Admit: Celebrate with family, buy a lot of UGA gear to wear for the holiday season, but remember that not everyone has received a decision of admission, and so be a little more low key with friends and classmates. In other words, do not run up to you best friend during English class and scream "I got into Georgia" while 10-15 of your classmates are mentally throwing daggers into your back.
Defer: This is the most challenging one, as these are applicants who are truly strong students, but we want to see more about them (as well as the rest of the applicant pool) before making a final decision. Please remember, this is not a denial at all, but instead a way for us to be able to review you in full, from your co-curricular activities, your essays, and your recommendations. This is your chance to let us know what you are like as an overall applicant. While this is probably not the answer you would like, I would suggest you treat it as a call-back for a second audition. Some roles have already been cast (or admitted), and we now want to look at you in more detail to see how you compare to the rest of the people auditioning (or applying). One of the worst things you can do is give up and not do the essays. The second worst thing is to call us up and berate us for not admitting you. We will be happy to talk to people, but make sure to communicate in a positive tone, understand that we cannot talk about other applicants, and please remember that defer does not mean denial. At the end of last year (after all decisions, both during March and Wait List offers in May), just about half of the deferred applicants who completed part II were later admitted. About 1000 deferred students did not complete part II, so we never even had a chance to even review them! If you are serious about UGA, take the time to complete your application, and then be patient as we review all of these files throughout Jan., Feb. and March. When completing part II (the essays), you do NOT need to do an entirely new application, and there is no new/additional application fee. You just need to go to your myStatus page after decisions are out, complete part II (the essays), and hit submit. As well, get a teacher from an academic area to write your teacher recommendation.
Deny: While this is not a fun situation at all, the reality is that if you have been denied Early Action, you are truly not competitive for admission at UGA. It is not easy to write that, and it is very difficult to tell this to a student or parent, but when we look at this student's application in comparison with the other 10,600 EA applicants (and remember, we expect to get over 7,000 RD applicants as well), they do not match up academically with the others. It is better to tell you now instead of waiting until late March, as this gives you time to make other plans. Unless there seems to be a serious error (you are in the top of your class, take a very challenging course load, and have a strong test score), my suggestion is to not contact us about the decision, but instead move forward with plan B. While we do not mind talking with you at all, the reality is that an Early Action denial means that the admission to UGA is not possible as a freshman.
once we go back in to our mystatus to finish the application, will we have access to the other part that we already submitted so that we can add more information to the "honors and awards" section? I have recently won some awards that I would like uga to know about.
ReplyDeleteare we looking at around 3:00 on Friday, or more like 5:00? or 7:00? any kind of time reference more specific than just Friday afternoon?
ReplyDeletewondering: If a student is deferred, they would complete the four short answer essays and there will be a space for you to add any information (short statement, additional activities/awards, etc.) that was not included in your EA application.
ReplyDeleteAnon: To quote from a previous reply, "Late Friday afternoon is fairly specific, so that is the best I can do for right now. When we open up the myStatus page, I will announce it on this blog."
Will you be updating this blog prior to Friday in regards to what the average GPA, Rigor and SAT/ACT scores are from EA applicants?
ReplyDeleteAnon: I will most likely be posting a link to our press release that will go out on Friday, which will give information about the EA applicant pool. I still have to wait and see when it will be ready.
ReplyDeleteHow important would you say the teacher rec and the 4 essays are? Does admissions really take a lot of time to read into these?
ReplyDeleteHow was the activities and achievements summary used in making EA decisions? Since this is the first year this was included in Part I of the application, did this get any weight? Or will this still be primarily a consideration for deferred applicants?
ReplyDeleteDo you know if more applicants are being accepted because more have applied? Also, how many more applicants have applied than last year?
ReplyDeleteAnon I: The teacher rec. and 4 short essays carry some weight, but it is hard to quantify exactly, as this is a holistic read process, so we are looking at all information and how they interact with other factors in a student's file. When we read a file, we read every single one of these, from the good essays to the bad, and the positive recs and negative, all carrying some weight in the process.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: For the most part, the activities section did not play a part in the EA review, and was only used in a small number of cases where we reviewed students who were on the edge between defer and deny. We ask for this information this year because UGA added the Presidential Scholarship category this year, which focuses on leadership in co-curricular activities, and so we needed this information on all applicants. For EA deferred students, we will look at this section during the file reading process.
Anon III: There was only a small difference in the EA numbers from this year to last (I do not have exact numbers off hand, but it was less than 100 applications difference). As for exact number of acceptances and the statistics on the overall pool and the EA admitted students, I will not be able to give that out until Friday at the earliest.
ReplyDeleteFor EA, can someone with all A's in their core classes and a rigourous schedule be defered to RA.
ReplyDeleteAnon: The Presidential Scholarship looks at "A record of strong academic achievement and a history of accomplishment and leadership in co-curricular activities.", to quote our website, and so we need this information for all students in case we review their file for this program.
ReplyDeleteAnon (whatever number): Yes, a student with all A's could be deferred, as UGA would review their overall high school curriculum (saying rigorous does not give me much information) and their test scores in combination with their grades, as well as evaluating them in comparison with the other EA applicants, in order to make a decision.
ReplyDeleteI am guessing, based upon past years of EA decisions, that we will have a number of students with GPA's over a 4.00 who are deferred (due to the other factors being lower), and we will have a number students with SAT scores above 1400 (CR and M) who are deferred due to other the other factors. In EA, we are looking at a combination of the academic factors (and the overall applicant pool) in making decisions, so one individual factor will not control the whole decision process.
You had responded to my question about students with all A's being defered. So you are saying that a student with what you are looking for (all a's and a rigorous schedule), can be defered if you think that doesn't prove anything? I'm confused about it because it seems that no one is guarenteed to get in on EA. Could you help me sort this out, please?
ReplyDeleteAnon: I will try to answer your question as best as possible. Let's say that student 1 has all A's, and they think they have a rigorous curriculum. But when UGA reviews the file, we see a student with all A's, but their curriculum is not as strong in our eyes (for instance, I saw a student with 4 AP courses today, but he had never taken an Honors/Advanced course in his first three years, and his AP courses were all in his senior year and were all in one academic area).
ReplyDeleteStudent 1 also has a low SAT score (let's say under 1000 on the CR/M, and under 500 on the SAT W), which may indicate that UGA would want to look beyond just the strong grades and look at everything during a holistic read process. That is why a student might be deferred with all A's.
Does it matter on UGA's decision for admission if both of my parents graduated from UGA???
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think I am a competitive applicant based on last years scores. I have a 3.93 GPA, 30 ACT score, 5 AP's and Gifted/Honors Math and English classes
ReplyDeleteI am curious as well as to what factor "relationships" may have in the admissions process. I do not mean this in the sense that if you are a legacy, you will get in, but rather, why the application asks for relationships between the applicant and a current/former UGA student in the first place? If one has a sibling at UGA, will the admissions office track their sibling's academic progress while at UGA just as they do for UGA students who have come from the same high school? Sorry, if this sounded a bit "snooty" but I just wanted to know why this information is asked for in the application.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks! This blog is wonderful.
Thank you for the clear understanding and I see what you mean about the criteria. I was worried for a moment, because it seemed like everyone who fits the criteria can still be defered. I get the example with the AP classes because you have said before that you have to challenge yourself in all areas. I have taken two AP courses in my junior year and made A's in both of them and I have four others in my senior year. They are all AP courses in different subject areas. Along with a 4.0 and straight A's calculated by your standards.
ReplyDeleteAnon I and II (I think you are the same person): Admission does not use legacy in the admission process, but the question is on our application so that Alumni Affairs can know about this data for future interaction with families. As for your application information, it seems like you are a competitive applicant.
ReplyDeleteEmma: See above, and no, we do not track siblings to see how they have done at UGA and use that for admission purposes. I have 5 siblings, and there are three I would have want ed a college see their academic records, and two that I would have wanted them to ignore. We are looking at you based on you. Just to repeat, we ask the alumni question for the Alumni Affairs office, just like we ask the gender question for housing purposes (and it is an optional question on the application, but not so on the housing one).
Anon III: Based on your information, I would say that you have prepared yourself well for college.
Would a student with a 3.96 GPA(Uga standards) and a 27 ACT along with 5 Ap classes be considered 'competitive' for EA?
ReplyDeleteHi, you mentioned that activities/honors and awards above (the part that had to be completed for Part I) wasn't really given much weight in the EA decision process, except in small cases where a student was on the border between deny/defer. Is activities and honors/awards used/looked at in the EA decision process if you are on the border between defer/admit??
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I am curious as to whether race is a factor in admittance. Also, is an applicant compared/evaluated next to another applicant from the SAME school/school area or just the general applicant pool? I remember being told at a tour that students are compared to others from their specific school. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the UGA standards mean? I have seen this alluded to many times and I am curious as to how so many people know what their GPAs are based on the "UGA standard"
ReplyDelete-thanks
Are any scholarships available to students with parents who never attended college/are the first generation to attend college?
ReplyDeleteI know that for early action GPA, course rigor, and test scores are what are considered.
ReplyDeleteI've read on this blog that GPA is the most important factor so I know the 3 categories aren't of equal importance. However, if an applicant is slightly above the middle 50th percentiles in two categories but slightly below the middle 50th in another, could strength in two areas of review be enough to make up for another area of review? I am facing this type of scenario. I know that it is impossible to comment on an individual applicant, and you wouldn't want to give false hopes or discourage anyone by giving a hopeful ,or discouraging, answer. I'm just asking to gain a better understanding of the general admissions process. Sorry for the lengthy comment. Thanks
Does UGA consider weighted or unweighted scores when making early action decisions?
ReplyDeleteI think I am a competitive applicant based on my overall skill set. I have a 3.6 GPA, 1700 SAT score, 11 AP's and all the rest Gifted/Honors Foreign Language and Core Classes. Also a 3 sport athlete with good work experience.
ReplyDeleteWizkhalifa: I would say that a student would be competitive with these academic areas, but I would not guess as to an outcome.
ReplyDeleteKim: No, there is too large of an applicant pool and too little time to review the activities for the students in that are close to the defer/admit ranges.
Anon I: I would suggest you review the link on the right hand side of this blog for the UGA Urban Myths, as you have just stated two of them. Ethnicity is not a factor in admission, and we look at you in comparison to the applicant pool, not the small subset of your school.
Anon II: I believe what is meant is that they are not using a GPA off of their HS transcript, but rather by how UGA calculates a GPA.
Cindy: Yes, there are some scholarships that take need into consideration, and you should look at the admissions website and click on the Scholarships link for more information.
Anon III: I do not know what you mean by "weighted or unweighted scores". If you mean GPA, we look at your individual core grades to calculate our own GPA.
Anon IV: You seem to have challenged yourself in your coursework, although your GPA and SAT are at the lower part of UGA's mid-ranges for last year. We will see what happens.
skiier57/Bobbi: Your post was caught in the blogspot spam filter, but I think I was able to push one of them through. If a student is strong in two areas but not as strong in one, it is possible for the student to be admitted, but it depends on the overall academic situation. Remember that even within EA and the academic focus, your grades and rigor are the most important part, but not the only part, of the review. Again though, you will just have to wait and see, as I cannot guess.
ReplyDeleteIf a student lacks Honors courses their first two years of highschool, but takes their first two APs their junior year, and on to 3 more their senior year with an addition of a dual enrollment course, will that be considered a rigorous schedule to the UGA standards? Would this upwards trend in this schedule be considered rigorous? While also maintaining a 3.97 GPA (core classes only).
ReplyDeleteAlso does the admissions team see the dual enrollment courses as rigorous? My child is enrolled in the higher college English class ENG1102 than ENG1102 because he passed the AP LANG exam, so does the admissions team see this higher dual enrollment course?
Sorry for the lengthy comment! I'm just a little worked about my son's chances!
Thank you D.Graves, sincerely.
Worried Parent: UGA looks at all classes, from 9th through 12th grades, in determining rigor, and we take into account the overall course choices including dual enrollment (and the level of dual enrollment courses) in the review of the challenge of the student's curriculum. Remember, though, that we also look at the depth and breadth of the courses, so we would look at what the student took in all of the core areas.
ReplyDeleteAs for an upwards trend for rigor, we actually see this in most students, so it is more of an issue if we see a decline in the rigor. For example, I reviewed a file today where the student dropped from Honors and AP the first 3 years to almost all CP senior year with no explanation, which would cause most selective colleges to pause for a moment.
I just looked up all the scholarships and found none regarding 1st generation students. thanks!
ReplyDeleteOkay...I really believe my son meets your requirements for admission...3.94, honors(6), AP (4), TAG, joint enrollment (4), and a 1950 on the SAT's but I am getting ready for him to be deferred...so if he is deferred and gets his application part 2 done quickly...when will he get notified of acceptance (or rejection)?
ReplyDeleteI applied for fall semester to UGA but I would like to change it to summer. Should I wait until I am notified about being accepted/deferred/rejected to change this option. If i am deferred (hopefully not)would changing it matter or can I simply wait? Is there an option to change it if I am applying for RD
ReplyDeleteCindy: My bad, I thought that the Coca-Cola scholarship was on there, see http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/ccfgs.htm. This will be reviewed based on the information in the admissions application. As well, some of the need-based scholarships at times look at first-gen as well.
ReplyDeleteJust Wondering: If a student is deferred, they will hear by late March of a final decision.
Anon: We do not base a decision on whether you applied summer or fall, so wait until decisions are out and then change.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the major parts of the application that are considered for early action?
ReplyDeleteAnon: For Early Action, UGA focuses on the academic areas of core grades, rigor of curriculum, and test scores (in that order). In addition, we look at any issues concerning what I call red flags, which range from conduct issues to D/F grades. But to restate, for the most part EA is based upon an overall academic review.
ReplyDeletewould any extra curricular or community service hours contribute to the application along with the academic review?
ReplyDeleteAnon: To quote from an earlier comment I made; "For the most part, the activities section did not play a part in the EA review, and was only used in a small number of cases where we reviewed students who were on the edge between defer and deny.
ReplyDeleteWe ask for this information this year because UGA added the Presidential Scholarship category this year, which focuses on leadership in co-curricular activities, and so we needed this information on all applicants. For EA deferred students, we will look at this section during the file reading process."
Is a 3.75 (UGA standard) considered competitive for early admission? (honors, all; AP, 5 on transcript)
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I have heard about the Presidential Scholarship. What are the qualifications? Where can I get information on this scholarship?
ReplyDeleteGPA, I finally understand the calculations. Schools are really hurting the higher level students by adding points for AP Classes. My student has achieved 97,99, 98, on AP classes without any extra points. His school adds 5 pts but don't go over 100. So a student with a 90 and school does not weight ends up with a higher GPA with UGA. Something is really wrong with this. My son's GPA will be penalized for making the higher grade due to his school's rules.
ReplyDeleteDGraves,
ReplyDeleteI had a 3.5 GPA with Honors/AP course work with only a 22 on the ACT. Though, I was Class president, 3 sport all-state athlete, NHS, Senior Superlative, and FCA president. I have always been a bad standardized test taker. I am expecting to be deferred, but would my extra credentials make me a strong applicant for round 2.
I have a question about a previous response you gave (below). I am confused because you stated that with DE and Honors courses you do not add weight to the "grades". Then you stated "Notice that I say grades, not courses, as we would add weight to the grades." Can you please clarify. Thank you for your prompt responses - blog is great!
ReplyDeleteAnon: No, UGA does not give quality points for Dual Enrollment grades, as we only add weight for AP/IB grades. While AP and IB courses are nationally recognized and highly standardized, dual enrollment and Honors courses are not, and that is why we do not add weight to these grades. Notice that I say grades, not courses, as we would add weight to the grades. We review the overall rigor of a student in a different way, and that also plays a key in our review.
Anon I: If you look at last year's EA press release for Early Action (http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/091211_EarlyAction.shtml), you will see that the mid-range GPA for accepted students was a 3.84-4.08, so a 3.75 is a little below the mid-range. That does not mean it is not competitive, but you would want to be strong in the other areas.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: You would find a little more information on the scholarship by going to the Scholarship link off the main admissions web site. There are no set qualifications (the only scholarship with set minimums is the FF/Ramsey scholarship), and the Scholarship page tells you more about what we look at in the review. As I have said, most of our scholarship review uses the admission application, as this one does.
Concerned Parent: This is something you should speak with your school and county about, as they most likely have their reasons for their policy, but it is not always the best policy for everyone.
Gamble: If you are deferred, then yes, your strong co-curricular activities would be a positive in the file review process. Just make sure to get us a first semester transcript and finish up strong during the last few weeks of this semester, as we still look at academics in the holistic review process.
Confused: The earlier person mentioned that his son had taken roughly 4 dual enrollment courses in his junior year, and would be taking 11 his senior year (these numbers are what I think I remember, but I could be off a little bit). In addition, he was somewhat disappointed that UGA did not add weight to the dual enrollment courses. My statement was that we only add weight for AP/IB grades. What I am trying to tell the father is that we only add weight to AP/IB grades, not AP/IB courses yet to be completed.
So for instance, let us say that your son is applying and has taken 2 AP courses with B grades junior year, and will be taking 5 more AP courses senior year. We will add .5 to the two AP grades, so each grade would be a 3.5 out of a 4.00 scale instead of a 3.00 that a B grade normally is. But we do not add weight for his 5 senior year AP courses, as we do not have grades for them, and thus cannot add weight to any future grades that have not even been completed yet. My reason for stating this was to let him know that during our review of his son's overall curriculum, we would take the entire scope of his 15 dual enrollment courses into consideration, and the only negative would be that the 4 dual enrollment grades would not have a .5 weight. In other words, the lack of weighting for the 4 grades would not be much of an impact.
Thank you for this wonderful blog! This explains a deferred student's situation so much better for me.
ReplyDeleteI go to a private school, so scheduling for placement classes is sometimes difficult. For example, I was suppose to be in all Honors classes my sophmore year, but because of scheduling, I was only allowed to be in 4. Does the admissions office take note of this when looking at a student for EA?
ReplyDeleteHS: I am glad this has been of help to you!
ReplyDeleteAnon: One of the questions we ask on our school evaluation form is about limitations on signing up for courses, such as set limits on AP's, limits on the number of classes a student can take, etc. As well, I think that all schools, both public and private, have some scheduling issues with courses that sometimes conflict and a student is then not able to sign up for everything they want. We understand this and try to recognize this issue.
As far as UGA calculating a GPA with AP classes....if your high school adds 1 point to each AP class grade, is that how you would calculate it? I know you've mentioned in previous blogs, that you would add .5 but I'm assuming that's if a school does not add weight.
ReplyDeleteAnon: When you say your high school adds 1 point to each AP class grade, are you saying that on your transcript, where you would have a B grade in AP Lit., your transcript now says that you have an A? If so, that is adding it to the actual grade. If they just add 1 point when they do their HS GPA calculation, then they are not actually adding it to the class grade, they are adding it to the HS GPA, which UGA does not care about. Please give me an example or explain better so I can give you more assistance.
ReplyDeleteIf the student has a true 95 in the class at the end of the semester and 1 pt is added to make it a 96. The 4.0 scale is based on 90-100. The accumulative unweighted GPA is 4.0 and the accumulative weighted GPA is 4.2 due to AP classes, would UGA use the 4.0 and add .5 for AP or use the weighted GPA. How would this be figured?
ReplyDeleteAnon: I have never seen a school add only one point out of a 100 point grading scale range for AP, but if that is what they do, then that is their call. So if the school is adding weight to the actual teacher grade, UGA will then not add any additional weight to the grades (so we would not add the .5 on a 4.0 scale to the grades). So if you have a 4.0 from your school, that being all A's, you would then have a 4.0 GPA. We do not use a high schools GPA, so that question is moot. We do not double weight AP/IB grades.
ReplyDeleteWhen UGA calculates a GPA, we look at every core class grade on the transcript, and every A is a 4.0, every B is a 3.0, etc. We then calculate a UGA GPA based on this. When we add .5 for an AP/IB grade, we would do this to the actual AP/IB grade, so a B grade would become a 3.5 and we would use this as one of the grades in our GPA calculation. When you have all of the 4.0 scale grades, you add them up and divide by the number of grades.
So if you have 6 grades, with 3 being A's, 2 B, and 1 C, you have 3X4=12, plus 2X3=6, plus 1X2=2 (which means 12+6+2=20), and then divide by 6 grades, means a 3.33 GPA. If one of those B grades was an AP course (and your school does not add weight to the actual teacher grade), then it would be 20.5/6, which is a 3.41 GPA.
By the way, what high school is this, as I would love to know more about their policy?
This was just another scenario, no particular school in mind. As you said, most schools give more points than that. Just an example that would cover pts added to number grade. I have seen so many varibles concerning GPA and just thought this would cover another examples. Wow, with all the variables the school districts and other states use, figuring GPA's is more than a fulltime job.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Yes, it can be confusing to deal with a wide range of grading and GPA issues with different high schools. I would suggest going to the labels section of this blog, bottom right, and selecting "GPA". As well, one of the most specific posts in this can be found at http://ugaadmissions.blogspot.com/2009/11/grades-gpa-and-confusion.html, and it gives some specific details on how UGA looks at grades.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks so much for this blog and for being so prompt with replies. In looking at the stats for last year EA acceptances, it seems that the 25-75% ranges for GPA and SAT are notably higher than the ranges for the final class that enrolls in UGA (can’t find last yeas enrollment stats at the moment, but this is my recollection). This makes sense, because of course EA applications are probably skewed toward those with a higher academic profile. But also, it would seem that part of this is due to the fact that there are likely many UGA applicants with outstanding academic credentials who are applying to UGA as a back-up school and thus, are unlikely to actually enroll in UGA. When determining the EA acceptance pool, do you take this into account?
ReplyDeleteI’m not suggesting that you would defer or deny someone with outstanding credentials. It makes sense that these candidates would be accepted as you would hope many of them will actually enroll. But, it seems that based on your past years experience, you would have a sense of what the reality is likely to be – that is, what proportion of your applicant pool with very high SAT scores and GPA will actually enroll if accepted. Thus, what I’m wondering is, if there is an increase in applicants meeting such “high or exceptional” criteria in a given year, do they penalize the total applicant pool by driving up the acceptance criteria? Or does UGA somehow adjust and expand the total number of acceptances issued based on some type of enrollment predictions. (Of course I’m asking about this year, and my guess is that you won’t be very specific regarding the current decision, but I appreciate knowing this information in as much detail as you can give).
Anon: Yes, UGA takes into account that not all students that we admit will attend UGA, and that the strongest applicants will generally have a wider range of opportunities to attend other colleges, and thus are somewhat less likely to attend UGA. We do a great deal of statistical analysis of our applicant and admitted group, and also track the overall applicant/admitted/deposited students throughout the year to try and determine who will be attending. As such, EA admission decisions do not penalize the total applicant pool.
ReplyDeleteAt my school, I've been one year ahead of the typical courses taken by students in my grade in both math and science. However, although I was taking classes a year ahead of time, they were not honors or AP. Is there a way for UGA to recognize that what I've taken is very advanced, even though it hasn't been weighted and has no honors or AP designation?
ReplyDeleteKimbo (interesting name choice): We would generally be able to see this in our review of the transcript, and a number of our applicants are ahead in Math and For. Language compared to the standard level in high school, so this is not unusual. But at the same time, we are still going to look at what is available at your school and what you decided to take in your coursework.
ReplyDeletemy school offers a quality point for a specific hours Spanish class- only for one year since it's far more challenging than the past honors. Usually however an honors class would only receive .5 points at my school. is this quality point not included when you recalculate?
ReplyDeleteis the .5 for AP classes added to both semesters average? in the example you used above- you added .5 to a B.. assuming a student received a B in both semesters of the AP class, would a whole point be added to calculate the UGA GPA?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to assume the worst and say I get deferred, and I send an email to explain a low GPA. What is the e-mail address? What info should I provide in the e-mail? UGA ID number, name and explanation? Anything else? How would I know if my explanation was added to my file?
ReplyDeletethank you!
Anon: Is your high school's "quality point" added to your actual grade in the class (the grade is changed from a B+ to an A-, for instance), or is this quality point added to the GPA they calculate? Again, we only look at the actual grade reported on the transcript, be it a letter grade, a 100-point scale such as a 95, or the like), and we calculate the GPA based on the actual course grade. We do not care what a high school does in calculating their GPA as we ignore the GPA on the HS transcript.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: If the grades are counted as semester grades, we add .5 to each semester grade. If the grades are counted as year-long grades, we add it to each year grade. It comes out the same in the calculation due to 2 semester grades equaling one year grade.
Assumingworst: I would not suggest sending an email, but instead including this in the updated information section of Part II. This is where you can add information about any new awards or activities, or let us know of any other issues (such as the one you mention). When you submit part II, it will show up on the status check and you will know we have it in your file.
ReplyDeleteDoes the Presidential Scholarship have to be applied for or is it given just by review of the initial application? If so, when does the application have to be in. My daughter is interviewing for the Presidential Scholarship at GCSU on Friday. Are their interviews at UGA for this?
ReplyDeleteAnon: The Presidential Scholarship process uses the admission application during the review, so there is no other application for this. The priority deadline for Honors and Scholarships for the admission application to be submitted is Dec. 15, but we still will review some students who apply after this date. There are no interviews for this scholarship.
ReplyDeleteOkay, thanks, hopefully there will not be a character limit :(
ReplyDeleteOh and one more thing, on the self reported grades section, I accidentally put College ENG 1101 as Sping and Fall course. It should be 1101-Fall 1102-Spring. Will they catch this mistake?
Sorry I did not mean self reported grades. I mean the Senior courses section
ReplyDeleteAssuming worst: There will be a character limit, so if you need to give us more, send an email to admproc@uga.edu, and they will let you know when it has been put in your file (but do not give us a two page explanation, as brevity is a positive trait). As for the college course, we will be able to figure this out.
ReplyDeleteIf I missed this in a previous blog, I apologize. Is there a difference between AP and IB classes, as far as the admissions process for UGA? My son has been a straight A student throughout 9 & 10 grade pre-ib, and straight A's so far in IB 11 & 12th grade. Would a student who took AP classes be ranked higher than those who are IB or vice versa? Also, he applied for the FF/Ramsey Scholarship. Would he be considered for the Presidential scholarship automatically if he is not a finalist for the FF? Also, since the IB program is rigourous, and he maintains a superior GPA but also has to work part time to help the family...this limits his volunteering hours... just not enough hours in the day. I know as far as scholarships go, a lot depends on outstide activities, so what is "best" when being considered for scholarships?
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Question Lady
Question Lady: Generally, an IB program is seen as equal or better than a student who has taken the broadest scope of AP courses available, as they also have the TOK course as a capstone. But since most students do not have the option of an IB program due to a lack of schools offering it, we do see a large number of students who are extremely challenged in a well-rounded AP or dual enrollment course load that is equal to the IB program.
ReplyDeleteIf he is not a finalist for the FF/Ramsey, we would automatically consider him for other scholarships such as the Presidential or Charter. As for what we look at as "best" as far as activities go in scholarship review, there is no best. We look at the circumstances of the student and what he/she has chosen to participate in, along with the depth and breadth of the involvement. We would view his employment as part of his activities outside of school.
What is the appropriate way to turn down acceptance for admission.
ReplyDeleteThank you~ we appreciate your response.
ReplyDeleteHave a good day,
Question Lady
Anon: The best way to decline admission to UGA is to go to your myStatus page (when it is back up), and there is a cancellation option that you can select. It will then ask a few questions, and it will allow you to cancel your application (either before or after admission to UGA). This will then be taken care of in our student system in 2-3 business days.
ReplyDeleteQuestion Lady: Glad to help!
I know you have probably answered this question but I can't seem to find it. Do you have to apply separately for the Presidential Scholarship or is the admissions application used? Thank you
ReplyDeleteBandmom: The Presidential Scholarship process uses the admission application.
ReplyDeleteReading through this, I wanted to calculate my uga Gpa. Will I include electives or just core classes? Would foreign languages be included? And what about academic electives? Thanks!! Im so anxious for Friday: I head they will most likely be out by 5.
ReplyDeleteis there any way i can ask a question without being publicly posted here?
ReplyDeleteMy son has a 3.7 GPA, 1770 SAT and 8 AP courses. I assume he will be deferred. I want him to retake the SAT on January 22nd 2011. Will that score be considered at that time? He also had a D in the tenth grade. Should he give an explanation of the D?
ReplyDeleteAnon I: UGA determines a GPA on academic core grades (English, Math, Soc. Studies, Science and Foreign Language), and any non-core AP/IB courses such as AP Computer Science or IB Music Theory. If you remember the application section that asked for self-reported grades, this is what we were asking about. I am not sure what you mean by academic electives,but if they are not in the core area (such as health or PE), do not use them. Just so you know, economics is a Soc. Studies course, Anatomy is a Science course, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: You would want to contact our office by either calling our office on a business day, 9-4, or by going to our Meet the Staff page, https://www.admissions.uga.edu/article/meet_the_uga_admissions_staff.html, and emailing the counselor that works with schools in your area. When you post on this blog, it goes public.
Anon: If your son is deferred, then we should be able to accept the January score if he requests the scores to be sent when he signs up for the exam. We have had issues in the past with January test scores, but SAT/College Board has gotten us the scores within three weeks for the last two years or so, so it should be fine. When he completes part II, I would suggest he put in an explanation about the D grade.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the quick answer, but I have a follow up question. I switched high schools right at the end of my freshman year. At my old high school, I had the hardest possible course load in math and science, but at my new school (which has more options for math and science), I was not prepared for the honors courses as a consequence of my old school. Should I send an email to explain this? Or should I wait and explain in on Part 2?
ReplyDeleteI applied EA and just noticed that I said I was white and black, when in fact I am only white. What should I do?
ReplyDeleteThis is a random question, but I need to know before Christmas! What kind of laptop is recommended for UGA students? I am very interested in an Apple Macbook Pro, but I have heard that some software does not cooperate well with the Apple Operating System. If you do not know this answer, can you give me an idea of who I need to contact? Thanks! Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteAre the number of AP classes taken compared to the number offered at your high school? My school only has AP Literature and Language (Unfortunately, these are offered at the same time, so I could only take Language) and AP Calculus, which I did not take due to the fact that I am not strong in math. Compared to other applicants, I haven't taken many AP classes, but compared to most of the students in my school, I have challenged myself.
ReplyDeleteAlso, does having one particular section of your SAT score be significantly lower than the other two (for me, it's math) hurt your chances of acceptance? I have strong CR and W, but as I said, I am weak in math. Does UGA shy away from people with a weaker area?
Like Oops, I also just noticed I made a mistake in my application. I already emailed the undergraduate admissions center and they said they would forward me to the person in charge. I am going to call them tomorrow. However, the results are going to be released on Friday. I do not want them to think I lied on the application. What else should I do? Will I get rejected or deferred because of my mistake?
ReplyDeleteif a mistake was made when self reporting grades such as not including a class (perhaps because of uncertainty of whether it is a core class) / not including an A one received but it is present on the transcript, will admissions be able to tell and notice this mistake. will the applicant be penalized
ReplyDeletealso, is sociology and current events considered core electives? at many schools it is offered under the social studies wing.
Kimbo: Because the EA review process is done, this should wait until after EA decisions, and you can either add it in part II or send an email if deferred.
ReplyDeleteOops: Since this is not a factor in the admissions decision process, wait until after EA decisions are out (we are busy with all the decision mailings, website checks, etc. right now), and then send us an email.
Anon I: Here is a link to the UGA tech support suggestions, http://www.sts.uga.edu/buya.html . They can also answer questions.
Anon II: We look at what is offered as a whole at your high school and what you have taken, so we do not focus only on AP courses. As for the sections of the SAT (or ACT), we look at the individual subscores, but I would not say that we would not admit a student just because of one section being low. Remember though, that we look at the overall composition of your academics in EA, so in the overall review a low subscore could impact a decision, but not due to it in isolation.
Anon III: Like I said with oops, if it is not an item that impacts a decision, then you are okay to wait until after Friday. Since I do not know what you made a mistake on, I could not answer your question, but since we review your transcript, get the official test scores from the SAT/ACT organizations, and review your curriculum by our methods, I would not be worried.
Anon IV: We are double checking the self-reported grades against the transcript, so I would not be worried about a missing grade, as we would catch it (and it is too late to change it for EA now). As for Sociology courses, these are social studies courses (we list Sociology on the self-reported grades section as a social studies course), so these would be included (but again, we are checking things against the transcript).
I go to a very prestigious, well-known private school and I am just wondering if this will be taken into consideration when my application is reviewed? Also, since I go to this school moving to Honors/AP classes is much more of a challenge than just signing up for classes like at most schools. Instead, my school has a set criteria that must be met before advancing on to a higher level. I am just curious to know if this will also be noticed? Moreover, my school seems to be ahead in every subject in comparison with other schools including other private schools. Will this also be noticed or is it too nit picky of a process for the amount of applicants UGA is receiving? Needless to say UGA is my first pick and I am trying to use my past form of higher education to ensure an acceptance.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
The mistake I made was regarding the AP rigor. When I was completing the self reported grade section, I was following my transcript. The transcript was formatted by per semester so I filled out my grades by semester. However, underneath the self reported grade, there was a question asking how many ap classes I will have taken by the end of senior year. I answered it thinking it also meant per semester. Instead of 10 APs, I submitted 20 APs.(I thought an AP class would be counted twice a year since I based it by per semester.) I did not intend to submit false information. I do not want the admissions office to believe I lied. I made a mistake that I am truly sorry for.
ReplyDeleteDo you think this will result in my rejection? or will they defer me because of this?
Thank You
What would uga look more highly upon in regular decision, a applicant that has a 4.0 with 2 ap classes, or an applicant who has had a 3.4 with 8 ap classes, in which all other factors such as test scores and ec are the same between both candidates
ReplyDeleteWhat if a student has a really good GPA (over a 4.0) but their test scores are average. Is that considered competitive for EA?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
On the teacher recommendations, can i get them from the other 2 high schools I have been at because the one I am at now I will have only been there 6 months when I graduate? (this all pending on what the EA decision is)
ReplyDeleteIf i get deffered and take the December ACT's, would i be able to send that with the application in january?
ReplyDeleteAnd if so, would the score have a big impact on the decision process or is UGA mostly looking into the essays and recommendations?
Kim: I will quote from another post I have done: "As for how we look at high schools, we do review the past performance of UGA students from each high school to see how well they are doing at UGA compared to what we expected. But as a whole, admissions is based on what you as an applicant have done in the academic and overall realms, and how that compares with the other applicants."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, while we do take the high school into consideration, we focus more on what you have done with the opportunities you have available. As well, please remember that a number of public schools limit entry into Honors/AP/IB courses to students that they believe will be successful, so it is not only your school that does this. Attending a strong school can be a double-edged sword, as we recognize the strength of students from schools, but we also notice if a student is sliding by and hoping that they will be admitted based on their school, not their own academic performance.
Anon I: If you made this error, then it as a harmless mistake, and one that I most likely have already caught in my review of oddities in the AP/IB area (a number of students made this type of error). This will not cause any issues with your application.
Anon II: I am sorry, but I cannot answer your question, as there are never two equal students in anything. What other classes did the students take? What were the AP courses, and how did they do in each one? Did they take dual enrollment courses, Honors, etc? What was the progression of the grades? What was offered at the school? And on and on and on. What I suggest is that a student take the most rigorous schedule they can actually handle and succeed in, as it will prepare them best for college classes, and it will prepare them best for admission.
Anon III: I would assume the student is making all A's, as that is generally the only way to have above a 4.0 GPA. We would then look at the rigor of a student's course load, and then the subscores of the SAT or ACT. If a student has challenged themselves and is making this strong of grades, then they would be competitive even with mid-range test scores.
Anon I: Yes, you can get teacher recommendations from 2 teachers from two different schools.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: I would suggest you look at the lower right hand side of this blog and under the labels section, select "file reading". We look at a lot more than test scores, recommendations and essays, and this will give you an idea of the details we look at in file reading. As for the Dec. SAT scores, yes you can send those in.
Thank you so much for replying. I have been worried sick about how my mistake in the application will be affected and how my actions have impacted your views about me.
ReplyDeleteDoes uga look more at the sat or act when considering a student for admission?
ReplyDeleteIf you are accepted under early action, do you need to complete a separate Honors application or will students automatically be consider for Honors and if so when will they be notified if accepted into the Honors Program.
ReplyDeleteTyler: We do not have a preference for the SAT or the ACT, so if you send both types of tests, we will use whichever is the strongest.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Honors will contact some admitted students soon (I do not have a date) after EA decisions go out to offer them Honors admission, and they will also contact some students and suggest they apply to Honors. In addition, if you are not contacted by Honors, you can go ahead and contact them and submit the Honors application. Honors would be the best office to contact about Honors admission.
If scheduling was an issue tihs year (senior year) and it was planned for me to take AP Spanish and AP Stat, however I ended up taking AP Micro/AP Macro and AP Gov't. My AP Macro and AP Gov't are scheduled for next semester. How would UGA consider this as far as rigor of courses? Would it be taken into consideration that because scheduling was an issue these could only be taken 2nd semester?
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a great blog!
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ReplyDeleteThank you very much for doing this blog, I know the many questions must get tiresome. I was wondering if it reflects poorly on an applicant if they did not take the ACT? Also, do academic electives count as core classes (such as sociology or law) when calculating GPA? And lastly, I heard a rumor that some of the admissions are chosen in random pools, does this have any validity or is it just one of those application myths? Again, thank so much.
ReplyDeletevery hopeful: I would guess the question would be did you or your counselor let us know about the scheduling issue? If we know about things, we are able to understand the situation, but if not, then we have to go by what we know.
ReplyDeleteGimmeabreak: Thanks for the compliment. Remember, this blog is about sharing information, not shout outs to your friends.
Anon: We are fine if you only took the SAT or the ACT. Sociology is a social studies course, so we would use it in the GPA calculation, but not a law course, and we tried to list these courses in the self-reported grades section of the application. As for random selection for admission, no we do not do this. It is not a part of our process, and so you should chalk this up to a myth.
My counselor told me that they receive an online recommendation soon after I submit my application. Does a similar thing happen for teacher recs too? I have found nothing on the application asking about teacher recs.
ReplyDeleteThank you
Will: Several years ago, UGA created a counselor Status check so they could look at the students who had applied from their school, and a checklist for what had or had not been submitted by the students/school (test scores, transcript, etc.). We added a link off of this for each student so a counselor could in one click start the online school evaluation with the selected student's personal information already populating the form (along with the school information). Since the counseling offices work with all the applicants from their school, and since all applicants need a school evaluation and a transcript, we gave the counseling offices this password protected site.
ReplyDeleteTeacher recommendations are not required for all applicants, but are needed for RD or deferred EA applicants only. That is why you may not have noticed it on our application site. But RD students know about it, and we alert deferred EA students about it when we notify them about deferral. We also make it so teachers can submit an online recommendation.
Under what conditions would special circumstances be taken into account when reviewing an EA application? (considering special circumstances are reviewed for every single applicant)
ReplyDeleteHow do you compare the admission requirements of UGA to Aub and UF? If I have already received acceptance letters from each of these would you 'assume' the same for UGA?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHow do you compare the admission requirements of UGA to Aub and UF? If I have already received acceptance letters from each of these would you 'assume' the same for UGA?
Sorry, I meant Aub and UT not UF.
Thanks
This question may have been asked already. Sorry if it's a repeat. In years past, what percent of EA students were actually accepted, deferred, and denied?
ReplyDeleteHow would I find and submit a teacher rec if I am applying regular decision?
ReplyDeleteTN: We ask for students to list any special circumstances on their application, and for EA, we review the entire file including this section for students who are on the borderline of defer and deny, so we can make a determination as to whether to keep them in the process. We are not able to do this for all EA applicants due to volume and time constraints, but if a student is deferred, we are then able to look at this area along with everything else during the file reading process.
ReplyDeleteAnon: I do not compare UGA and our admissions requirements with other colleges, but you might want to look at the middle 50% ranges of admitted students of each of these strong institutions to compare with all the institutions you are considering.
Anon II: The press release from last year can be found at http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/091211_EarlyAction.shtml, and we will have one tomorrow on this year's EA pool.
Will: You can give your teacher the link to the online teacher rec at https://www.admissions.uga.edu/teacherrec.html, or they can go to the admissions web site and do a search for our printable forms.
After looking at the press release from last year, is this year's applicant pool as strong or stronger?
ReplyDeleteAnon: We will put out a press release tomorrow, and I will link to it in my next post. It will be similar in nature to last year's press release as far as information, so I will let everyone compare them at that time.
ReplyDeleteHello! I have a 4.0 GPA and I am in IB Diploma, but I only have a 25 on the ACT. I was wondering if I am still considered as a competitive applicant, even though my ACT score is below the middle 50% of UGA's standards.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being so patient in answering all the questions on this blog, it's much appreciated!
Does a student's expected major carry weight in the EA decision process? If so, would a less popular choice of major, such as agriculture, increase a student's chance of being accepted?
ReplyDeleteAnon I: If you are in an IB diploma program and are a 4.0, A student, then you have put yourself in a good position, as the IB diploma program is one of the most challenging out there. I would seriously believe you are competitive, and remember that we do not just look at the ACT Composite (or SAT total), but the individual subscores.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: No, we do not look at the major in making an admission decision (and we allow freshman to change their majors from the day after they apply until the day they attend UGA, so it would not be a smart move if we did).
I have a question about calculating UGA GPA.
ReplyDeleteI understand the calculating based upon whether your school adds weight or not, but I also took college classes over the summer which are not included in my transcript. I sent my college transcript to UGA. When calculating my GPA would the A I made in the college class be considered a 4.5 because there is no weight on it? As for my high school, there is weight on my core classes so I understand that this will be a 4.0 (no .5 added) but because my college classes are not on my transcript because they were not used to satisfy college prep pre-requisites, would they get the added .5?
Also, for EA, is it possible for those with gpa's below 3.8 (say 3.75ish) but SAT/ACT scores above the averages to be accepted. It seems as if for EA 3.8 is the cut-off gpa and this is very worrying to me.
I read on the blog that GPA is considered to be twice as important as test scores. I also read about a student getting in with a 22ACT but another student with a 31ACT and 3.5 GPA being deferred. Why would a high GPA compensate for an extremely low test score when a high test score can't compensate for an average (but not abismal) GPA? The latter applicant clearly retained more information from his high school years than the first. I don't want to come across as critical or argumentative because this is just an honest question that I have, as UGA seems to stress GPA over test scores the most out of all the schools I am applying to.
ReplyDeleteLila: UGA calculates a HS GPA based on the core grades that show up on the high school transcript. If your dual enrollment grade does not show up on the HS transcript, we will not use it in the HS GPA calculation. We would look at your college transcript in our review of your rigor of curriculum, and we would look at everything if your application goes into the holistic file review process.
ReplyDeleteThere is no cut-off for EA GPA's, just as there is no SAT/ACT cut-off. I would say that a student with a 3.75 GPA with a very strong SAT/ACT AND a rigorous course load would be competitive.
Losing hope: First of all, I am guessing that the students you are referring to were most likely self-reporting their GPA and scores, so take these with a grain of salt. But yes, UGA does value a students grades ALONG with the rigor of their courses ahead of the SAT/ACT scores. I would say that you are a bit presumptuous in saying "The latter applicant clearly retained more information from his high school years than the first", as you have not met the students and have not seen their full file. As for why we focus more on a student's grades and rigor, UGA has done studies, regression formulas, has reviewed the College Board studies about the predictability factors of grades vs. test scores, etc.
In addition, I have read over 20,000 files, reviewed over 100,000 transcripts, read over 50,000 essays, etc., and after all this, I have come to the conclusion that I value hard work and rising above expectations as compared to students not performing up to expectations.
I am not saying that this is your situation at all, but this is why we focus more on grades and rigor that test scores.
Losing hope: I am sorry if the above comment seemed a little harsh, but UGA has done a great deal of research about grades, rigor and test scores, and we feel our method of review suits our institution best. Each university makes it's down decision as to the balance of factors it reviews for admission, but most of them value grades and rigor over test scores.
ReplyDeleteI'm am really in full agreement with you about GPA DGraves, I don't want to seem like I am insulting the admissions department's methods at all, because given UGA's awesome reputation, they are clearly doing a good job of choosing the best students to attend. The reason I am concerned is that my high school is very difficult; only 12 people out of 1300 made the high honor roll for the first quarter(all A's and A-'s). Even with a 3.5 GPA, I am in the top 20% of my grade of 330, at the #1 ranked high school in my state. I also will have 2 AP credits and 6 IB credits upon graduation, and while not diploma, I am in an entirely IB curriculum this year with the only exceptions being 2 AP courses. My ACT is a 31. Still, every indication from this blog has led me to believe that I am not competitive, and I feel discouraged. I'm sorry to list my individual stats, but I have noticed other posts doing this, so I feel that I may as well.
ReplyDeleteSince you say that you've read 50,000 essays, do you ever let students know if they've written a good one? I think that I'd rather write 15 essays instead of read 50,000!
ReplyDeleteLosing hope: The first thing I would say is that you should not feel discouraged about UGA and admissions, whether you are admitted EA or deferred (I would not think that an EA denial would be a possibility with your academics). Second, most students who are denied during final decisions and have top scores (let's say 1400+ SAT or 31+ ACT) have much lower GPA's than you, or have other issues that are not mentioned in their posts (D/F grades, etc.). While your self-stated GPA is a little lower than the mid-range for EA last year, it looks like you are challenging yourself and you have a strong ACT. so be patient, know that you are competitive, and if you are deferred, know that in the past few years, roughly half of the deferred students who then completed part II were ultimately admitted at a later date (although I cannot make any promises or guesses for this year).
ReplyDeleteAnon: I have at times told students that they have done a great job on their essays, and I posted two last year on this blog that were great. Remember as well that I have been in admissions for 20 years, that we have 4 short essays, that I have also read scholarship files, etc., so I have had a long time to read that many files and essays (although the transcripts do get to you after a while!).
Not to ask a dumb question, but does mid-50% GPA & mid-50% SAT/ACT, mean that half of accepted students were at or above this statistic? And half below?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your time & patience.
Anon: The mid 50% ranges that most colleges give out contains the students who fall into the 25%-75% range, so 25% of the students data falls above this range, and 25% fall below. So for last years EA admitted group, the mid 50% for GPA was a 3.84-4.08, and so 25% of the total admitted GPA's fell below 3.84 and 25% fell above 4.08. I hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the responses DGraves. No matter what decision I get (what decision I earn, really), this blog has been an invaluable resource. thanks again!
ReplyDeleteLosing hope: You are welcome, and I hope that you can change your blog name to something more positive after decisions tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIf someone is deferred, does that mean they were not up to the standards of those who were admitted?
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to add to the ridiculous amount of comments on this to say this has been a priceless tool and information source throughout this entire application process (thus far) and I could not be more thankful. I hope that future applicants (as well as myself) will continue to use this and that you can keep blogging to help us students.
ReplyDeleteThanks a million DGraves!!!
Guy: If someone is deferred, it means that UGA is going to delay a decision on their application for Early action so that we can get more information and review their entire file during our holistic review process, and then make a decision about admission.
ReplyDeleteThe students who are admitted in EA are students who, after reviewing the three academic areas in combination (core grades, rigor and test scores), fall into what we call our academically superior category. Deferred students are applicants who are very competitive academically, but we want to know more about them and the rest of the applicant pool before making a decision.
I know that was long, but I hope it helps. As well, I do not suggest applicants compare themselves against another student who has applied, as they generally do not have all the information that UGA does (exact core grades, overall rigor as UGA determines it, all of the subscores on the SAT or ACT, how these factors go together, etc.
Anxious: Thanks for the compliment!
ReplyDeleteI understand that GPA is highly important, but say one has a 1980 SAT, a 31 ACT, has taken the most rigorous courses offered each year, has maintained the same grades each year, and has taken, after Senior Year, a total of 10 AP's, would his 3.444 GPA ruin a lot of that?
ReplyDeleteIn your opinion how competitive is this student for EA
I have a 3.7 an 1800 Sat and 10 AP classes. I was assured by my guidance counselor and the counselor at UGA that I would not get denied. However after reading your blog I think other wise. Can you help clarify the EA standards for me?
ReplyDeleteI would also like to thank you for the massive work you put into this blog. If it weren't for this, I would have absolutely no idea that EA decisions are being released tomorrow instead of mid-December, so I would have spent an extra week and a half waiting in anxiety. No one else I know that applied is even aware of the date change. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I am truly appreciative of your help.
ReplyDeleteAnon: I am not able to guess about a yes/no decision for you, so it is better to just wait (and remember, a deferral is not a negative if it happens, just a slight delay so UGA can review your file in more detail).
ReplyDeleteAnon II: I cannot speak for your HS counselor, and generally our admissions counselors would not "assure" anyone of anything, but I would guess that you would not be denied EA. This does not mean admit EA, though, but as I said above, deferral is not a denial. Last year I had a fellow counselor write a post entitled "Deferral is not a four letter word", and we mean it.
Anon III: I am glad that you were able to find this blog, and please tell your other classmates about tomorrow and your counselor as well.
DGraves thanks for you fast response. I will be content with deffered, I just don't want to get denied. Thank you for your advice and everything you do! It's good to know I'm not the only one having a panic attack tonight! Thanks so much! AnnonII.
ReplyDeleteI moved from another state right before I started HS and the new school didn't recognize my freshmen courses I took in MS. Because I started off standard level, I did not have the prerequisites to take half of ap classes at my school. will admissions review this
ReplyDeleteAnon I: I hope you survive through tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: We would only know about this if you our your counselor let us know about this, and generally this is something we would be able to focus more on during the read process, not EA.
Hello, i was wondering if in the Early Action process you take in to account special situations where the student has experienced serious loss or a difficult home situation where, for example, the student was a main caretaker for a dying parent? i have taken all gifted courses and will have completed 2 AP classes. i have been very involved in extra curriculars and have many vollunteer hours. my grades, however have suffered from all of this. i was just wondering if that would be taken into consideration because it has been a huge part of my life for all 4 years of highschool. i am expecting to get deffered, i was just wondering if that is an EA consideration or a RA consideration.
ReplyDeletethank you very much! the blog is great!
Looking at UGA fast facts sheet (Fall 2010 Student Admitted Profile). If you are in the Middle 50% for Core GPA, Middle 50% SAT (CR+M), and Middle 50% for number of AP/IB courses you have taken, can you say this student has a good chance for EA admittance? I have heard it said that if you are in the Middle 50% range in 2 categories, you will be admitted early. Does this hold true?? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI don't think my counselor has noted this, for I go to a very big school and because we have counselors by grade level, My counselor did not know my situation. Is it a good idea to note this in additional info in part II if deferred?
ReplyDeleteMy math and reading sat is a 990 I have a 4.0 gpa weighted. Nig higher weighted obviously. I will have taken 3 AP classes by the time I graduate 2 sophomore year and 1 senior year. Iam 37 out of 237 in my class. I have served as VP and Treasurer for Key Club and VP and parliamentarian for FBLA. I served on a Jr. Bank board where only 10 students were chosen from my school and I was one of 10 guys selected as an outstaning senior. What happens to me ea,defer, or deny ?
ReplyDeleteStephanie: To quote from a previous comment, "We ask for students to list any special circumstances on their application, and for EA, we review the entire file including this section for students who are on the borderline of defer and deny, so we can make a determination as to whether to keep them in the process. We are not able to do this for all EA applicants due to volume and time constraints, but if a student is deferred, we are then able to look at this area along with everything else during the file reading process."
ReplyDeleteHeather: If you are in the middle ranges for last year's information off the fact sheet, then you are generally competitive (although the number of AP courses does not exactly translate to the rigor of a student's curriculum). This does not mean that you will be admitted, only that you are competitive, and remember, the fact sheet has data on all students admitted last year, not EA students alone. As for your rumor, do not go by rumors.
Anon I: Yes, make sure to include this in part II if you are deferred.
Anon II: I do not guess about EA decisions, and remember, EA is focused on academics, not the entire scope of a person.
D Graves....I just want to thank you for all your dedication put into this blog, espcecially over these past couple days. Today is the big day and like I told my child last night....you've done all you could possibly do over the past four years. The rest is in God's plan. Good luck to all!
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr. Graves for your dedication to this blog. It has been wonderful staying informed during the gut wrenching wait. I hope you have a well deserved break for a few days before starting on regular admissions. Good luck everyone!!!
ReplyDeleteWell today is the day, I was wondering if you could tell me the percent of EA students from 2010 that were initally deferred but were accepted in the RD process. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnon I and Mom: Thanks for the kind words! Next week will be somewhat crazy as the phone calls come in, but we are glad to have the decisions going out as well.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: Roughly 50% of the 2010 EA Deferred applicants who then completed part II were admitted. Remember, you can't play if you take yourself out of the game, so if you are deferred, make sure you then complete part II, get in a teacher rec., and if possible, send in first semester grades!
I would like to thank you so much for all the information you have put on this blog. Also, thanks to all the participants with their questions which also was a big part of getting information we would like to know about. You have been very gracious in your responses. But best of all, like you said and is most important in the scope of things, is the plan that God has for your future. So even if accepted, deffered, or denied, trust it is for a reason that one day you will understand.
ReplyDeletewill every applicant be able to see their admission status in the late afternoon? or will some have to wait longer
ReplyDeleteAnon: Every student should be able to see their status this afternoon when we open up the myStatus page.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Let me clarify. Every EA applicant should be able to see their admission status. Regular Decision applicants will not have a decision yet.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you for all you have done DGraves, you have helped a lot of people! Any estimate of when the status page will be opened this afternoon yet? Hope all is well!
ReplyDeleteAnon: It will be late this afternoon, and I will add a new post here when it is available.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks a lot for this blog, it's helped a lot! Last summer my family drove through Weston in Connecticut, it was such a beautiful place! We thought about you on the trip, no homo. My dad brought along Moneyball, it's now one of my fav books for sure. I was reading it in the car when all of a sudden my dad started talking about how Digital media and website design was his favorite course during his years at Clemson! I asked my dad if a degree in history would be good and he recommended it. In fact, we brushed up on our history by watching The Great Escape. God I loved it!
ReplyDeleteAnon: Not quite sure how to respond to that comment, so I will just leave it alone. Have a good day!
ReplyDeleteDGraves, as a parent of an applicant for EA, thanks for all the time you take to post replies on this blog. You have helped many people handle the process and there is never enough appreciation to go around. I commend you for serving a great role and I hope it is fulfilling for you! AtlParent
ReplyDeleteDGraves, will you use this blog to notify us that the decisions are available?
ReplyDeleteHow many teacher recs should I submit?
ReplyDeleteAnon I: Thanks for the kind words, and this blog is a positive (although at times exhausting) thing for me.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: I will put up a new post when the myStatus page goes up, and if will be late afternoon.
Anon III: We suggest one teacher rec from a core academic area for RD or deferred students, but we are okay with 2 (but no more).
Maybe the above Anonymous is practicing for their essays? I too want to thank you for this superb blog. We applied to two other big state schools. The first had a blog that paled to UGA’s. The second didn’t have one at all. It was so comforting to have such quick replies to one’s worries and concerns. Thank you for all of your efforts; they were greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteHi..just wondering if "posted late in the afternoon" meant,after or before business hours? Thks
ReplyDeletegreatful parent: I am glad this has been of assistance.
ReplyDeleteAnon: As I have said before, late afternoon means late afternoon, which implies that I will not say exactly when the site is up until is is actually up, as there are always a few IT issues that could possibly cause minor delays in the timeframe.
LOL THKS and understood :) just trying to narrow it down a bit for all of the anxiously awaiting.
ReplyDeleteLate to join this blog, but I can tell it's been a huge hit! Quick question that I'm sure you've already answered (sorry): If a student is accepted EA and also invited to be in Honors College (without filling out a separate application), when and how is he notified?
ReplyDeleteDid UGA get more or less early applicants this year versus the early applicant pool from last year?
ReplyDeleteAnxious Parent
Anon: quoting from a previous comment: "Honors will contact some admitted students soon (I do not have a date) after EA decisions go out to offer them Honors admission, and they will also contact some students and suggest they apply to Honors. In addition, if you are not contacted by Honors, you can go ahead and contact them and submit the Honors application. Honors would be the best office to contact about Honors admission. "
ReplyDeleteAnxious Parent: After we got done with a handful of students changing from EA to RD, it turns out that we have almost exactly the same number of students applying EA this year as last year.
I know everyone is anxious to hear. I told my daughter it would be late afternoon before posting. This is good because she won't be tempted to use her cell phone at school which is prohibited. Plus I would like to be with her when she signs in to get the information to either share in her excitement or for support if disappointed. UGA Mom
ReplyDeleteIs it late afternoon yet??????
ReplyDeleteAnon: No comment.
ReplyDeleteQuit bugging. It will happen when it happens.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that it is late afternoon, but maybe not in Athens, GA ;)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI apologize if this question has already been asked, will the applicants be getting emails sent to them as well, or will the info be available only by signing into their UGA accounts?
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Grateful parent
Grateful Parent: We do not send out emails telling students about their decision, so they need to either access the myStatus page or wait for the mail.
ReplyDeleteGot my EARLY ACTION RESPONSE! Deferred but still hopeful! Good luck everybody!
ReplyDeleteThe system is open but when I double click on the quesstion about wanting to see the decision, nothing happens.
ReplyDeleteGeorgia Fan: I am happy to see you have such a positive attitude, as deferred is not a bad word.
ReplyDeleteAnon: It could be due to the high traffic, but we are seeing a large amount of students who are able to view their status as we monitor the system, so I would suggest patience.
I know that we will find out BY the end of late March about our final decision. What is the earliest date we could find out, though? (If there is one.)
ReplyDeletein
ReplyDelete(first)
Deferred but Hopeful: I cannot project that far in the future, as I do not even know how many people will apply overall, how many files we will have to read, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Congrats! (actual first).
I am having a hard time getting on the Admissions page? Is the system down?
ReplyDeleteAnon: The system is open. As I said in other places , please be patient, as there are a great deal of people logging in right now. The best suggestion is to not open multiple browsers, and be patient as the volume will go down as we go from here.
ReplyDeleteNot to be dense. Just making sure, though. It is possible to find out earlier than late March, though, correct?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the best means of contacting you directly on this process?
ReplyDeleteDeferred but Hopeful: Actually, for almost all deferred students, late March is when you will hear a decision. We have a decision date in February for RD applicants (and deferred students who have increased their academic standing) who meet the EA criteria, but most deferred students do not fall into this range.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for clearing this up! This blog is AMAZING, especially in comparison to many other college sites.
ReplyDeleteAnon: I am not sure exactly what you need to contact me directly for (there are a log of Anons), but the best way to communicate with our office is next week, and by speaking with an available counselor. We are all fairly busy next week, so this would be the way to speak directly with someone.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to understand a deferral on a student. They were above the GPA and AP course "range" we were given at orientation and in the range on ACT. Obviously the deferral was surprising and I wish to speak with someone just so we can better understand the decision. So I was trying to determine if email or phone would be the best way as I know you are being blanketed with requests for information.
ReplyDeleteAnon: First, make sure to follow my suggestions about reading the FAQ, looking at the press release, etc. If you still have questions, you should call our office next week, but understand that what the mid-ranges were for overall admission are not the same as the mid-ranges for EA.
ReplyDeleteWhen is the press release?
ReplyDeleteAnon: The press release is out, and you can see a link to it on the front page of the uga website.
ReplyDeleteMy status says counselor evaluation is missing.
ReplyDeleteShould that have been submitted from my school or did I not send something across?
Anon: The counselor eval is something that you should have spoken to your HS counselor about, and had them send it in after you applied. This item, along with the other required materials, was listed when you applied and has showed up on the myStatus page as missing since you applied,
ReplyDeleteAre deferred students allowed to take the January SAT or was December the last opportunity?
ReplyDeleteDear Dgraves,
ReplyDeleteI would like to start by saying that although my son just got deferred from UGA, I am not acrimonious. I have been a teacher in the Atlanta area for 20 years and have served on several admissions committees, so I understand how difficult the process is – and I am convinced that UGA’s process is authentic and fair. I’d also like you to know that I am filled with admiration for the patience and restraint that you display in your blogposts, not to mention your thoroughness and clarity.
Although he is handling it with great dignity, my son was crestfallen when he received his deferral, and is now convinced that he isn’t going to get in during the RD cycle either. I won’t post his numbers here; suffice it to say that they are at the low end of the “Middle 50%” bracket. I would like to believe that he is still a competitive candidate, but I have a sinking feeling that he might not be. He has a drawer full of solicitations from other schools, but only has eyes for UGA. I don’t think I can convince him to apply elsewhere; he’s now saying he will apply to KSU and then apply to UGA again as a transfer student. He is fiercely independent about his decisions, and would slaughter me if he knew I was writing on this blog. I want to help mend his broken heart and at the same time help him to take heart… and to that end, I have a few questions for you:
1. My son is a dual enrollment student, taking 4 classes at KSU, two of which are sophomore level courses. His reason for enrolling at KSU was that he wanted to stretch himself higher… but now I am told that dual enrollment is not looked upon favorably by the UGA admissions board. Can you enlighten me about this?
2. The principal reason for my son’s 3.7 GPA is that he had some hiccups during his freshman year, and transferred to his current school in October, which forced him to play “catch-up” in all his classes. Would it help or hurt him to submit an explanation for his weak-ish performance as a freshman?
3. Which of the following, if any, might help his case? (a) submitting a second letter of recommendation, perhaps from a KSU professor, (b) taking some SAT II subject tests in January, (c) retaking the SAT I in January to improve his scores (his current best is 670-690 in all three areas).
I apologize for this bombardment. Please take your time, enjoy your Sunday, and answer whenever you are able.
Dear Dgraves,
ReplyDeleteI would like to start by saying that although my son just got deferred from UGA, I am not acrimonious. On the contrary, I am convinced that UGA’s process is authentic and fair. I’d also like you to know that I am filled with admiration for the patience and restraint that you display in your blogposts, not to mention your thoroughness and clarity.
Although he is handling it with great dignity, my son was crestfallen when he received his deferral, and is now convinced that he isn’t going to get in during the RD cycle either. I won’t post his numbers here; suffice it to say that they are at the low end of the “Middle 50%” bracket. I would like to believe that he is still a competitive candidate, but I have a sinking feeling that he might not be. He has a drawer full of solicitations from other schools, but only has eyes for UGA. I don’t think I can convince him to apply elsewhere; he’s now saying he will apply to KSU and then apply to UGA again as a transfer student. I want to help mend his broken heart and at the same time help him to take heart… and to that end, I have a few questions for you:
1. My son is a dual enrollment student, taking 4 classes at KSU, two of which are sophomore level courses. His reason for enrolling at KSU was that he wanted to stretch himself higher… but now I am told that dual enrollment is not looked upon favorably by the UGA admissions board. Can you enlighten me about this?
2. The principal reason for my son’s 3.7 GPA is that he had some hiccups during his freshman year, and transferred to his current school in October, which forced him to play “catch-up” in all his classes. Would it help or hurt him to submit an explanation for his weak-ish performance as a freshman?
3. Which of the following, if any, might help his case? (a) submitting a second letter of recommendation, perhaps from a KSU professor, (b) taking some SAT II subject tests in January, (c) retaking the SAT I in January to improve his scores (his current best is 670-690 in all three areas).
I apologize for this bombardment. Please take your time, enjoy your Sunday, and answer whenever you are able.
Myth # 1
ReplyDeleteUGA admits a quota of students per year from my high school, county, zip code or state.
The most competitive applicants are admitted regardless of high school, county , zip code or state. There are no quotas assigned to these, or any other, characteristics.
Is this really the case as our child was deferred? We know of some students who received EA from a small private school. Our child attends a large school and took a rigorous curriculum and had a higher SAT than them. The GPA was comparable and they didn't have the rigorous course load because it isn't offered at the small school. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to admission.
My daughter was deferred and had already sent in teacher evaluation/letter. Would it help her to get another one? Thanks!
ReplyDelete