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Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as
Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...
, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate schools, including the Walsh School of Foreign Service, McDonough School of Business, Medical School, Law School, and a campus in Qatar. The school's main campus, on a hill above the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
, is identifiable by its flagship Healy Hall, a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. The school was founded by and is affiliated with the Society of Jesus, and is the oldest
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
institution of higher education in the United States, though the majority of students presently are not Catholic. Georgetown is ranked among the top universities in the United States and admission is highly selective. The university offers degree programs in forty-eight disciplines, enrolling an average of 7,500 undergraduate and 10,000 post-graduate students from more than 135 countries. The school's athletic teams are nicknamed the Hoyas and include a men's basketball team, which has won a record eight Big East championships, appeared in five Final Fours, and won a national championship in 1984. Georgetown's
notable alumni Notability is the property of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...
include 13 Nobel Prize Laureates, 28 Rhodes Scholars, 32 Marshall Scholars, 33 Truman Scholars, 429 Fulbright Scholars, 2
U.S. Presidents The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and ...
, and 2 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, as well as international royalty and 14 foreign heads of state. Among the world's leading institutions in government and international relations, the school's alumni include more U.S. diplomats than any other university and many members of the United States Congress.


History


Founding

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...
settlers from England founded the Province of Maryland in 1634. In 1646, the defeat of the
Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
in the English Civil War led to stringent laws against Roman Catholic education and the extradition of known Jesuits from the colony, including missionary Andrew White, and the destruction of their school at Calverton Manor. During most of the remainder of Maryland's colonial period, Jesuits conducted Catholic schools clandestinely. It was not until after the end of the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
that plans to establish a permanent Catholic institution for education in the United States were realized. Because of
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading intel ...
's recommendation, Pope Pius VI appointed former Jesuit John Carroll as the first head of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, even though the papal
suppression of the Jesuit order The suppression of the Jesuits was the removal of all members of the Society of Jesus from most of the countries of Western Europe and their colonies beginning in 1759, and the abolishment of the order by the Holy See in 1773. The Jesuits were ...
was still in effect. Carroll began meetings of local clergy in 1783 near
Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...
, where they orchestrated the development of a new university. On January 23, 1789, Carroll finalized the purchase of the property in Georgetown on which Dahlgren Quadrangle was later built. Future Congressman
William Gaston William J. Gaston (September 19, 1778 – January 23, 1844) was a jurist and United States Representative from North Carolina. Gaston is the author of the official state song of North Carolina, "The Old North State". Gaston County, North Carolin ...
was enrolled as the school's first student on November 22, 1791, and instruction began on January 2, 1792. During its early years, Georgetown College suffered from considerable financial strain. The Maryland Society of Jesus began its restoration in 1805, and Jesuit affiliation, in the form of teachers and administrators, bolstered confidence in the college. The school relied on private sources of funding and the limited profits from local lands which had been donated to the Jesuits. To raise money for Georgetown and other schools in 1838, Maryland Jesuits conducted a mass sale of some 272 slaves to two Deep South plantations in Maringouin, Louisiana, from their six in Maryland, ending their slaveholding. President James Madison signed into law Georgetown's
congressional charter A congressional charter is a law passed by the United States Congress that states the mission, authority, and activities of a group. Congress issued federal charters from 1791 until 1992 under Title 36 of the United States Code. The first chart ...
on March 1, 1815, creating the first federal
university charter A university charter is a charter issued by an authority to create or recognize a university. The earliest universities – Bologna, Paris and Oxford – arose organically from concentrations of schools in those cities rather than being ...
, which allowed it to confer degrees, with the first bachelor's degrees being awarded two years later. In 1844, the school received a
corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...
charter, under the name " The President and Directors of Georgetown College", affording the growing school additional legal rights. In response to the demand for a local option for Roman Catholic students, the Medical School was founded in 1851.


Post-Civil War expansion

The U.S. Civil War greatly affected Georgetown as 1,141 students and alumni enlisted in one army or the other, and the Union Army commandeered university buildings. By the time of President
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
's May 1861 visit to campus, 1,400 troops were living in temporary quarters there. Due to the number of lives lost in the war, enrollment levels remained low until well after the war. Only seven students graduated in 1869, down from over 300 in the previous decade. When the Georgetown College Boat Club, the school's
rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically att ...
team, was founded in 1876 it adopted two colors: blue, used for Union uniforms, and gray, used for Confederate uniforms. These colors signified the peaceful unity among students. Subsequently, the school adopted these as its official colors. Enrollment did not recover until during the presidency of Patrick Francis Healy from 1873 to 1881. Born in Georgia as a slave by law and mixed-race by ancestry, Healy was the first head of a predominantly white American university of acknowledged
African descent Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in ...
. He identified as Irish Catholic, like his father, and was educated in Catholic schools in the United States and France. He is credited with reforming the undergraduate
curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
, lengthening the medical and law programs, and creating the
Alumni Association An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students ( alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), ...
. One of his largest undertakings was the construction of a major new building, subsequently named Healy Hall in his honor. For his work, Healy is known as the school's "second founder." After the founding of the Law Department in 1870, Healy and his successors hoped to bind the professional schools into a university, and focus on higher education. The School of Medicine added a dental school in 1901 and the undergraduate
School of Nursing Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to student nurses by experienced nurses and other med ...
in 1903.
Georgetown Preparatory School Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boa ...
relocated from campus in 1919 and fully separated from the university in 1927. The
School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at both ...
(SFS) was founded in 1919 by
Edmund A. Walsh Fr. Edmund Aloysius Walsh, S.J. (October 10, 1885 – October 31, 1956) was an American Jesuit Catholic priest, author, professor of geopolitics and founder of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the first school for interna ...
, to prepare students for leadership in diplomacy and foreign commerce. The School of Dentistry became independent of the School of Medicine in 1956. The School of Business was separated from the SFS in 1957. In 1998 it was renamed the McDonough School of Business in honor of alumnus Robert E. McDonough. Besides expansion of the university, Georgetown also aimed to expand its resources and student body. The School of Nursing has admitted female students since its founding, and most of the university classes were made available to women on a limited basis by 1952. With the College of Arts and Sciences welcoming its first female students in the 1969–1970
academic year An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...
, Georgetown became fully
coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...
al.


Modern era

In 1975, Georgetown established the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, soliciting funds from the governments of the United States, Saudi Arabia,
Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...
, and Libya as well as American corporations with business interests in the Middle East. It later returned the money it received from
Muammar Qaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spelling ...
's Libyan government, which had been used to fund a chair for Hisham Shirabi, and also returned further donations from Iraq. Georgetown ended its bicentennial year of 1989 by electing
Leo J. O'Donovan Leo Jeremiah O'Donovan III (born 1934) is an American Catholic priest, Jesuit, and theologian who served as the president of Georgetown University from 1989 to 2001. Born in New York City, he graduated from Georgetown, and while studying in ...
, S.J. as president. He subsequently launched the Third Century Campaign to build the school's endowment. In December 2003, Georgetown completed the campaign after raising over $1 billion for financial aid, academic chair endowment, and new capital projects. In 2005, Georgetown received a $20 million gift from Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, member of the Saudi Royal Family; at that time the second-largest donation ever to the university, it was used to expand the activities of the
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) is an interfaith institution based at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington. Overview The institution was founded at Georgetown Universi ...
. In October 2002, Georgetown University began studying the feasibility of opening a campus of the
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...
in Qatar, when the non-profit
Qatar Foundation Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development ( ar, مؤسسة قطر) is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then- emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser. Qatar Fo ...
first proposed the idea. The School of Foreign Service in Qatar opened in 2005 along with four other U.S. universities in the
Education City Education City is a development in Al Rayyan, Qatar. Developed by the Qatar Foundation, the property houses various educational facilities, including satellite campuses of eight international universities. History Education City was launched by ...
development. That same year, Georgetown began hosting a two-week workshop at
Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is also ...
's School of International Relations and Public Affairs in Shanghai, China. This later developed into a more formal connection when Georgetown opened a liaison office at Fudan on January 12, 2008, to further collaboration. John J. DeGioia, Georgetown's first lay president, has led the school since 2001. DeGioia has continued its financial modernization and has sought to "expand opportunities for intercultural and interreligious dialogue." DeGioia also founded the annual Building Bridges Seminar in 2001, which brings global religious leaders together, and is part of Georgetown's effort to promote religious pluralism. The
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs is an academic research center at Georgetown University in Washington, DC dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of religion, ethics, and politics Politics (from , ) is the set of ...
was begun as an initiative in 2004, and after a grant from William R. Berkley, was launched as an independent organization in 2006. Additionally, The
Center for International and Regional Studies The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), located in Doha, Qatar, is a center for international and regional affairs. The center is a part of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar). The center works clo ...
opened in 2005 at the new Qatar campus. Between 2012 and 2018, Georgetown received more than $350 million from Gulf Cooperation Council countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.


Jesuit tradition

Georgetown University was founded by former Jesuits in the tradition of Ignatius of Loyola; it is a member of the
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) is a consortium of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities and three theological centers in the United States, Canada, and Belize committed to advancing academic excellence by promoting an ...
. Georgetown is not a pontifical university, though seven Jesuits serve on the thirty-six member
Board of Directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
, the university's governing body. Catholic spaces at the university fall within the territorial jurisdiction of the
Archdiocese of Washington The Archdiocese of Washington is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the District of Columbia and the counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, ...
, such as Dahlgren Chapel, the university's principal Catholic place of worship. Fifty-two members of the Society of Jesus live on campus, and are employed by Georgetown mostly as professors or administrators. Jesuit Heritage Week has been held every year since 2001 to celebrate the contributions of Jesuits to the Georgetown tradition. The role that Georgetown's Catholic heritage has played in its policies has been controversial at times, even as its influence is relatively limited. Stores in University-owned buildings are not allowed to sell or distribute
birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
products. The university hosts the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life every January to discuss the
anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
movement.
Georgetown University Medical Center Georgetown University Medical Center is a biomedical research and educational organization that responsible for over 80% of Georgetown University's sponsored research funding and is led by Edward B. Healton, MD, the Executive Vice President for He ...
and
Georgetown University Hospital MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...
, operated by
MedStar Health MedStar Health is a not-for-profit healthcare organization. It operates more than 120 entities, including ten hospitals in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area of the United States. In 2011 it was ranked as the employer with the largest ...
, are prohibited from performing abortions. However, , the hospital did perform research using embryonic stem cells. Georgetown has been criticized by religious groups, such as the
Cardinal Newman Society The Cardinal Newman Society is an American 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization founded in 1993 whose stated purpose is to promote and defend faithful Catholic education. The organization is guided by Cardinal John Henry Newman's ''The Ide ...
, for not following the teachings of the church. The school has come under criticism for hosting prominent pro-abortion rights speakers, such as
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he p ...
and
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
. Washington's Archbishop,
Donald Wuerl Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American prelate, a cardinal, of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., from 2006 to 2018. He was elevated by Pope John Paul II to serve as auxiliary bishop of S ...
, also criticized the university for inviting pro-abortion rights Kathleen Sebelius to be a commencement speaker. Religious groups have likewise denounced Georgetown for being too LGBT-friendly and for allowing gay-themed events, including a performance, during which "a male student went as a high-heeled
Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also call ...
and danced to Madonna's ' Like a Virgin' while Jesus (a woman) looked on." Between 1996 and 1999, the administration added
crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
es to many classroom walls, a change that attracted national attention. Before 1996, crucifixes had hung only in hospital rooms and historic classrooms. Some of these crucifixes are historic works of art, and are noted as such. According to a 2004 interview with Imam
Yahya Hendi Imam Yahya Hendi is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University; the former Imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick based in Frederick, Maryland; and the former Muslim chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda until his retireme ...
, the school's on-campus Muslim cleric, pressure to remove the crucifixes comes from within the Catholic community, while he and other campus faith leaders have defended their placement. The Intercultural Center is an exception to this controversy, rotating displays of various faith and culture symbols in the lobby. In 2009, Georgetown's religious symbols were brought back to national attention after the university administration covered-up the
name of Jesus Two names and a variety of titles are used to refer to Jesus in the New Testament. In Christianity, the two names Jesus and Emmanuel that refer to Jesus in the New Testament have salvific attributes.''Bible explorer's guide'' by John Phillips 200 ...
in preparation for President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
's speech on campus.


Academics

, the university had 7,463 undergraduate students and 11,542 graduate students.
Bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...
programs are offered through
Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...
, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, the Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, the School of Continuing Studies, and the
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...
, which includes the Qatar campus. The School of Dentistry closed in 1990 after 89 years in operation. Some high school students from Georgetown Visitation are permitted to attend classes for
Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and cours ...
credit. Georgetown University offers undergraduate degrees in forty-eight majors in the four undergraduate schools and the opportunity for students to design their courses of study. All majors in Georgetown College are open as minors to students in that school, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, and the School of Business. Students in the School of Foreign Service can complete select certificates that complement the school's focus on foreign affairs and attain a minor in one of twelve languages but do not have access to the same minor selection as the other three schools. All courses are on a
credit hour Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...
system. Georgetown offers many opportunities to
study abroad International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...
, and about 50% of the undergraduate student body spends time at an institution overseas. Master's and
doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
programs are offered through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Law Center, the School of Medicine, the
McCourt School of Public Policy The McCourt School of Public Policy is one of ten constituent schools of Georgetown University. The McCourt School offers master's degrees in public policy, international development policy, policy management, data science for public policy, and ...
, and the School of Continuing Studies. Master's students occasionally share some advanced
seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
s with undergraduates, and most undergraduate schools offer abbreviated bachelor's and master's programs following completion of the undergraduate degree. The McDonough School of Business and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service both offer master's programs. The School of Foreign Service is renowned for its academic programs in international affairs. Its graduate program was ranked first in the world by Foreign Policy, and its undergraduate program was ranked fourth. The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies also offer a Master's of Arab Studies, as well as certificates. Each graduate school offers at least one
double degree A double degree program, sometimes called a dual degree, combined degree, conjoint degree, joint degree or double graduation program, involves a student's working for two university degrees in parallel—either at the same institution or at diffe ...
with another graduate school. Additionally, the Law Center offers a joint degree with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The School of Continuing Studies includes the Center for Continuing and Professional Education, and operates four types of degree programs, over thirty professional certificates and non-degree courses, undergraduate and graduate degrees in Liberal Studies, as well as summer courses for graduates, undergraduates, and high school students.


Rankings and admissions

Admission to Georgetown has been deemed "most selective" by '' U.S. News & World Report'', with the university receiving 27,650 applications and admitting 11.7% of those who applied for the Class of 2025. , Georgetown's graduate schools have acceptance rates of 3.6% to the School of Medicine, 21.2% to the Law Center, 25% to the MSFS, and 35% to the MBA program. In 2004, a
National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
study on revealed preference of U.S. colleges showed Georgetown was the 16th most-preferred choice. The School of Foreign Service (SFS) has been ranked #1 in the United States for international affairs according to Niche, as well as #1 in the world according to
Foreign Policy Magazine A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through m ...
. The Medical School is ranked 44th in research and 87th in primary care, while the McDonough School of Business ranked 25th in MBA programs, second in international business, fifth in nonprofit management, and 13th in part-time business studies. Georgetown University Law Center is ranked 14th in the United States and 12th in the world, as well as first in clinical training and part-time law, second in tax law, third in international law, fifth in criminal law, seventh in health care law, ninth in constitutional law, and tenth in environmental law. The undergraduate schools maintain a restrictive Early Action admissions program, as students who have applied through an
Early Decision Early decision (ED) or early acceptance is a type of early admission used in college admissions in the United States for admitting freshmen to undergraduate programs. It is used to indicate to the university or college that the candidate conside ...
process at another school are not permitted to apply early to Georgetown. 94% of students accepted for the class of 2017 were in the top 10% of their class and the interquartile range of
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
scores was 700–770 in Reading/Writing and 680–780 in Math. Georgetown accepts the SAT and ACT, though it does not consider the writing portion of either test. Over 55% of undergraduates receive financial aid, and the university meets 100% of demonstrated need, with an average financial aid package of $23,500 and about 70% of aid distributed in the form of grants or scholarships.


Faculty

, Georgetown University employed 1,414 full-time and 1,196 part-time faculty members across its three Washington, D.C. campuses, with additional staff at SFS-Qatar. The faculty comprises leading academics and notable political and business leaders, and are predominantly male by a two-to-one margin. Politically, Georgetown University's faculty members give more support to liberal candidates, and while their donation patterns are generally consistent with those of other American university faculties, they gave more than average to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The faculty includes scholars such as the former President of the
American Philological Association The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), formerly known as the American Philological Association (APA) is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization founded in 1869. It is the preemine ...
James J. O'Donnell, theologian John Haught, social activists Sam Marullo and
Chai Feldblum Chai Rachel Feldblum (born April 1959)Nobel laureate George Akerlof, writer and human rights advocate
Carolyn Forché Carolyn Forché (born April 28, 1950) is an American poet, editor, professor, translator, and human rights advocate. She has received many awards for her literary work. Biography Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Michael Joseph and Louis ...
, award-winning literary critic Maureen Corrigan, linguist Deborah Tannen, business philosopher
Jason Brennan Jason F. Brennan (born 1979) is an American philosopher and business professor. He is currently the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at George ...
, and preeminent hip-hop scholar Michael Eric Dyson. Many former politicians choose to teach at Georgetown, including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Jeane Kirkpatrick Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a long ...
,
U.S. Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
administrator
Andrew Natsios Andrew S. Natsios (born September 22, 1949) is an American public servant and Republican politician from Massachusetts, who served in a number of positions in the administrations of Governor Paul Cellucci and President of the United States Geor ...
, National Security Advisor
Anthony Lake William Anthony Kirsopp Lake (born April 2, 1939) is an American diplomat and political advisor who served as the 17th United States National Security Advisor from 1993 to 1997 and as the 6th Executive Director of UNICEF from 2010 to 2017. He ha ...
, and CIA director
George Tenet George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the Pr ...
. Former
Supreme Court Justices The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Its membership, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices, any six of ...
William J. Brennan, Jr. William Joseph "Bill" Brennan Jr. (April 25, 1906 – July 24, 1997) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1956 to 1990. He was the seventh-longest serving justice ...
,
Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectua ...
, and John Roberts have each taught at the university. Internationally, the school attracts numerous former
ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
s and heads of state, such as Prime Minister of Spain José María Aznar, Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, President
Laura Chinchilla Laura Chinchilla Miranda (; born 28 March 1959) is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was ...
of Costa Rica, and President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe.


Research

Georgetown University is a self-described "student-centered research university" and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". , Georgetown's libraries held over 3.5 million printed items, including 1.25 million e-books, in seven buildings, with most in Lauinger Library. The Blommer Science Library in the Reiss Science Building on campus, houses most of the Science collection. Additionally, the Law School campus includes the nation's fifth largest law library. Georgetown faculty conduct research in hundreds of subjects, but have priorities in the fields of religion, ethics, science, public policy, and cancer medicine. Cross-institutional research is performed with Columbia University and Virginia Tech. In 2019, Georgetown spent $240.9 million on research, ranking it 101st nationwide, with $94.0 million in federal funding. In 2007, it received about $14.8 million in federal funds for research, with 64% from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. In 2010, the school received $5.6 million from the Department of Education to fund fellowships in several international studies fields. Georgetown's
Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center The Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center is a cancer center located on the medical campus of Georgetown University in Washington, DC. It is one of four components of the Georgetown University Medical Center and is affiliated with MedS ...
is one of 41 research-intensive comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, and developed the breakthrough
HPV vaccine Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are vaccines that prevent infection by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Available HPV vaccines protect against either two, four, or nine types of HPV. All HPV vaccines protect against at least HP ...
for
cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal va ...
and Conditionally Reprogrammed Cells (CRC) technology.
Centers that conduct and sponsor research at Georgetown include the
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs is an academic research center at Georgetown University in Washington, DC dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of religion, ethics, and politics Politics (from , ) is the set of ...
, the
Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) is an interfaith institution based at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington. Overview The institution was founded at Georgetown Universi ...
and the Woodstock Theological Center. Regular publications include the '' Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy'', the ''
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal The ''Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal'' is a quarterly academic journal established in 1991. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and focuses on questions of bioethics such as those ...
'', the '' Georgetown Law Journal'', the ''
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs The ''Georgetown Journal of International Affairs'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering international affairs. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Walsh School of Foreign Service. The journal p ...
'', and the '' Georgetown Public Policy Review''.


Campuses

Georgetown University has four campuses in Washington, D.C.: the undergraduate campus located in the neighborhood of Georgetown, the Medical Center, the School of Continuing Studies (in Chinatown) and the Law Center. The undergraduate campus and Medical Center are together in the Georgetown neighborhood in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington and form the main campus. Other centers are located around Washington, D.C., including the Center for Continuing and Professional Education at Clarendon in
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
. Transit between these locations and the Washington Metro is supplied by a system of shuttles, known as GUTS buses. Georgetown also has a branch of the
School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at both ...
in Doha, Qatar, and villas in
Alanya Alanya (; ), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a district of Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey, in the country's Mediterranean Region, east of the city of Antalya. As of Turkey's 2010 census, the city had a population o ...
in Turkey and Fiesole in Italy. In their campus layout, Georgetown's administrators consistently used the traditional quadrangle design.


Main campus

Georgetown's undergraduate and medical school campuses are situated on an elevated site above the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
overlooking Northern Virginia. Because of this, Georgetown University is often referred to as "The Hilltop." The main gates, known as the ''Healy Gates'', are located at the intersection of 37th and O Streets NW, and lead directly to the heart of campus. The main campus is relatively compact, being in area, but includes fifty-four buildings, student residences and apartments capable of accommodating 80% of undergraduates, and various athletic facilities. Most buildings employ
collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...
architecture and Georgian brick architecture. Campus green areas include fountains, a cemetery, large clusters of flowers, groves of trees, and open quadrangles. New buildings and major renovations are required to meet
LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...
Silver criteria, and the campus was nominated for the District Sustainability People's Choice Award in 2018. Healy Hall, designed by Paul J. Pelz in Neo-Medieval style and built from 1877 to 1879, is the architectural gem of Georgetown's campus, and is a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. Within Healy Hall are a number of notable rooms including Gaston Hall, Riggs Library, and the Bioethics Library Hirst Reading Room. Both Healy Hall and the Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory, built in 1844, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In front of the Healy and Copley Hall buildings is the large front lawn area, which is crossed by walkways and paths that center on the statue of John Carroll. In addition to the front lawn, the main campus has traditionally centered on Dahlgren Quadrangle behind Healy Hall, which is home to Dahlgren Chapel; however, in recent decades, Red Square has replaced the Dahlgren Quadrangle as the focus of student life. North of Red Square is an extended pathway that is home to buildings such as the Intercultural Center (ICC), the Reiss Science building, the newly constructed dormitory named after
Pedro Arrupe Pedro Arrupe Gondra, SJ (14 November 1907 – 5 February 1991) was a Spanish Basque priest who served as the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. He has been called a second founder of the Society, as he led the Jesu ...
, and the large Leavey Student Center. The northern terminus of the undergraduate campus is marked by St. Mary's Hall adjacent to Reservoir Road, home to the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Across Reservoir Road is the Burleith neighborhood, where some upperclassmen rent houses off-campus. The medical school is located in the northwestern part of the main campus on Reservoir Road. It is integrated with
Georgetown University Hospital MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...
. The Medical campus includes the historic Medical-Dental Building, the Dahlgren Memorial Library, and other research and classroom facilities. In the 21st-century, the West side of the Hilltop has emerged as a newly developing area of the main campus. The university completed the Southwest Quadrangle Project in late 2003 and brought a new 907-bed upperclassmen residence hall, the Leo J. O'Donovan dining hall, a large underground parking facility, and a new Jesuit Residence to the campus. The school's first performing arts center, named for Royden B. Davis, was completed in November 2005. The new business school headquarters, named for
Rafik Hariri Rafik is the given name of: * Rafik Al-Hariri (1944–2005), business tycoon, former Prime Minister of Lebanon * Rafik Bouderbal (born 1987), French-born Algerian player currently playing for ES Sétif in the Algerian Championnat National * Rafik ...
, opened in Fall 2009, and Regents Hall, the new science building, opened in Fall 2012. Along with the adjacent Leavey Student Center, these two large buildings have become popular study spaces and overlook a newly developed scenic lawn space. Additionally, in the fall of 2014, the university opened a new student center, the Healey Family Student Center (HFSC) to complement the longstanding Leavey Center. The Healey Family Student Center is located on the first floor of New South Hall, a space that functioned as the university's main dining facility until the Leo J. O'Donovan dining hall opening in 2003. It features over 43,000 square feet including several study spaces, conference rooms, dance, and music studios, as well as a pub called Bulldog Tavern and a salad store Hilltoss, which is operated by
The Corp Students of Georgetown Inc., commonly known as "The Corp" , is a 501(c)3 non-profit public charitable organization at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with seven subsidiary companies generating annual revenues in excess of $5 million. ...
. The university owns many of the buildings in the Georgetown neighborhood east of the main campus and west of 35th Street NW, including all buildings west of 36th Street. This area is known as "East Campus" and is used for upperclassmen housing, classroom space, along with specific institutions, offices, and alumni facilities. Additionally, the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences both have classroom buildings in this area. Georgetown Visitation, a private Roman Catholic girls high school, is located on the northeast side of campus, on land adjoining the undergraduate campus. As a location, Georgetown is ranked nationally as the second-best
college town A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several sma ...
by The Princeton Review. The Georgetown neighborhood west of Wisconsin Avenue NW is dominated by the presence of university students. Students have easy access to the M Street commercial area, the Georgetown Waterfront, and numerous trails that lead to the National Mall and other parks. Despite this, "
town and gown Town and gown are two distinct communities of a university town; 'town' being the non-academic population and 'gown' metonymically being the university community, especially in ancient seats of learning such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and ...
" relations between the university communities and other Georgetown residents are often strained by facilities construction, enlargement of the student body, as well as noise and alcohol violations. More recently, several groups of neighborhood residents have attempted to slow University growth in Georgetown, creating friction between students and the surrounding neighborhood. Despite the relative safety of the neighborhood, crime is nonetheless a persistent issue, with campus security responding to 257 crimes in 2008, the majority of which were petty crimes.


Law Center campus

The Law Center campus is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on New Jersey Avenue, near Union Station, and consists of five buildings. First-year students at the Law Center can live in the single on-campus dormitory, the Gewirz Student Center. Most second- and third-year students, as well as some first-year students, live off-campus. As there is little housing near the Law Center, most are spread throughout the Washington metropolitan area. The "Campus Completion Project", finished in 2005, saw the addition of the Hotung International Building and the Sport and Fitness Center. G Street and F Street are closed off between 1st and 2nd Streets to create open lawns flanking McDonough Hall, the main building on the campus. In 2019, the university purchased $70 million of a building at 500 First St. NW to add to the Georgetown University Law Center. Opening in 2020, the 130,000-square-foot edifice will provide classrooms and offices for researchers in health, technology, law and other fields.


Downtown campus

The School of Continuing Studies (SCS) campus is located in a 95,000 square foot, state-of-the-art building in downtown Washington, D.C. The campus currently serves as the home for Georgetown's graduate programs in fields such as Applied Intelligence, Journalism, Public Relations, Real Estate, Sports Industry Management, and Urban & Regional Planning. The current building, which was completed in 2013, includes 30 classrooms, a 125-person auditorium, a digital media lab, a broadcast studio, an interfaith chapel, and a dedicated library. It is located in the Chinatown neighborhood of the city and is considered to be one of the most accessible locations in town, with a Transit Score of 100 and a Walk Score of 98. It is also located just a few blocks away from the
Capital One Arena Capital One Arena is an indoor arena in Washington, D.C. Located in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, the arena sits atop the Gallery Place rapid transit station of the Washington Metro. It has been largely considered to be a commercial success an ...
, the home court of the men's basketball team.


Qatar campus

In 2002, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development presented the
School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at both ...
with the resources and space to open a campus in
Education City Education City is a development in Al Rayyan, Qatar. Developed by the Qatar Foundation, the property houses various educational facilities, including satellite campuses of eight international universities. History Education City was launched by ...
in
Al Rayyan Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...
, Qatar. SFS-Qatar opened in 2005 as a liberal arts and international affairs undergraduate school for regional students.
Georgetown University in Qatar Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) is a campus of Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.) in Education City, outside of Doha, Qatar. It is one of Georgetown University's eleven undergraduate and graduate schools, and is supported by a partne ...
(GU-Q; previously Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar) is an external campus of the Walsh School of Foreign Service in Education City, outside of Doha, Qatar. GU-Q (the abbreviation for Georgetown's campus in Qatar) is supported by a partnership between Qatar Foundation and Georgetown University. Georgetown's campus in Qatar offers a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) and three certificates. Apart from language courses, including Arabic and French, all courses in GU-Q are taught in English and the curriculum and course materials in the specified majors are identical to those offered at Georgetown's main campus in Washington D.C.


Facilities abroad

In December 1979, the Marquesa Margaret Rockefeller de Larrain, granddaughter of
John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
, gave the Villa Le Balze to Georgetown University. The Villa is in Fiesole, Italy, on a hill above the city of Florence. The Villa is used year-round for study abroad programs focused on specialized interdisciplinary study of Italian culture and civilization. The main facility for the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies was donated to Georgetown in 1989 by alumnus and former
United States Ambassador to Turkey The United States has maintained many high level contacts with Turkey since the 19th century. Ottoman Empire Chargé d'Affaires * George W. Erving (before 1831) * David Porter (September 13, 1831 – May 23, 1840) Minister Resident * David Por ...
George C. McGhee George Crews McGhee (March 10, 1912 – July 4, 2005) was an oilman and a career diplomat in the United States foreign service. Early life McGhee was born on March 10, 1912, in Waco, Texas, the son of a Waco banker. He studied at the University ...
. The school is in the town of
Alanya Alanya (; ), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a district of Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey, in the country's Mediterranean Region, east of the city of Antalya. As of Turkey's 2010 census, the city had a population o ...
, Turkey within the Seljuq-era
Alanya Castle Alanya (; ), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a district of Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey, in the country's Mediterranean Region, east of the city of Antalya. As of Turkey's 2010 census, the city had a population of ...
, on the Mediterranean. The center operates study abroad programs one semester each year, concentrating on Turkish language,
architectural history The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates. The beginnings of all these traditions is thought to be humans satisfying the very basic need of shelt ...
, and Islamic studies. In December 2007, Georgetown opened a liaison office in Shanghai, China to coordinate with
Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is also ...
and others. In 2008, the Georgetown University Law Center in conjunction with an international consortium of law schools established the
Center for Transnational Legal Studies The Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS) is a global educational center for the study of transnational law. The Center was founded in London in October 2008 as an initiative by Georgetown University Law Center, providing educational serv ...
in London, England.


Student life

The Georgetown undergraduate student body, at 6,926 , is composed primarily of students from outside the District of Columbia area, with 33% of new 2016 students coming from the Mid-Atlantic states, 11% being international students, and the remainder coming from other areas of the U.S. The student body also represented 129 countries, with 11% being
international International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
, including over 330 undergraduate and 1,050 graduate students who chose to come to Georgetown as a
study abroad International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...
destination in 2009–10. In 2014–2015, the racial diversity of the undergraduate student body was 57.0% white, 8.8% Asian, 6.2%
black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...
, and 7.5% Hispanic. The median family income of Georgetown students is $229,100, with 51% of students coming from the top 5% highest-earning families and 13.5% from the bottom 60%. 55.1% of undergraduates are female. Although it is a Jesuit university, only 41% of the student body identify as Roman Catholic, while 22% identify as Protestant . Georgetown employs a full-time rabbi, as 6.5% of undergraduates are
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
ish. It was the first U.S. college to have a full-time imam, to serve the over four hundred Muslims on campus, and in 2014, they appointed their first Hindu priest to serve a weekly community of around one hundred. Georgetown also sponsors student groups for Baháʼí,
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, and Mormon traditions. The student body consists of both religious and non-religious students, and more than four-hundred freshmen and transfer students attend a nonreligious Ignatian retreat, called ESCAPE, annually. A 2007 survey of undergraduates also suggests that 62.8% are sexually active, while 6.2% identify as
LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
. Discrimination can be an issue on campus, and three quarters of a 2009 survey considered
homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, ma ...
a campus problem. '' Newsweek'', however, rated Georgetown among its top "Gay-Friendly Schools" in 2010. A survey by the school in 2016 showed that 31% of females undergraduates reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact, and 86% of LGBTQ students reported some form of sexual harassment at the college. In 2011, '' College Magazine'' ranked Georgetown as the tenth most hipster U.S. college, while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals considered it the third most
vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
friendly small U.S. school. Almost all undergraduates attend full-time. A majority of undergraduates, 76%, live on-campus in several dormitories and apartment complexes, including all underclassmen. , 1255 undergraduates and 339 graduate students live off-campus, mostly in the Georgetown,
Glover Park Glover Park is a neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C., about a half mile north of Georgetown and just west of the United States Naval Observatory and Number One Observatory Circle (the Vice President's mansion). Every morning and evening, ...
,
Burleith Burleith is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., United States. It is bordered by 35th Street NW to the east, Reservoir Road NW and the historic Georgetown district to the south, Whitehaven Park to the north, and Glover Archbold Park to the west ...
, and Foxhall neighborhoods. Although many of the university's hall directors and area coordinators attend graduate level courses, on-campus housing is not available for main campus graduate students. The school hopes to build such housing by 2020. All students in the Medical School live off-campus, most in the surrounding neighborhoods, with some in Northern Virginia and elsewhere through the region.


Student groups

, 92.9% of Georgetown University undergraduates are involved in at least one of the 179 registered student organizations which cover a variety of interests: student government, club sports, media and publications, performing arts, religion, and volunteer and service. Students also operate campus stores, banks, and medical services. Students often find their interests at the Student Activities Commission Club Fair, where both official and unofficial organizations set up tables. The Georgetown University Student Association is the student government organization for undergraduates. There are also elected student representatives within the schools that serve on Academic councils, as well as to the university Board of Directors, and, since 1996, to the Georgetown
Advisory Neighborhood Commission Advisory Neighborhood Commissions are bodies of local government in District of Columbia, in the United States. The ANC system was created in 1974 through a District referendum (73 percent voted "yes") in the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. ...
. Georgetown's student organizations include one of the nation's oldest debating clubs, the Philodemic Society, founded in 1830, and the oldest university theater group, the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society. Nomadic Theatre, founded in 1982 as an alternative troupe without an on-campus home, produces "plays which educate and challenge all members of the university community through thought-provoking theatre." The Georgetown Improv Association, founded in 1995, performs monthly long-form improvisational shows on-campus at Bulldog Alley in addition to hosting "Improvfest", one of the oldest improv festivals in the country. The Model United Nations team that is run by the Georgetown International Relations Club, the largest club on campus, and its affiliate, Georgetown International Relations Association, has attained the status of best in the world on several occasions. There is a total of seven ''
a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without Musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differ ...
'' groups on campus, including The Georgetown Saxatones, The Georgetown Chimes, the Phantoms, Superfood, The GraceNotes, the Chamber Singers, Essence, Harmony, and the Capitol G's. These groups perform annually at the "D.C. A Cappella Festival", held since 1991; the "Cherry Tree Massacre" concert series, held since 1974; and "Spring Sing", held since 2011. The Georgetown University Band is composed of the Georgetown Pep Band and the Georgetown Wind Ensemble, and performs on campus, in Washington, D.C., and at post-season basketball tournaments. In addition to student organizations and clubs, Georgetown University is home to the nation's largest entirely student-owned and -operated corporation,
Students of Georgetown, Inc. Students of Georgetown Inc., commonly known as "The Corp" , is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charitable organization at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with seven subsidiary companies generating annual revenues in excess of $5 millio ...
Founded in 1972, "The Corp" operates three
coffee shops A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-c ...
, two grocery stores, the Hilltoss (a concept much like
Sweetgreen Sweetgreen (legally Sweetgreen, Inc., stylized as sweetgreen, previously swɘetgreen) is an American fast casual restaurant chain that serves salads. It was founded in November 2006 by Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, and Jonathan Neman. In August ...
), catering services, as well as running seasonal storage for students. The business has annual revenues of about $5 million, and surpluses are directly re-invested into the Georgetown student body through Corp Philanthropy, which gave out over $85,000 in scholarships and donations to Georgetown groups in 2014–2015.
Georgetown University Alumni & Student Federal Credit Union Georgetown University Alumni & Student Federal Credit Union (GUASFCU) is a credit union headquartered in Washington, D.C., chartered and regulated under the authority of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) of the US federal governmen ...
is the largest all student-run credit union in the United States, with over $17 million in assets and 12,000 members. The Georgetown University Student Investment Fund is one of a few undergraduate-run investment funds in the United States, and hosted CNBC's
Jim Cramer James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality and author. He is the host of ''Mad Money'' on CNBC and an anchor on ''Squawk on the Street''. A former hedge fund manager, founder, and senior partner of Crame ...
to tape ''
Mad Money ''Mad Money'' is an American finance television program hosted by Jim Cramer that began airing on CNBC on March 14, 2005. Its main focus is investment and speculation, particularly in public company stocks. Cramer defines "mad money" as th ...
'' in September 2006. Hilltop Consultants is a student-run nonprofit
consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...
agency that works with local and international organizations including Teach For America,
Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a C ...
, and Special Olympics. The Hilltop Microfinance Initiative is a student-run
micro-finance Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings ...
organization, aiming to empower underserved communities in DC, Maryland, and Virginia through small business loans and financial coaching. Another student-run group, the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service, "GERMS", is an all-volunteer ambulance service founded in 1982 that serves campus and the surrounding communities. Georgetown's
Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit, the Hoya Battalion, is the oldest military unit native to the District of Columbia, and was awarded the top ranking among ROTC programs in 2012. The proportion of ROTC students at Georgetown was the 79th highest among universities in the United States . GUGS, the Georgetown University Grilling Society, has been a Georgetown tradition since 2002, selling half-pound hamburgers in Red Square on most Fridays.


Activism

Georgetown University student organizations include a diverse array of groups focused on social justice issues, including organizations run through both Student Affairs and the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, & Service. This last organization, founded in 2001, works to integrate into their education Georgetown's founding mission of education in service for justice and the common good. Oriented against gender violence, Take Back the Night coordinates an annual rally and march to protest against rape and other forms of violence against women. Georgetown Solidarity Committee is a workers' rights organization whose successes include ending use of sweatshops in producing Georgetown-logoed apparel, and garnering pay raises for both university cleaning staff and police. Georgetown Students for Fair Trade successfully advocated for all coffee in campus cafeterias to be Fair Trade Certified. Georgetown has many additional groups representing national, ethnic, and linguistic interests. Georgetown has the second most politically active student body in the United States according to the '' Princeton Review''. Groups based on local, national, and international issues are popular, and political speech is protected on campus. Student political organizations are active on campus and engage their many members in local and national politics. The Georgetown University College Republicans represent their party, while the Georgetown University College Democrats, the largest student organization on campus in 2008, represent theirs. The reproductive rights organization H*yas for Choice is not officially recognized by the university as its positions on
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnan ...
are in opposition to university policy, prompting the asterisk in "Hoyas." While not financially supported by the school, the organization is permitted to meet and table in university spaces. The issue contributes to Georgetown's 'red light' status on free speech under the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education rating system. In 2010, the "Plan A: Hoyas for Reproductive Justice" campaign led several protests against the school policy against the sale of birth control on campus, and in 2007, Georgetown University Law Center students protested the university's decision to cease funding for a student's internship at
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reven ...
's litigation department despite funding it previous years. Law Center student
Sandra Fluke Sandra Kay Fluke (, born April 17, 1981) is an American lawyer, women's rights activist, and representative to the Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley. She first came to public attention when, in February 2012, Republican members of the Hou ...
petitioned the university to change its health insurance policy to include coverage for contraception for three years prior to addressing the issue before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in 2012. Although the remarks Rush Limbaugh subsequently directed at Fluke were criticized by Georgetown administrators as both misogynist and vitriolic, the school remains opposed to the coverage of contraception. The
anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
organization Georgetown Right to Life, however, is officially recognized and funded by the university. They actively participate in on-campus as well as nationally focused activism. Every year, the organization sends a delegation to the
March for Life March for Life may refer to: * March for Life (Washington, D.C.), an annual anti-abortion gathering held in Washington, D.C. * March for Life (Paris), an annual demonstration held in Paris protesting abortion * March for Life (Prague), an annual ...
to show support for the national
anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
movement. In addition, every January since 2000 the club has organized the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life. The largest student-organized
anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
conference in the United States, it regularly hosts hundreds of attendees and prominent speakers such as Cardinal O'Malley. Georgetown is also home to a number of student organizations focused on sustainability and environmentalism. GREEN, the Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network, is the largest of these groups. Another student group, GU Fossil Free, was founded in 2013, and aimed to pressure the university to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Georgetown announced that it would fully divest its endowment from fossil fuels in February 2020.


Media

Georgetown University has several student-run newspapers and academic journals. '' The Hoya'' is the university's oldest newspaper. It has been in print since 1920, and since 1987, has been published twice weekly. ''
The Georgetown Voice ''The Georgetown Voice'' is a student-run biweekly campus news magazine at Georgetown University. Founded as a print magazine in March 1969, the ''Voice'' publishes new editions every other Friday during the academic year. The magazine publishes ...
'', known for its weekly cover stories, is a
newsmagazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...
that was founded in March 1969 to focus more attention on citywide and national issues. ''The Georgetown Independent'' is a monthly journal of news, commentary and the arts. Founded in 1966, the '' Georgetown Law Weekly'' is the student-run paper on the Law Center campus, and is a three-time winner of the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acade ...
's Best Newspaper award. Established in 1995, the '' Georgetown Public Policy Review'' is a student-run journal based out of the
McCourt School of Public Policy The McCourt School of Public Policy is one of ten constituent schools of Georgetown University. The McCourt School offers master's degrees in public policy, international development policy, policy management, data science for public policy, and ...
that publishes online articles and a peer-reviewed spring edition. The ''
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs The ''Georgetown Journal of International Affairs'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering international affairs. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Walsh School of Foreign Service. The journal p ...
'', established in 2000, is a student-managed, peer-reviewed Journal that publishes perspectives on current affairs and international relations from experts such as heads of states and renowned professors. ''The Hoya,'' ''The Georgetown Voice,'' and ''The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs'' all run online blogs, and there are other popular blogs written about the school and its sports teams. ''The Georgetown Academy'', restarted in 2008 after a hiatus, targets traditionalist
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
readers, and the ''Georgetown Review'', founded in 2016, aims to bring a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
and libertarian viewpoint to campus. Other political publications include the ''Georgetown Progressive'', an online publication run by the Georgetown University College Democrats, and ''Counterpoint Magazine'', a liberal monthly founded in the spring of 2011. ''The Fire This Time'' is Georgetown's minority newssource. '' The Georgetown Heckler'' is a humor magazine founded on the Internet in 2003 by Georgetown students, releasing its first print issue in 2007. '' The Gonzo'' was a student humor magazine, published from 1993 to 1998. The university has a campus-wide television station, GUTV, which began broadcasting in 1999. The station hosts an annual student film festival in April for campus filmmakers.
WGTB WGTB is a student-run internet radio station at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. History The station was founded as an AM station in 1946 by the Reverend Francis J. Heyden, S.J., and moved to FM in 1960. In the late 1960s and throu ...
, Georgetown's radio station, is available as a webcast and on 92.3 FM in certain dormitories. The station was founded in 1946, and broadcast on 90.1 FM from 1960 to 1979, when university president Timothy S. Healy gave away the frequency and broadcast capabilities to the University of the District of Columbia because of WGTB's far left political orientation. The station now broadcasts through the Internet in its headquarters in the Leavey Center.


Greek life

Although Jesuit schools are not obliged to disassociate from Greek systems, many do, and Georgetown University officially recognizes and funds only one of the many Greek organizations on campus,
Alpha Phi Omega Alpha Phi Omega (), commonly known as APO, but also A-Phi-O and A-Phi-Q, is a coeducational service fraternity. It is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of over 25,0 ...
, the national co-ed community service fraternity. Despite this, other Greek organizations exist on campus, although none require members to live in fraternal housing. Additionally, Georgetown University students are affiliated, in some cases, with fraternities at other nearby universities and colleges. Active fraternities at Georgetown include
Delta Phi Epsilon Delta Phi Epsilon () may refer to: * Delta Phi Epsilon (professional), the professional foreign service fraternity and sorority *Delta Phi Epsilon (social) Delta Phi Epsilon ( or DPhiE) is an international sorority founded on March 17, 1917 at ...
, a professional foreign service fraternity and sorority;
Alpha Kappa Psi Alpha Kappa Psi (, often stylized as AKPsi) is the oldest and largest business fraternity to current date. Also known as "AKPsi", the fraternity was founded on October 5, 1904, at New York University and was incorporated on May 20, 1905. It is cu ...
, a professional co-ed business fraternity;
Alpha Phi Omega Alpha Phi Omega (), commonly known as APO, but also A-Phi-O and A-Phi-Q, is a coeducational service fraternity. It is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of over 25,0 ...
, a national co-ed community service fraternity;
Alpha Epsilon Pi Alpha Epsilon Pi (), commonly known as AEPi, is a college fraternity founded at New York University in 1913 by Charles C. Moskowitz and ten other men. The fraternity has more than 150 active chapters across the United States, Canada, United Kingd ...
, a Jewish social fraternity; and social fraternities Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Phi Epsilon,
Zeta Psi Zeta Psi () is a collegiate fraternity. It was founded in June 1, 1847 at New York University. The organization now comprises fifty-three active chapters and thirty-four inactive chapters, encompassing roughly fifty thousand members, and is a f ...
,
Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...
, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Delta Phi Epsilon was founded at Georgetown in 1920, and members of their Alpha Chapter include Jesuits and several deans of the
School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at both ...
. The Delta Phi Epsilon foreign service sorority, founded in 1973, is the only professional sorority active at Georgetown. In 1982, the Stewards Society was formed as a secret society and all-male fraternity. In October 2013 the first social Greek sorority came to the Georgetown campus with the Eta Tau chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, followed by the Theta Iota chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta in the spring of 2014. Georgetown's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi was established in 2002. Sigma Phi Epsilon chartered its chapter as a general social fraternity in 2007. The Omega Lambda chapter of professional business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi replaced Delta Sigma Pi, which lost its charter in 2006. The Zeta Psi chapter, named Gamma Epsilon, was chartered in March 2009 after a year as a colony. The Chi chapter of
Lambda Upsilon Lambda La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. ( or LUL) is a Latino-based collegiate fraternity. It was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on February 19, 1982, and has 74 active undergraduate chapters and fifteen gradua ...
, a Latino-interest fraternity (and the first of its kind on campus) was charted at the university on April 25, 1997. About 10 percent of undergraduate students participate in Greek life, a relatively low ratio compared to many other colleges and universities.


Events

Annual events on campus celebrate Georgetown traditions, culture, alumni, sports, and politics. In late April, Georgetown University celebrates Georgetown Day. Besides the full-day carnival, the day rewards the best professor of the year with the Dorothy Brown Award, as voted by students. Halloween is celebrated with public viewings of alumnus
William Peter Blatty William Peter Blatty (January 7, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel, ''The Exorcist'', and for his 1974 screenplay for the film adaptation of the same name. Blatty won ...
's film ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 The Exorcist (novel), novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, ...
'', which takes place in the neighborhood surrounding the university. Homecoming coincides with a home football game, and festivities such as tailgating and a formal dance are sponsored by the Alumni Association to draw past graduates back to campus. The largest planned sports related celebration is the first basketball practice of the season. Dubbed ''Midnight Madness'', this event introduces the men's and women's basketball teams shortly after midnight on the first day the teams are allowed by NCAA rules to formally practice together. The festivities include a dunk contest, a 3-point contest, a scrimmage, and a musical act. Georgetown University hosts notable speakers each year, largely because of the success of the Georgetown Lecture Fund and the Office of Communications. These are frequently important heads of state who visit Georgetown while in the capital, as well as scholars, authors, U.S. politicians, global business leaders, and religious figures. Many prominent alumni are known to frequent the main campus. The Office of the President hosts numerous symposia on religious topics, such as '' Nostra aetate'', ''
Pacem in terris ''Pacem in terris'' () was a papal encyclical issued by Pope John XXIII on 11 April 1963 on the rights and obligations of individuals and of the state, as well as the proper relations between states. It emphasized human dignity and equality am ...
'', and the Building Bridges Seminar.


Athletics

Georgetown fields 23 varsity teams and the Club Sports Board supports an additional 23 club teams. The varsity teams participate in the NCAA's Division I. The school generally competes in the
Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...
, although the football team competes in the Division I FCS Patriot League, the sailing team in
Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) is one of the seven conferences affiliated with the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions. MAISA organiz ...
, and the rowing teams in the
Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen men's college rowing crews. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members Eighteen colleges and universities are members ...
. '' U.S. News & World Report'' listed Georgetown's athletics program among the 20 best in the nation. Georgetown's student athletes have a 94% graduation success rate, and over one-hundred have gone on to play professionally. Georgetown has won three NCAA Division 1 team national championships and 23 NCAA Division 1 individual national championships. The school's teams are called "Hoyas", a name whose origin is uncertain. Sometime before 1893, students well versed in classical languages invented the mixed Greek and Latin chant of "
Hoya Saxa Hoya Saxa ( ) is the official cheer and "college yell" of Georgetown University and its athletics teams. The term is an Ancient Greek word usually transliterated from as from the word () meaning "such" or "what" as in "what manner of", and is ...
", translating roughly as "what (or such) rocks." The school's baseball team, then called the Stonewalls, began in 1870, and football in 1874, and the chant likely refers to one of these teams. By the 1920s, the term "Hoyas" was used to describe groups on campus, and by 1928, campus sports writers started using it instead of the older team name, the "Hilltoppers." The name was picked up in the local publications, and became official shortly after.
Jack the Bulldog Jack the Bulldog is the official mascot of the Georgetown University Hoyas athletic teams. The school has employed at least eight live Bulldogs as mascots, and counts seven named Jack since 1962, when the name first came into use, including three ...
has been the mascot of Georgetown athletics programs since 1962, and the school fight song is ''
There Goes Old Georgetown "There Goes Old Georgetown"Listen is the unofficial name of the Georgetown University sports teams' fight song. It is also known as simply "Georgetown Fight Song". It is actually an amalgamation of three songs, only the oldest of which, 1913's ...
''. The men's basketball team is particularly noteworthy as it won the NCAA championship in
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
under coach John Thompson. The current coach is Georgetown alumnus
Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Georgetown University men's team. He played most of his career as the starting center for the Ne ...
, who played in three Final Fours under coach Thompson from
1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., U ...
to
1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
. The team has the record for the most Big East conference tournament titles with eight, and has made thirty NCAA tournament appearances. Well-known former players include Ewing,
Sleepy Floyd Eric Augustus "Sleepy" Floyd (born March 6, 1960) is an American former professional basketball player. An NBA All-Star in 1987 as a Warrior, he is perhaps best known for his tenures for Golden State and Houston. Early life, family and education ...
,
Dikembe Mutombo Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (born June 25, 1966) is a Congolese-American former professional basketball player. Mutombo played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Outside basketball, he has becom ...
,
Alonzo Mourning Alonzo Harding Mourning Jr. (born February 8, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player who has served as vice president of player programs and development for the Miami Heat since June 2009. Mourning played most of his 15-year ...
,
Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson (; born June 7, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iver ...
, Jeff Green, and
Roy Hibbert Roy Denzil Hibbert (born December 11, 1986) is a Jamaican-American former professional basketball player. He is a two-time NBA All-Star, and earned NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors in 2014. Hibbert was the runner-up for the NBA Defensive Play ...
. Georgetown's NBA alumni are collectively among the highest earners from a single program. Ewing & Iverson was both selected on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. The sailing team has won fourteen national championships since 2001, as well as one World Championship in match racing. Over that time they have graduated 79 All-Americans and 6 College Sailors of the year. Georgetown has been nationally successful in both cross country and track and field, and in 2011, the women's cross country team won Georgetown's second team NCAA Championship. The rowing teams are perennial contenders as well for national titles. The men's and women's lacrosse teams have both been ranked in the top ten nationally, as have both soccer teams, with the men winning Georgetown's third team national championship in 2019, and the women making the national quarterfinals in 2010 and the semifinals in 2016. The rugby club team also made it to the Division II Final Four in 2005 and 2009. In 2019, Georgetown won the women's team championship at the
United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association The United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association (USIBA) is a nonprofit amateur collegiate boxing league founded in 2012 and formed, in part, to address perceived safety and fairness issues present in the National Collegiate Boxing Association ...
national tournament held at Syracuse University. Former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon "Gordie" Ernst, one of several people implicated in the
2019 college admissions bribery scandal In 2019, a scandal arose over a criminal conspiracy to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities. The investigation into the conspiracy was code named Operation Varsity Blues. The investigation and rela ...
, is alleged to have facilitated the admission to Georgetown of as many as 12 students through fraudulent means while accepting bribes of up to $950,000. Ernst had relocated to the
University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...
, where he was placed on administrative leave after he was charged and arrested. He later pled guilty to conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, three counts of federal programs bribery, and to filing false tax returns for failing to report many of the bribery payments.


Alumni

Georgetown graduates have found success in a wide variety of fields, and have served at the heads of diverse institutions both in the public and private sector. Immediately after graduation, about 73% of undergraduates enter the workforce, while others go on to additional education, . Georgetown graduates have been recipients of 28 Rhodes Scholarships, 32 Marshall Scholarships, 33
Truman Scholarship The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academi ...
s, 15 Mitchell Scholarships, and 12 Gates Cambridge Scholarships. Georgetown is among the nation's top producers of Fulbright Scholars, with 429 over its history, and produced more than any other institution in the 2019–2020 academic year. Georgetown is also one of the top-ten yearly producers of Peace Corps volunteers . Graduates of the McDonough School of Business have the highest starting salaries, at $70,606, and alumni in general have a median starting salary of $61,681 with a median mid-career salary of $129,500. Government and International relations are the top two most popular undergraduate majors across every college at Georgetown, and many students go on to careers in politics. Former President of the United States Bill Clinton is a 1968 graduate of the School of Foreign Service, while President
Lyndon Baines Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
attended Georgetown Law for a semester in 1934. Iván Duque Márquez, President of Colombia, is an alumnus. Former world leaders include
Laura Chinchilla Laura Chinchilla Miranda (; born 28 March 1959) is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was ...
, President of Costa Rica, Saad Hariri,
Prime Minister of Lebanon The Prime Minister of Lebanon, officially the President of the Council of Ministers, is the head of government and the head of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon. The Prime Minister is appointed by the president of Lebanon, with the consent ...
,
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo (, born April 5, 1947), often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician serving as one of the House Deputy Speakers since 2022, and previously from 2016 to 2017. She previously ...
, President of the Philippines, and José Manuel Barroso,
Prime Minister of Portugal The prime minister of Portugal ( pt, primeiro-ministro; ) is the head of government of Portugal. As head of government, the prime minister coordinates the actions of ministers, represents the Government of Portugal to the other bodies of state, ...
. King
Felipe VI of Spain Felipe VI (;, * eu, Felipe VI.a, * ca, Felip VI, * gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and h ...
, King
Abdullah II of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبدالله الثاني بن الحسين , translit=ʿAbd Allāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of t ...
and his son
Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan Hussein bin Abdullah ( ar, الحسين بن عبدالله, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbdullāh''; born 28 June 1994) is Crown Prince of Jordan as the son of King Abdullah II. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since ...
, and Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud of the Saudi Arabia royal family are among the royals who attended Georgetown. Qatari heir-apparent Sheikh
Abdullah bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Abdullah bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani ( ar, عبد الله بن حمد آل ثاني; born 9 February 1988 in Doha) is the Deputy Emir of the State of Qatar and unofficial heir presumptive to Emir of Qatar. Early life and education Sheikh Ab ...
is also an alumnus of the university's Qatar campus. Eight alumni serve in the United States Senate, and twenty in the House of Representatives. Current congressional alumni include
Dick Durbin Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Durbin has served as the Senate De ...
,
Senate majority whip The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding t ...
, and
Steny Hoyer Steny Hamilton Hoyer (born June 14, 1939) is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative for since 1981 and as House Majority Leader since 2019. A Democrat, Hoyer was first elected in a special election on May 19, 19 ...
, House majority leader. On the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, alumni include former Associate Justice
Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectua ...
and former Chief Justice Edward Douglass White. Georgetown's alumni include more U.S. diplomats than any other university, including former Secretary of State
Alexander Haig Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. (; December 2, 1924February 20, 2010) was United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these ca ...
, former
CIA Director The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is a statutory office () that functions as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, which in turn is a part of the United States Intelligence Community. Beginning February 2017, the D ...
George Tenet George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the Pr ...
, and former DHS Secretaries
Kirstjen Nielsen Kirstjen Michele Nielsen (; born May 14, 1972) is an American attorney who served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019. She is a former principal White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, and was ...
and
John F. Kelly John Francis Kelly (born May 11, 1950) is an American former political advisor and retired U.S. Marine Corps general who served as White House chief of staff for President Donald Trump from July 31, 2017, to January 2, 2019. He had previous ...
, all of whom attended the SFS. Hoya Battalion, the school's ROTC program, was ranked as the best in the country in 2012 for preparing cadets for military service, and graduates have gone on to head military organizations on both the domestic and international level, such as former Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by president George W. Bush a ...
, former
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National sec ...
General James L. Jones, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford. Finance and economics are the third and fourth most popular undergraduate majors, and almost a quarter of graduates start careers at consulting or financial services firms. The university is among the top ten alma maters reported by current Wall Street banking employees according to surveys of LinkedIn data.
Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi ( stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomera ...
was the most commonly reported employer, and their former CEO
Charles Prince Charles Owen "Chuck" Prince III (born January 13, 1950) is an American corporate executive and lawyer. He is a former chairman and chief executive of Citigroup. He succeeded Sandy Weill as the chief executive of the firm in 2003, and as the chair ...
is a graduate of the Law School, as is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, while Mary Callahan Erdoes, current CEO of
J.P. Morgan Asset Management JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...
attended Georgetown College. Other common employers include Deloitte, Oracle, and PwC. Ted Leonsis, owner of the
Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, a ...
, Wizards, and
Mystics A mystic is a person who practices mysticism, or a reference to a mystery, mystic craft, first hand-experience or the occult. Mystic may also refer to: Places United States * Mistick, an old name for parts of Malden and Medford, Massachusetts ...
franchises, is among four other undergraduate alumni who own professional sports teams, making Georgetown the most popular undergraduate university for major North American sports franchise owners. Over 80% of theater major graduates go onto careers in that industry, including Tony Award winners
John Guare John Guare ( ;; born February 5, 1938) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of '' The House of Blue Leaves'' and ''Six Degrees of Separation''. Early life He was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens.Druckman ...
and
Jack Hofsiss John Bernard Hofsiss (September 28, 1950 – September 13, 2016) was an American theatre, film, and television director. He received a Tony Award for his direction of ''The Elephant Man'' on Broadway, the youngest director to have ever received ...
. Actor, director, and Grammy Award-winning songwriter
Bradley Cooper Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and two Grammy Awards, in addition to nominations for nine Academy Awards, si ...
is also a graduate of Georgetown and its English program. Actors/comedians
Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...
, Nick Kroll,
John Mulaney John Edmund Mulaney (born August 26, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He first rose to prominence for his work as a writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous s ...
,
Jim Gaffigan James Christopher Gaffigan (born July 7, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using l ...
, James Murray, and
Mike Birbiglia Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...
also graduated from Georgetown. Georgetown has also produced numerous Pulitzer Prize, Edward R. Murrow Award, and
Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
recipients in journalism and media, including '' The Washington Post'' reporter Walter Pincus and
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro. Several national news anchors are alumni, including Norah O'Donnell of
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...
,
Kate Snow Kate Snow (born June 10, 1969) is an American television journalist for NBC News, serving as Senior National Correspondent to various NBC platforms, including ''Today'', ''NBC Nightly News'', ''Dateline NBC'', and MSNBC. Snow also anchors the Sund ...
of NBC Nightly News, and
Savannah Guthrie Savannah Clark Guthrie (born December 27, 1971) is an American broadcast journalist and attorney. She is a main co-anchor of the NBC News, morning show ''Today'', a position she has held since July 2012. Guthrie joined NBC News in September 2 ...
, current co-anchor of the ''
Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
''. Scientists include award-winning biophysicist Karen Fleming, former Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...
Robert R. Redfield Robert Ray Redfield Jr. (born July 10, 1951) is an American virologist who served as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2018 to 202 ...
, NASA astronaut and astrophysicist John-David Bartoe, and
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
laureates neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder and astronomer Vera Rubin.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Curran, Robert Emmett. (2010) ''A History of Georgetown University, Vol. 1: From Academy to University, 1789–1889; Vol. 2: The Quest for Excellence, 1889–1964; Vol. 3: The Rise to Prominence, 1964–1989'' (Georgetown UP, 2010. Vol. 1: 476pp; Vol. 2: 476pp; Vol. 3: 348pp). ** vol 1 also published as * Durkin, Joseph ed. ''Swift Potomac's Lovely Daughter. Two Centuries at Georgetown through Students' Eyes'' (Georgetown UP, 1990) 446 pp. * * McFadden, William C. ed. ''Georgetown at Two Hundred: Faculty Reflections on the University's Future'' (Georgetown UP, 1990), 353 pp. * *


External links

*
Georgetown Athletics website
{{Authority control 1789 establishments in Maryland Articles containing video clips Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Catholic universities and colleges in Washington, D.C. Educational institutions established in 1789 Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States Private universities and colleges in Washington, D.C.