Quick Notes About the First Year Application

With the 2014 First Year application opening this past Tuesday, we are receiving many questions from students who have started applying.  Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• When self-reporting your grades on the application, you should report grades as they are listed on your official high school transcript.  Remember we are only asking for grades from your high school years.  Do not include middle school grades in your application even if they are listed on your transcript.
• Have a copy of your transcript in front of you when completing the application to help ensure that you don't have errors.  But if you realize later that you made errors in reporting grades, don't worry.  We require an official high school transcript because we are going to double check your self-reported GPA.
• Did you forget to include leadership activities, awards and honors, or other resume material?  Don't worry.  You can email additional information to our processing team at admproc@uga.edu .  This won't be reflected on your myStatus, but we will add your email to your file documents.  Please know that any changes we make in our system will not change the PDF copy of your application as the PDF is a fixed snapshot of your application when you first submitted it.
• The University System of Georgia requires that high school students complete 4 units of science by graduation, including 2 units with a laboratory component.  This is rarely an issue for our in-state applicants.  We are able to be flexible with out-of-state applicants and use your 8th grade science as long as it was a physical science.  To learn more about the University System requirements, view their Staying on Course requirements and FAQ.
• Once you choose Early Action or Regular Decision and submit your application, you are NOT able to change decision plans.  Take your time and make sure you choose the decision plan under which you would like to be considered.  However, if you want to change from EA to RD consideration, the "work-around" is to NOT complete your file for now.  EA applicants missing any required documents and test scores will automatically be deferred to the RD timeline after EA decisions are released, hopefully in early December.  Incomplete EA students will see "deferred" on their myStatus.  At that point you can send all documents, first semester grades, a teacher recommendation, additional SAT/ACT scores, and Part II of the application with the four short essays.  The Part II essays must arrive online by January 15; deadline for arrival of all other documents and scores is January 22.  The biggest drawback to this work-around is that you will have to ignore a few emails reminding you that your file is, indeed, incomplete.

We hope this helps you while you're getting ready to complete the application.  Go Dawgs!