Alumni Interviews

All first-year applicants are required to have an interview with an alumnus as part of the admissions process unless there are no alumni available to conduct interviews in a particular geographic region. Interviews for transfer students are optional. No interviews are available for applicants to Visiting Student Programs.

Please note that no interviews take place here on campus and we do not ask (or expect) students to travel to other cities/countries for the interview. If you live in a city/country where no alumni interviewers are available, the interview will be waived. Rest assured that in such situations, the lack of an interview does not negatively impact your admission decision. Please note that we are not able to assign you to an interview outside of your geographic region if your interview is waived.

The Georgetown University Alumni Admissions Program (AAP) is responsible for interviewing all undergraduate applicants to Georgetown. The interview will be conducted by a member of one of the Alumni Admissions Program committees, which are located in all fifty states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in many foreign countries. Once you complete the Georgetown Application, the Admissions Office will provide you with contact information for an alumni interviewer in your area (sometime between September and January). You are expected to make arrangements for that interview.

The interview provides you with an opportunity to highlight particular aspects of your background and achievements and to learn more about Georgetown University from the point of view of a local alumnus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are all applicants required to have an interview?

All first-year applicants are required to have an interview unless it is not possible to assign the interview based on geographic area. Interviews are available in most parts of the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in many foreign countries. The interview need not be completed prior to the application deadline, but it should be done as soon as possible after the assignment has been received. For transfer students, the interview is optional.

Where do interviews take place?

All interviews are conducted in the local area of the applicant. No interviews are given on campus. Upon receipt of the Georgetown Application, applicants are assigned to a local interviewing committee in their region based upon their school year address. Local committee chairs will match students with an interviewer in their area, and each applicant will receive an e-mail with contact information for their individual interviewer. It is the responsibility of the student to contact their interviewer and set up a meeting. Interviews may take place at any mutually agreeable location, such as a local coffee shop, school, library, or the interviewer’s office.

Students who attend residential schools are often assigned to committees that work specifically with those schools and are able to accommodate the needs of students who are unable to travel to meet with their interviewer.

When should applicants hear about their interviews?

The first interview assignments each year are sent out to the local chairs in the middle of September. Students who send in their applications during the summer should expect to hear something about their interview by early October. Thereafter, interview assignments will be made regularly and students will typically receive the name of their interviewer within several weeks of submitting their application. Assignments are not made in any particular order and occur up through the application deadlines, so students should not be concerned if they do not receive an interview assignment right away. Please note that Early Application interviews are prioritized through the end of October, so Regular Decision applicants may not receive an interview until November or later, regardless of when they submit their application.

Who conducts the interviews?

The Alumni Admissions Program (AAP) is a volunteer network of more than 6,000 Georgetown alumni who interview undergraduate applicants around the world. The AAP is divided into more than 200 regional committees and has been interviewing students for longer than 35 years. AAP interviewers may be alumni of any school at Georgetown, graduate or undergraduate, and they range in experience from the most recent graduates to alumni of the 1960s. They are a dedicated group who are there to help the admissions committee learn more about Georgetown’s applicants as individuals.

What is the purpose of the interview?

The interview is an opportunity for students to share any information that they feel was not captured in their applications or to highlight any relevant information. Interviewers are not looking for any specific information about the applicant; rather, they seek to have a general conversation about the applicant’s thoughts and interests. Each interview will be unique based on the interviewer and the applicant, but some topics that may come up include: academic interests, extracurricular activities, summer experiences, family background, future plans, and exposure to Georgetown. Those topics are not an exhaustive list, merely a few examples.

Finally, students should use the interview to learn more about Georgetown and the Georgetown community from the perspective of an alumnus. An interview report will be submitted and becomes part of the admissions file. While the interview report is used as part of the admissions committee’s consideration process, it rarely “makes or breaks” an application, and much more often than not it works in the applicant’s favor.

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