The applications are all in for the 2026 UGA Early Action group of students, so here is some detailed information on this group. Admissions data and decisions can be overwhelming and confusing, and at times people hear unusual theories, sometimes wild ones, as to how decisions are made (some on par with Calvin’s dad). Hopefully this data and the blog in general helps in letting everyone know what UGA looks at in our admissions review, and gives at least some insight into how decisions are made.
- The total EA application numbers are roughly 34,350, which is up approximately 13% from last year.
- Approximately 40% of the EA applicant pool is in-state, and 60% is out-of-state/international. Due to UGA being the flagship university for the state of Georgia, we have a goal of our enrolling class (not accepted but enrolling) being roughly 80% in-state and 20% out-of-state, so it will be more challenging to be admitted as a non-GA resident.
- We have applicants from over 4,960 high schools, with the range going from 1 applicant (a number of schools) to 371 applicants (Lambert HS). We do not limit decisions based on the high school a student has attended, but instead look at each student individually.
- The top six choices of major by applicants is Finance, followed by Biology, Business , Psychology , Marketing and Mechanical Engineering. A student is not tied to their initial choice of major, as enrolling students can change their major prior to orientation using the UGA student system called Athena. As well, this means we do not have admissions limits based on different majors, as this would not make sense due to the ability to change majors. We do look at whatever major you select to see how you have prepared yourself for this major in our review.
- We have applicants from 151 of the 159 counties (hopefully it will be a full 159 after RD apps come in), so we are seeing a broad range of interest across the state. We do not make different decisions based on your county, so it is not harder or easier to be admitted based on where you live in GA.
- The average core course GPA for the entire applicant pool is roughly a 3.92 using the UGA GPA calculation method. This is not the GPA you see on your HS transcript, as that is usually very different from our GPA. We see such a wide variety of HS GPA’s and grading scales, ranging from 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 12.0, and 100 methods (and more), thus using the various HS GPA’s on a transcript does not allow for equal comparisons. The link I have provided shows exactly how we calculate a GPA. Again, this the UGA GPA average for the EA pool, so as you can see the applicant group is very strong academically. More impressively, we have over 9,000 In-State applicants and over 11,000 OOS applicants with a UGA GPA of a 4.00 or higher (again, not the GPA you see on your transcript but the UGA GPA).
- The average ACT and SAT for the entire applicant pool of 34,350 is roughly a 30 Composite/1340 Total. While core grades and a student’s curriculum are generally better indicators of academic strength than test scores, UGA does use the test scores in our admission review. For this EA group, about 8,500 In-State applicants and almost 14,000 Out-of-State applicants have an ACT score (or equivalent SAT score) of 28/1310 or higher.
- The projected enrolling freshman class is roughly 6,200 students, and since we know that not all applicants we admit will enroll at UGA, we will offer a much larger number of students than the size of the class (we do not have details on this specific number). As well, a much larger percentage of In-State admits accept an offer of admission as compared to Out-of-State Admits. In EA, we have to be cautious in our admissions offers, as we do not know the size or competitiveness of the Regular Decision applicant pool.
- Currently, we are deep into the review of freshman files, so that means we are reading hundreds of files daily.
- Remember that UGA does not use demonstrated interest in our admission or scholarship reviews, so there is no need to email, text, or call us to let us know that UGA is high on your list of future colleges. We assume that if you applied to UGA, you are interested in us.
This EA applicant group is the largest we have ever had, both overall and broken down into Georgia and non-Georgia apps. As such, I expect this to be a very competitive year for admissions to UGA.
Good luck, and Go Dawgs!