9.1% for the Class of 2029. The most selective entry point in recent EA cycles. Calculus preparation and three or more years of math are required.

School of Health: approximately 11.7%. Programs include Global Health, Health Care Management and Policy, and Human Science. Direct admit; school-specific essay required.

Berkley School of Nursing: approximately 16.1%. The smallest applicant pool of Georgetown's schools, roughly 466 applications. Direct admit BSN; school-specific essay required.

McCourt School of Public Policy and the Earth Commons Institute also accept undergraduates with their own school-specific essay prompts. Per-program admit rates for these programs are not published.