Georgetown (DC) SAT Scores, GPA, and ACT (2026)

Roughly 13 of every 100 applicants get into Georgetown, and Georgetown (DC) SAT scores explain a lot of who makes that cut. The acceptance rate sits at 12.9% in the 2024-2025 data, which means about 87 of every 100 applicants hear no. The middle 50 of admitted students scored between 1390 and 1550 on the SAT, with an average of 1487. Unlike most selective schools, Georgetown still requires test scores in the most recent federal data, so there is no test optional escape hatch here: your number is going in the file whether it helps you or not.

That policy changes how you plan. At a test optional school, a weak score can simply stay home. At Georgetown it cannot, so the SAT stops being a judgment call and becomes a fixed part of the application, one of the few parts you can still move in your last year of high school.

The school itself is a private nonprofit university in Washington, DC with 7,569 undergraduates, small enough that admissions reads a national applicant pool for a limited number of seats. The section splits tell their own story. Reading and Writing runs 700 to 770 for the middle 50, while Math runs 690 to 780, a wider band with a higher ceiling. ACT scores fall between 31 and 35 for the middle half of the class.

Read the 1390 to 1550 range as 3 zones. Below 1390 means you scored lower than 3 out of 4 admitted students, and because Georgetown requires scores, there is no way to withhold a weak number: the committee will see it and weigh it. Inside the range, your score neither helps nor hurts much. At 1450 you look like a typical admit, close to the 1487 average, and essays, rigor, and activities decide the rest. Above 1550 puts you past the 75th percentile, ahead of most of the incoming class on this one measure, though at a school this selective even that only earns a closer read, not an offer.

The sections are not symmetric. Reading and Writing sets the higher floor at 700, so a 680 verbal score is a more visible weakness here than a 680 in Math, where the 25th percentile is 690. Math stretches higher at the top, reaching 780 at the 75th percentile against 770 for verbal, which means strong quantitative applicants have a little more room to separate themselves. If you have to choose where to spend your last month of prep, that asymmetry should shape the choice.

Admitted Georgetown students typically show up with unweighted GPAs in the 3.8 to 4.0 range. That is what a 12.9% acceptance rate implies about the pool: mostly A students, with the occasional A minus semester. When a school turns away roughly 7 of every 8 applicants, it can fill the class almost entirely from the top of the grade distribution, and it does. A transcript in that band does not win admission on its own, but a transcript below it puts real pressure on everything else in the application.

The number is only half the story, though. A 3.8 built on the hardest schedule your school offers reads very differently from a 4.0 in easier courses. Rigor counts as much as the digits, because admissions readers see your course list right next to your grades. And if your GPA sits at the lower edge of that band, a strong SAT is the fastest offset available: grades take years to move, while a score can jump in months. Since Georgetown requires testing anyway, that lever is always on the table. You might as well pull it hard.

Set 2 targets. First, clear 1390, the 25th percentile: at or above it, your score keeps you in range and the rest of your application carries the argument. Second, if you can push to 1550 or beyond, you land in the top quarter of admitted students, which matters at a school admitting 12.9% of applicants. By section, that means roughly 700 or better in Reading and Writing and 690 or better in Math just to stay in the game, and 770 and 780 to reach the top quarter on each. Because Georgetown requires scores, there is no fallback plan where you skip the test and lean on grades.

Work backward from the gap. If you are 150 points short, that is a different plan than 40 points short: the first calls for months of steady work across both sections, the second for targeted drilling on your weaker one. Our score plans map out realistic timelines for each. The concrete next step: take the diagnostic this week, get your current number, and measure your distance to 1390 before you build a study schedule.