Early Action Deadline Approaching

The Early Action deadline is approaching, so here are a few suggestions as we approach the deadline:

• Don't wait until the last minute.  Even though the deadline is October 15, you should not wait until the last minute to submit your application.  We do not hold it against you if you wait until 11:59PM on October 15 to apply, however if you do this you are not giving yourself any time to account for issues that could occur to prevent you from submitting.  For example internet connectivity issues, computer problems, etc.  The deadline is the deadline, so you should always plan to apply earlier than the last minute.  Also be sure to take time to review your application before you submit it.   Please note while the application is available 24/7, the credit card payment option is only available from 7AM to 11:00 PM EST.  You can still select the check/fee waiver option after 11:00 PM.
• Be patient.  After you submit your application, please be aware that things will not happen instantaneously.  We are likely to have around 11,000 Early Action applicants and the majority of the supplemental material will be sent within the next three weeks.  We will be vigorously matching material, but please give things time to get here (both mailed and electronically submitted documents) before contacting us.  If an item is mailed, allow time for the postal service to deliver it.  If a test score is sent, allow time for it to be both uploaded by the testing agency and downloaded by UGA.  Our deadlines are "postmarked/submitted" deadlines.  The next few weeks will be a little hectic in our office as we pull together all of the materials for each application, so we may be a little slower in responding to voice mails, emails, etc. As well, we have a new student system we are bringing up, so this adds an additional challenge to our process.
• Do not send a fax.  If you or your counselor faxes something in, it will be shredded.  We place the shredder next to the fax machine for a reason.
• Check your myStatus.  It is the applicant's responsibility to get in all required documents.  The myStatus page is updated once a day Monday through Friday, generally in the morning, so you do not need to check it multiple times a day.  We have also extended the deadline for admissions documents to 10/22, so documents do not need to show up on the myStatus by 10/15. If it has been over 10 business days since you both applied and any "missing" documents have been sent in, you should begin to inquire about the missing document.  If it is a GACollege411 transcript, we occasionally have one that does not come through.  However, it is easy to go back into the system and access it again.
• Missing SAT/ACT scores.  If you sent your SAT/ACT scores a while ago and they have not matched up yet, verify that they were sent to UGA through College Board/ACT.  Then verify that the name, social and birth date on the test scores are the same as the admissions application as these are important matching fields.  If you have given us enough time to receive them and they are not showing up on myStatus, email admproc@uga.edu with your situation and we will work on manually matching your scores.  Please be patient as it takes longer than a day for scores we receive to get into our system.We will accept test scores that were taken and requested to be sent to UGA by the 10/15 application deadline, as these will have time to get to us by our decision date. In addition, there is an odd glitch with our new system displaying the highest subscore at times, but we hope to have this corrected in a few days.
• School Evaluation.  Your counselor will have additional time to submit the school evaluation as their EA deadline for materials is 10/22.  We will leave the online school evaluation open for at least a week beyond the deadline so your counselors should not have to stress about any last minute applicants. 

Go Dawgs!