UGA Overall EA Admissions
Over the last decade, the UGA applicant pool has grown at a substantial rate. If you look at the number of applicants over the past 10 years, you will see tremendous growth in our applicant pool both in size and in academic strength. We have gone from roughly 11,000 EA applicants in 2014 to almost 27,000 EA applicants this year, and we expect the overall applicant pool (EA and RD together) to show similar growth. In addition, the applicant pool has flipped from roughly 65% In-State applicants in 2013 to 42% In-State applicants this year. As such, our admissions process has had to adapt as well. This year, our growth in EA was more In-State than Out-of-State, with roughly a 3% total increase in EA apps and most of this being from Georgians. As a part of UGA’s role as the flagship university for the state of Georgia, we have a commitment to serve the state of Georgia. The stated goal for UGA is to maintain a rough balance for enrolling freshmen (not admitted students but enrolling students) at 80% In-State and 20% Out-of-State. UGA still wants a strong, broad based freshman class, and we want students from all around the country and the world to enroll here, but we must do this within the scope of the desired 80/20 enrollment balance. As already mentioned in an early blog post, this growth in applicants and focus on In-State enrollment has led us to split the EA decision timelines into two groups, with In-State EA students receiving a decision in November and Out-of-State EA applicants receiving a decision in December.
TOTAL OVERALL EARLY ACTION APPLICANT DATA
Here is some data on the Total EA applicant pool so that people have a better understanding of the competitiveness of the group. Again, this is data on the total EA applicant pool, and not on the group we will be accepting (which will be higher). In other words, we expect that this will be an extremely competitive year for admission in both the EA round and in the overall process.
EA Applications – 26,830 Applicants– This is a 3% increase over last year.
- 11,300 GA Residents, 15,530 Non-GA Residents.
UGA mid-50% GPA Average – 3.81-4.22 – This is calculated by UGA using core classes, and not the GPA seen on the HS transcript. Over 15,500 of our EA applicants have a 4.00 UGA GPA or higher.
ACT mid-50% Average – 26-32 – This is based on the students who submitted ACT scores as a part of their file. Remember, UGA focuses on the ACT English and Math scores, but we report the Composite data as that is the official/accepted data for national publications. *Official test scores are required for all applicants, with some submitting ACT scores, some submitting an SAT scores and other submitting both types of test scores.
SAT mid-50% Average – 1240-1440 -This is based on the students who submitted SAT scores as a part of their file. *Official test scores are required for all applicants, with some submitting ACT scores, some submitting an SAT scores and other submitting both types of test scores.
AP/IB/DE mid-50% Courses – 5-11 (including senior coursework)– We determine academic rigor by reviewing the overall course selection in all core classes over 4 years, but this data helps with understanding the competitiveness. This is the total number of AP/IB/DE courses taken by our applicants over their 4 years in HS (so through senior year). The number of AP/IB/DE courses are not the key factor in a review of a student’s rigor, but rather we look at an overall understanding of how a student has challenged/prepared themselves in the core areas in the context of what is available to the student.
UGA is planning on releasing the In-State EA decisions on the status page on Friday, November 17 at 4 pm EST. We do not have an exact date for the EA Out-of-State applicants yet, but we are projecting a mid-December timeline. We are excited about this, and I am guessing you are as well, and hopefully it will allow for a little less nerve-wracking Thanksgiving break for some of you. I will also have an updated post on decision day with information on the admitted group.
Go Dawgs!