Dean’s Message

Welcome to Georgetown University’s College of Arts & Sciences. The oldest and largest of Georgetown’s ten schools, the College is home to teaching and research across the liberal arts and sciences. It is where students discover who they are and what they want to be, and it is where our world-class faculty make novel discoveries about the world around us.

From the natural and physical sciences to the social sciences and the humanities through to the performing and visual arts, the College’s faculty, students, and staff are driven to develop innovative ways of understanding and explaining the complex world in which we live. Increasingly, we recognize that some of our most important discoveries come from approaches that bring different disciplines together to offer pathbreaking ways of knowing and being. 

Discovery in the College takes place across 26 academic departments and 14 interdisciplinary programs. Undergraduate students choose from 50 majors, 60 minors, and 6 certificates to find an academic home and form the basis of their intellectual pursuits. Graduate students enroll in our doctoral programs and master’s programs designed to provide them with the education and skills at the cutting edge of their fields. 

Through it all, we are guided by the Jesuit and Catholic principles that have been the foundation of the university for over two hundred years. We are committed to the pursuit of social justice, a belief in the value of serving others, and the spirit of cura personalis, providing care and education for the whole person. These values that guide our educational mission have never been more important than they are in the world today. 

The College of Arts & Sciences prepares students, both undergraduate and graduate, to solve the most pressing problems of our time and to be engaged and well-informed citizens of the world. The entirety of what students learn in and outside of classrooms in the College will prepare them for careers in the arts, government, law, media, medicine, technology and more. Most importantly, a College of Arts & Sciences education enables all of our students to pursue lives filled with meaning and purpose. I invite you to discover all that makes the College of Arts & Sciences a special place.

Hoya Saxa,

David M. Edelstein
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Georgetown University
Professor of Government and International Affairs