President John J. DeGioia defended Georgetown’s decision to continue its non-binding Early Action policy in an interview yesterday, saying that only applicants who would be admitted during the regular decision process are admitted early.
“The only ones we admit early are those we know we would admit in the regular decision process,” he said. “There [isn’t] any advantage to applying early to Georgetown.”
Early decision and early action programs have come under fire because lower income students cannot compare financial aid packages; this fall, Harvard and Princeton announced that they will discontinue their early admissions programs.
“I think it’s terrific news that Harvard and Princeton have made the decision to abandon their early action policies,” DeGioia said.
The University contends that eliminating early action is not plausible for Georgetown. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon told the Chronicle of Higher Education that, “It’s a lot easier for Harvard to do what they’re doing because they get such a high yield…If other institutions were forced to eliminate early programs, they would be facing a much lower yield and find it harder to predict enrollment.”
In mid-December, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions notified 918 early action applicants of their admission to Georgetown, expecting to increase the total number of students to a record 1,600 by this spring, according to Leah Thomas, an employee of the admissions office
The 2006-2007 freshman class, whose unprecedented size has taxed the freshman housing system, had 4,050 students apply early action, 21 percent of whom were accepted. This fall, 4,573 students applied early, and were selected based on a 20 percent acceptance rate.
Students accepted under early action make up about one-fourth of the incoming freshman class, according to Thomas.
