Second, I would suggest you look at my Suggestions for Writing Admissions Essays page, as it gives you some details about what we look for, and also what to avoid.
Third, here are links to posts from last year with real essays from students who applied (and were admitted) last Fall. These are extremely strong essays, so do not feel like your essays need to be this impressive. Just do your best, write what you think and feel, and do not write based on what you think I want to read.
Essay Sample 1
Essay Sample 2
Good luck, and Go Dawgs!
Sorry, unrelated to the essays, but I already have my UGA MyID username and password set up. When I went to go register for housing, the page could not be displayed. Is the UGA System down? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRebecca: Housing is using a new system this year for registration, and they had plans to have it up on Friday. Due to some tech. difficulties, there are still a few issues, and I am guessing it is not quite ready yet. I would suggest contact housing about this issue.
ReplyDeleteThanks, the housing tech. difficulties are solved! I have successfully applied for housing.
ReplyDeleteRebecca: Great news! Way to go housing!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's odd, my name is also Rebecca and right around that same time that day I emailed housing about the same issue! But it is all resolved now :) Go Dawgs!
ReplyDeleteHey DGraves, just wondering. . . I was deferred EA, and I have just submitted my Part II application and my teacher has submitted the teacher recommendation. How soon until these are uploaded, and how soon can we hear back? Because I'm not finding a deadline like EA for the deferred EA people.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, JGoodfriend
Anon: We upload the part II and online teacher rec's in between 1-2 business days after they are submitted (it takes a little longer with thing sent by mail), and you would then be able to see it on the myStatus page a day after that. The files that go through the read process will hear a decision in late March, as we look at the individual student in comparison with the rest of the applicant pool after all of these files have been read.
ReplyDeleteDGRAVES: Alright, thanks so much. You and the whole admissions staff have been great with answering all my questions. And this blog really helps.
ReplyDeleteOne last question: I interned for the Superior Court Office in Fayette County, Judge Sams wants to send a letter of recommendation. Should I tell him no, that UGA won't allow me, or is it ok for him to & if so will it help or hurt my chances since you all take in so much paperwork???
Thanks, JGoodfriend
Anon: Go ahead and tell him to send the letter, and it will not have a negative impact on your file (just make sure you are not like one student last year who sent over a dozen recommendation letters!).
ReplyDeleteIf we submit an additional recommendation from a non teacher, what should I have them put in subject and course taught?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in your opinion, is it too much to send an additional counselor evaluation as well as an additional teacher evaluation?
Thanks so much
Anon: If a non-teacher sends in a recommendation, they should just type a letter out on their computer, print it, and mail it in. There is no form for them, as they are not a teacher. As for the counselor eval, we already require this, and the one is enough.
ReplyDeleteOkay, that helps a lot!
ReplyDeleteAs for the counselor evaluation, today, I asked another counselor (who knows me better) to send an additional one. Will this negatively impact me in any way?
Anon: No, this will not have a negative impact. Having a lot of recommendation letters will not have a negative impact, but it will mean that we might not be able to focus on the one's you may want us to read (can't see the forest through the trees idea), as we will at some point be overloaded with recommendations for a student.
ReplyDeleteI finished my application and I was wondering how my counselor and teacher could submit my recommendation online. Also, when would regular decision applicants start finding out whether or not they got accepted?
ReplyDeleteAnon: Direct both your counselor and teacher to https://www.admissions.uga.edu/article/high_school_counselors.html . As for a timeline for RD applicants, a small number will be admitted in late February if they meet Early Action admission criteria, but a majority will hear in late March.
ReplyDeletethank you very much!
ReplyDeleteAny way to tell if a teacher recommendation has been submitted online? Many thanks for your help!
ReplyDeleteAnon: On your myStatus page, you will see a teacher recommendation indicator that let's you know when we have received it, just like the HS transcript or the school evaluation. When a teacher submits the recommendation (either by paper or online), we will drop this into your file. One to three business days after it gets put into your file, it will show up on the myStatus page. Remember that if it is sent by mail it takes a little while to get here. If it is sent electronically, make sure they have your correct SSN or that they do not enter any SSN. For all teacher recommendations, make sure the teacher puts your correct name on the letter (Robert, not Trey), and that they put your last name on the letter (there are a lot of students named Sarah that have applied).
ReplyDeleteMy daughter applied a few weeks ago, but told her teacher about the teacher rec form over a month ago, do you think she should ask how she submitted it, everything else is showing up. One more question, I am aware that some GA schools offer so much more than ours as far as AP's and such, will this hurt an applicant who can only take so many AP's due to the fact that they are not offered maybe more than 1 time slot at school and that some may have 15 Ap verses some may have 7 classes offered?? I know that my daughter had to give up taking another AP science because she was yearbook editor and she had to take the class all year for journalism, and it can only be take at one time of day. This class of course does not count toward GPA either, tough decisions, but hopefully being editor will help her profile!! Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteAnon: She should ask the teacher how and when it was sent, and if needed, email admproc@uga.edu about it. As for the AP question, we look at what is offered and then taken, so it is in the context of the school.
ReplyDeleteI have a question, and I apologize in advance if this sounds like an attack or something, but it's just a concern that I've been misinformed about.
ReplyDeleteWhy did uga ask for all of my extracurricular information in Part I of the application if they were only concerned with the GPA, Course Rigor, and Test Scores? I was deferred, and I feel that now the only thing that my final decision is relying on is my four essays, and that all of my extracurricular activity had no effect on the application process at all.
Thanks for clearing this up
DGraves:I was wondering if you will accept the January SAT for RD decisions?? Thanks for all your help!
ReplyDeleteAnon: We will be looking at everything in your file during the read process, from your academics to activities, recs to essays, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: Yes, we will be using the Jan SAT during the next stage if you send it in.
2 Questions that I have:
ReplyDelete1) When will I find out what dorm I have been assigned to for upcoming school year (Fall 2011)?
2) Can you add your roommate in at any time and still have priority of the 1st dorm you listed?
Thanks for this great blog! Really appreciate it!
Kim: These are good questions, and ones that really are more for housing instead of admissions. I did look at the Housing FAQ, and they mentioned that you will hear about housing assignments in July. If you add a roommate choice, your order in the priority list will be based on the sign up date of the last of the two roommates.
ReplyDeleteThe counselor at my current school is a bit swamped and I am trying to get in all of my information for the scholarship deadline on Wednesday so I had two questions. If I have all of my other information in all Wednesday but I don't have the recommendation will my application make the academic scholarship deadline? Also, if not can I have more than one counselor recommendation or use one from my previous school?
ReplyDeleteAnon: Remember, Dec. 1 is the priority deadline, not a final deadline, for scholarship review, so it will be okay if the school eval is a few days late. Your previous school's counselor can write a recommendation, but it should not be the counselor form (as she/he is not your counselor), but just a general recommendation.
ReplyDeleteI have question about teacher recommendations. Ive asked two teacher to send recommendations. Are we suppose to have one or two? Also do you view both recommendations or just the first one that was sent?
ReplyDeleteAnon: If you have two teacher recommendations sent in, we will look at both. If you suddenly sent in 3+, that would cut down on the focus and attention given to each recommendation (recommendation overload!), and that is why I suggest one or two.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say I love this blog and i appreciate your time and effort in this. I have a few important questions (i'm a student by the way who was deferred..)
ReplyDelete-So for regular, we can have more than 1 teacher recommendation? (or non-teacher?)
-How many people are you expecting to accept for regular?
-Do you look at those who were deferred first before those who didn't do early? Or do deferred applicants have any difference? In other words, would you/others reading the applications know if we were deferred or not?
-Is there any section/way we can add additional information to our regular applications? (If we want to). I feel like I have a great background and knowledge that can make me diverse (culture/ethnicity, talents, etc), but I don't know how to bring it out much in my application. Tips?
-Do you send out anything to the accepted early applicants to ask them if they know for sure that they are NOT going to UGA? Like, a way to fish out people to raise the change of more regular applicants to get in? Because I personally know many people who applied and got in, but aren't even considering going.
ugafan: Yes, you can send more than one teacher or non-teacher rec (if you feel it is necessary), but I suggest limiting these to two total.
ReplyDeleteI do not know exactly, but I would guess we will be admitting at least 3,600+ more freshman (just a rough guess at this time!).
At this point in the process, we do not treat RD applicants any different than deferred EA. We know who is who, but it does not make a difference.
If you were deferred, there is a section if you want to add anything that you did not include in the EA app. If needed, you can also just send us an email (or pdf attachment) with this information to admproc@uga.edu.
We remind admitted students that if they are interested in attending UGA, they should send in a deposit, and that there is a "cancel" option on their status check. But we also know that a certain percentage choose not to attend UGA, and we have tracked this information for a number of years, will be tracking this type of information regularly from now until early May, and have pretty good prediction models about who will and will not choose to attend.
On my application is says I am being classified as a non-resident because I lived in Illinois with my mom for most of my life. But, I moved here around the first week of January 2010 and it will be about a year in a couple of weeks, Not to mention that my dad has lived in Georgia for 7 years. Is there anyway to request for a residency status change in my application and if so, at what point in the application would this take place? Also, can you explain more about the difference between applying for the priority scholarship deadline?
ReplyDeleteAnon: Any time there is conflicting information for residency as compared to the requirements, the default classification is non-resident until proof is provided. So, for a permanent resident, the classification is non-res until the "green card" is provided, a student who at the time of application has less than a year in GA is classified as non-res, etc. You would need to provide a detailed letter explaining your situation (and I would suggest a copy of the first page of your father's GA tax return showing you have been claimed by him and that he files GA taxes), and we will then determine if we need more information beyond this.
ReplyDeleteI do not quite understand your second question, but I will try to answer it as best as possible. Dec. 15 is the priority deadline for scholarship consideration. It is a postmark deadline, and it means that the students who submit all their documents by this date will be able to be reviewed early in the process for scholarships. We will still review students who apply after this date, but their review would occur in the later rounds of review (scholarship decisions go out in waves, not all at one time).
I applied to UGA and i went to check my "mystatus" page and it says that my essays were recieved, however the text is in red, not black. i clicked on it and it said my application is not elligable for part 2. What does this mean ? thanks !
ReplyDeleteSarah: If it says that your essays were received, then you have submitted them. The link is not allowing you to do them again, as you have submitted them.
ReplyDeleteCan essays be emailed to the admission department?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Anon: Yes, if you need to, send the essays all together as one pdf document, and send them to admproc@uga.edu as an attachment.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter sent in her 1st semester transcripts from the local college (dual enrollment) and high school. They were sent from the college on 1/20/11 and the high school one was mailed today (1/22/11). She is worried because the site states a deadline of 1/21/11;however her deferral letter received in the mail states a postmark date of 2/1/11. Could you please put her mind at ease concerning the dates? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to all deferred students! GO DAWGS!!
ReplyDeleteAnon I: All of our deadlines are postmarked deadlines, so she will be fine.
ReplyDeleteAnon II: I agree.