Georgetown undergraduate early admissions have recovered from last year’s temporary decline in applications, according to statistics released by University admissions officials earlier this month. This year’s pool became the fourth largest to date with upwards of 4,000 applications, a dramatic upsurge from last year’s 25 percent drop.
Last year, several of Georgetown’s competitor universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, instituted single-choice admissions programs stipulating that prospective students were permitted to apply early to only one school. Georgetown has maintained its policy, which permits students not applying to early decision programs to apply to as many early action programs as they wish.
“We are reasserting our right not to let early decision students take the spots of our early action applicants,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said.
Although these binding policies have remained in effect this year, Georgetown’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions has observed a significant rebound in the number of applications received. The acceptance rate for early admissions applicants has remained fairly even over the past several years, at a level of around 22.7 percent.
According to Deacon, Georgetown is one of the only universities to admit the same percentage of students during the early and regular periods.
In order to supplement this spring’s Georgetown Admissions Ambassadors Program weekends, which are organized to introduce admitted students to the campus, the Jewish Student Association has initiated Jewish GAAP.
JSA president Ben Bixby (SFS ‘05) described the program as the result of the organization’s ongoing dedication to reach out to prospective Jewish students.
During GAAP weekends, JSA will invite visitors to its Friday evening Shabbat service and dinner. This year, Bixby said that JSA hopes to enhance the service by having Georgetown’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the national Jewish fraternity, lead the services. JSA will also host a question and answer panel about the Jewish community at Georgetown and a bagel brunch.
“J-GAAP is trying to offer Jewish students participating in GAAP weekend an opportunity to experience Jewish life at Georgetown,” J-GAAP coordinator Erika Oppenheimer (CAS ‘08) said.
Bixby emphasized the importance of the University’s role in helping prospective Jewish students recognize the vibrant presence of the Jewish community at Georgetown. Jewish students are estimated to make up approximately 13 percent of the undergraduate population, according to the JSA website.
Bixby pointed specifically to the newly reinstated study abroad program in Israel and the new Jewish Studies Initiative that intends to establish a major and minor program for Jewish studies.
With the combination of these programs and J-GAAP, Bixby said he was optimistic about the future of the Jewish community at Georgetown.
“I think we will see an increase in Jewish enrollment at Georgetown,” he said.
