Georgetown Interviews

[Nevada Hoya]

It is curious that after about seven years of interviewing only female candidates for admission to Georgetown (not that I am complaining ), the last four interviews have been males. My two this year so far have (will be) been students from an elite private school in Las Vegas, one of whom is on their bball team and was voted MVP of his league last year and wants to walk on, if he gets into GU. I wonder if this reflects an increased interest in the bball team.

[reformation]

All elite schools are having trouble keeping the male/female ratio in balance. Gtwn is in particular difficult shape in this regard because we have no engineering program. Having a lot more women than men may not seem like a bad thing, but it actually is because women tend to give a lot less money to support schools than men do, so fundraising in future years tends to suffer. (this is true even when you look at more recent giving trends)

[Nevada Hoya]

Reformation, that is an interesting observation that I hadn't thought about. I don't know if my experience signifies a trend; it is probably statistics catching up with me.

[DFW HOYA]

There are other issues too.

Cuirriculum is affected. If women skew to the College, the faculty balance (and investment) in the SFS and MSB suffers. (Santa Clara, which was 51% female in the 1990's, now has a 66% female population in its arts and sciences population.)

[SFHoya99]

For the record, I haven't interviewed a male in three years.

Then again, my acceptance rate is awful, so the impact is pretty minimal. ;D

[Nevada Hoya]

SF, do you give all your interviewees a score of 1? Actually, I have come to learn that the scores do not amount to a hill of beans. Two of my three highest scores did not get accepted. Maybe if they are on the bubble.

[SFHoya99]

I do not understand the admissions process. I had one girl who started her own non-profit at the age of 16, wrote a glowing reco (one of only two 9's ever from me in five years of about 15 applicants/year), and nada.

Not even waitlist.

I try to use it more as informational -- I doubt they ever get to the interview in 90-95% of the cases.

[Nevada Hoya]

Yes, SF, my only score of 9 in about 15 years of interviewing, a female with much the same credentials as yours, did not get in or waitlisted. There are two major criteria in the admissions process, I believe, SATs and GPA/rank in class. The interview process acts more as a PR tool than helping the selection process.

[tgo]

as the chairman of an interview committee i will have to disagree.

Any time an applicant gets a high rating by an interviewer, their file gets a second closer look. The same holds true for a low score for someone who looks like they will make the cut.
So while they may have been decided on before the report comes in, the interviewers score can give that applicant added scrutiny.

Whenever I have been curious about someone i rated highly not getting in i have emailed the GU admissions staff and asked and always gotten reasons that I was unaware of from my prospective like when they told me that an awesome applicant had basically the same essays as 4 other people from their school and GU couldnt reward that type of thing.

[GUHoya07]

This is an interesting thread to read for someone who went through this process a couple years back. SAT's and GPA/Class Rank can't be the only 2 major criteria I dont think because while mine were pretty good, they were not great at all for Georgetown and lots of people get rejected every year with better numbers.

[david]

does gtown have interviewers in all major cities?

[GUHoya07]

I think Georgetown has interviewers pretty much everywhere, not just major cities. Well, not everywhere but I live way out on the Eastern End of Long Island about 2 1/2 to 3 hours from NYC and I was interviewed at an alum's house about 5 to 10 minutes away from mine, so they aren't only in big cities.

[HoyaLawya]

My daughter was interviewed in a town just 10 miles away from ours, here in NJ, back in the day ..... which was quite a few years ago. That's not remarkable, considering that NY, CA and NJ top the list for sending students to GU. But I know of Hoya alums out West in somewhat remote areas (not Seattle, not Portland) who help with the interview process.

As far as male/female ratios at private schools, that has really been a remarkable trend of the past decade. During the go-go tech boom era of the '90's, there was an article making the rounds (think it was originally published in the NY Times) which noted that male applicants for all 4-year colleges were a diminishing species .... with many opting instead to attend specialized programs to become computer software designers and encoders.

But there have also been articles noting a "trend" in how women fare with SAT scores and GPAs relative to males.

The lack of an engineering program at Georgetown probably does have a cause-and-effect impact on an institution-specific basis.

Georgetown has such an over-abundance of applications, however, that I have to believe it could take "corrective action" to skew any of its percentage profiles any way it wants to.

As far as my undergraduate college, which used to suffer from under-enrollment way back in the past, the profusion of applications they're now enjoying is directly tied to hoops success. And the school's insightful public relations campaign (with all those free TV ads they now get to place during the televised games) which has adopted the slogan "We're all part of the same team here." It definitely pitches the college as a fun place to be. (And that, coupled with the engineering school, makes male enrollment non-problematic.)

Samplers, for those with broadband:

Original “We’re all part of the same team here” advertising campaign

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-sameteam-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Erroll Knight & “books”<br>
play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-books-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Helping hands – Ronny to debate

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-helpinghands-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Turiaf helps a girl with her "bad hair day"

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-badhairday-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Introducing the All GPA “team”<br>
play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-playerintros-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

New Digs – Same Zags – K2 arena

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-yeahright-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Adam Morrison – political theorist -- pizza lover

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-whatdoyouwant-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Walking on to a nationally ranked team (it’s not what you think)

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-thatsdebateable-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

Community Service – “Campus Kids” program

play.rbn.com/?realone/ocsn/gonz/open/demand/video-zags-campuskids-122104-225k.rm&prto=rtsp','AudioBroadcastMediaPlayer','toolbar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,width=468,height=470'); void('');

[Nevada Hoya]

All interesting comments on the interview process. I am glad a high score rates a 2nd look (how high, tgo - 8 and 9?). I had one HS counselor contact me about one student, who didn't get in, although I gave him a good rating and was class president and all-league in football, and tell me that this is just the kind of student, who she wouldn't be surprised to find him becoming POTUS. She wrote a letter to admissions about him, and in fact I did too (although I think admissions tends to discourage this - we are not supposed to be advocates of the students). Same result, not accepted. I believe he went to Northwestern, which is a pretty fair school.

007's case seems to be a precedence for looking at more than SATs and GPAs, but in his case, I am sure somebody recognized his enthusiasm - probably arrived at his interview with blue wig. ;D

And HoyaLawya, it was good to see the Zags finally win a WCC game last night.

[kchoya]

They do have interviewers in most places, my wife and I do interviews here in Bozeman. But I think back when my wife was applying to Georgetown (in '97?), she had to drive to Billings -- about 200 miles away.

[SFHoya99]

tgo said:

as the chairman of an interview committee i will have to disagree.

Any time an applicant gets a high rating by an interviewer, their file gets a second closer look. The same holds true for a low score for someone who looks like they will make the cut.
So while they may have been decided on before the report comes in, the interviewers score can give that applicant added scrutiny.

Whenever I have been curious about someone i rated highly not getting in i have emailed the GU admissions staff and asked and always gotten reasons that I was unaware of from my prospective like when they told me that an awesome applicant had basically the same essays as 4 other people from their school and GU couldnt reward that type of thing.

Tgo, who is a good person to email on the admissions staff? I won't use it often, but that one girl blew me away and I would've liked to know.

[Nevada Hoya]

KC, two of my best friends at Georgetown were from Billings. I guess they didn't have far to go for an interview; but then again that was in the early '60s, and they were probably the only students from Montana in the whole school then with not too many alumni, if any, in the area.

[GUHoya07]

Funny to see them in MCI in that one commercial, I wish Georgetown made good commercials.

[HoyaLawya]

Good catch on that BB&T footage!! That was one great day for me. Attended that game, went out drinking, then came back for Round 2 at MCI to watch the Hoyas play Davidson.

When JT III has us rebounding to the level where TV wants to broadcast our games ... and LOTS of them ... and we then need to fill the time slot devoted to "University publicity" spot ads ..... I'm sure that the creative juices of some Hoya alums in the advertising world will seize the chance to come up with something catchy.

Everybody already knows that Georgetown is a great academic institution .... putting a spin on it as also being FUN and FRIENDLY is what would appeal to the "target audience". Namely, high school kids.

[tgo]

To answer a couple of questions:

Who to email in admissions depends on who is assigned to your region, the guy i talk to may have nothing to do with your area so would not know specifics.
When you submit your reports, who do you email them to? You should be sending one copy to your committee chair, one to AAP general box and one to your regional rep, that is the guy you want to talk to.

An 8 or a 9 gets a second look and I will have to check my notes but I think I have been told that even a 7 will get a second look. When possible they do try to take note of the fact that interviewer "hoya" might always give 7's & 8's while interviewe "saxa" is a stingy grader, but with the number of applicants they are going through it isnt always realistic to expect them to go that deep.

GU has interviewers wherever they can find alumni to volunteer. One of the advantages of a school with an international flavor both in enrollment and the focus of many majors is that we are blessed with volunteers in a lot more places than most schools.