Tag: admissions

New Blog Look, Same Great Taste

  David Graves      July 19th, 2019

Stranger Things-One of the best shows on TV right now, at least for me that is. It brings back all my old high school memories, from Dungeons & Dragons, Back to the Future and being a teenager in the 1980’s. One highlighted image memory from the show was when Coca Cola decided to introduce New Coke. In the same vein, I am here to introduce the new look of the blog. We have transitioned it over from an old system and an old look to house it on our new website, and give it more of a UGA Admissions website feel. Hopefully, it has more success than New Coke did in the 80’s. As we transition, we are also shifting the old comments over to the new look blog, and that might take a day or two to fully move over. In addition, we will be adding back the blog “pages” in the near future, which covers topics such as Timelines, Deadlines, EA vs RD, and an FAQ page. Please bear with me as we go through the transition, and enjoy the new look. In the meantime, have a coke and a smile (we are in Georgia after all, the home of Coca Cola)!   Go Dawgs!

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The Past and Present of College Admissions

  David Graves      February 13th, 2019

You hear it all the time – “Back when I was applying to college …”. Yes, things have changed over the last 20+ years in admissions, but trust me, that is actually not a bad thing in many cases. I am currently reading a book titled “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling, and he writes about how, in contrast to what some would have us believe, life is a great deal better today as compared to the past. While there are still areas where the world can improve greatly, Rosling shows that in areas ranging from poverty, health, war, food, etc, the world is actually moving in a positive direction. From the admissions side of the table, there have been some amazing improvements over the years. Here are a few things I remember from when I first started working in the UGA Admissions office. There was a point in time when we only accepted paper applications. We would print them out and do a huge mailing in late summer to get the applications out to both students and high schools. This also meant that we needed a large staff of people who did one job, entering in a student’s biographical data (name, address, school, etc.) into our record system. Every year, we would need to have the printing of the applications bid out (and of course, lowest bidder won the job), and that year, a printing company based out of a state prison won the bid. I can still remember driving to […]

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UGA Admissions – The Long Journey

  David Graves      November 18th, 2016

In the past, I have used the image of a long cross country trip when looking at the Admissions process, and how we would not know the exact arrival time until we were almost to the destination. Now picture the Admissions process as a road trip with three legs to the journey. The first leg is Early Action, and we are now right at the end of that part of the trip. The second leg is a little shorter, and finishes up in late February when we review all Regular Decision and deferred EA applicants to see if they now meet Early Action admission standards (some EA defers will have a jump in their SAT/ACT scores that could shift them to admit). The last leg is the hardest, as it is the file reading part of the trip, and it does not finish up until mid-late March when final decisions are released. So please know that UGA will not be done with the entire freshman admission decisions after we make our Early Action decisions. We will be done with the Early Action leg of the trip, but we are still a long way from being done with final decisions! We will still be receiving a large number of RD applications, deferred EA students will be completing their part II sections, we will be reviewing transcripts, reading essays, doing holistic reviews, etc. So if you are deferred, please know that we still have a lot of admission decisions to make! My […]

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UGA and the ACT

  David Graves      November 3rd, 2016

Over the past 5 years, UGA has had a huge jump in the number of students submitting ACT scores. UGA treats the ACT in the same way that we do the SAT (neither one is better or worse, easier or harder, etc.), but there still seems to be a great deal of mystery about how UGA looks at the ACT. I will try my best to give you some insight into our process. When we look at the ACT scores, we are one of many schools that will superscore the ACT. This means that UGA will take your highest subscores in multiple ACT exams and use these highest scores both individually and in calculating the highest composite. The ACT determines the composite by adding together the English, Math, Science Reasoning and Reading subscores, then dividing by 4 (rounding to the nearest whole number). This is how you might have a higher overall Composite score than what your individual Composite scores show. Here is a quick example: ACT 1: English-28, Math-29, Science-25, Reading-26 – Composite 27 ACT 2: English 24, Math 31, Science 27, Reading 23 – Composite 26 UGA Superscore:  English 28, Math 31, Science 27, Reading 26 – Composite 28 When UGA looks at the scores in more detail, though, we are focusing on the subscores that match the SAT scores. As such, our focus is on the English subscore and the Math subscore as these match up with the SAT subscores. If you have both SAT and ACT […]

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Early Action Decisions are Now Available

  David Graves      November 20th, 2015

Early Action decisions are now available online!  You can view the press release with some statistics about EA students who were admitted here.  For students who were deferred, please understand that this is not a denial decision.  We want to be able to have a more in-depth review of you, including short essays, activities, recommendations, etc.  Please be sure to read the deferred student FAQ page before commenting on here. If you have questions about your specific decision, please do not post them on this blog.  As well, do not give out or request personal academic information in your post, as we would then need to delete these posts. We are not able to answer questions about individual students here because we will generally not have your information in front of us and we cannot disclose individual student information in a comment.  I would recommend talking with both your family and high school counselor first, then reviewing this previous post on suggestions about how to react to an EA decision, and finally reading the FAQ’s available from your myStatus page. Please be patient, be nice and be courteous. Have a great weekend and go Dawgs!

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2013 February First Year Admits

  David Graves      February 14th, 2014

In late February, we will be releasing a small wave of First Year admission offers. I do not have a specific date at this time, so please do not ask for one (we will post it here when decisions are released). As I have stated in earlier comments, these admitted students, who are primarily Regular Decision (RD) applicants, are applicants who meet the criteria that UGA admissions used for Early Action (EA) admits. Just to stop any questions, there are no set “EA criteria levels”, as it is a review of the combination of grades, rigor and test scores, so please do not ask what the Early Action SAT/ACT, GPA or rigor criteria is for this group. There will be a small number of EA deferred students who are admitted in this round, mostly because of an increase in their academic standing (new test scores) or if the applicant was incomplete for Early Action, but is now complete and is admissible. We are not able to re-calculate GPA’s on all deferred and RD applicants based on fall senior grades, as we do not have the manpower or time to do so (we had over 21,000 total freshman applicants this year). We do look closely at the fall grades during our read process though, and we look at grade trends, high/low grades, and how a student did in their most challenging classes, especially in junior/senior years. Whenever we release these February decisions, we always get questions, ranging from “Why didn’t I […]

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Random Thoughts for September 2013

  David Graves      September 26th, 2013

It is the end of September, which means a number of things in the world of College Admissions. Applications are rolling in for next fall, the sound of luggage rolling down the office hallway as counselors pack up for their next week of fall travel, the campus gets a little crazy as home football games start to pick up. Here are a few quick notes for the high school seniors/UGA applicants for next year:   Review the Top Ten Urban Legends about UGA Admissions, so you do not have to worry about the myths concerning what major you should put down, if EA is easier for admissions chances, etc. Please be patient with our office this year, as we are using a whole new student system (it will change Admissions, Registration, Student Financial Aid, Bursar’s Office, etc.) It is a big project, but we hope it will cause as few ripples as possible in your admissions process. Take your time completing the application, so you do not have to send us an email asking us to fix your name, your SSN, your address, etc. Review the application, especially the 8-10 key fields we list out for you at the end of the application, before hitting submit. Go by your favorite high school teacher’s classroom and tell them how much they have meant to you. It is senior year, and I don’t want this to slip by without you telling them. Review the database of the UGA Admissions Counselors fall travel […]

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Quick Notes About the First Year Application

  David Graves      September 9th, 2013

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 […]

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First Year Academic Merit Scholarships Awarded

  David Graves      April 23rd, 2013

 Over the last several weeks the Admissions staff has carefully reviewed all our newly admitted First Year students to consider them for University of Georgia academic merit scholarships.  (See the list and our discussion of merit and need-based aid at our website, https://admissions.uga.edu/article/scholarships-at-uga.html.)  Virtually all scholarships available through Admissions have now been awarded, and we have contacted each of the recipients. At UGA, academic merit scholarships have become increasingly competitive.  This is mainly due to the limited funding we have for these awards and the high number of extremely capable students who now gain University of Georgia admission.  Nonetheless, we have somewhat increased the total number of these scholarships this year.  For example, this year we inaugurated the Classic Scholarships which are offered to academically superior out-of-state first year students.    At this point, if you have not received notice that you have an academic merit scholarship to attend UGA, it is highly unlikely you will receive an offer of one from us in Admissions.  We are still finalizing a literal handful of specialized scholarships attached to very specific guidelines set by the generous donors who provide their funding.  You can see if you have been awarded a UGA scholarship by checking your online application Status Check.   Also, some UGA academic departments may also be awarding some scholarships which will not be reflected in the Status Check. If you have been selected for any of our Academic Merit awards, congratulations!  Please be sure to read your offer letter carefully.  Keep it […]

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Post for Parents

  David Graves      August 21st, 2012

Every year we try to open a post aimed at answering questions from parents.  We want to educate parents about the UGA admissions process and dispel myths and rumors that may be floating around high schools and communities.  We recently sent an email out to students regarding the First Year application opening and letting them know about our blog.  Please help us out by spreading the word about this post! With the 2013  First Year application now open and fall travel beginning, our office is about to get even busier.  Now is the time to ask us questions.  Parents, what would you like to know?  Please post your questions through the comment option and we will try to respond as quickly as possible! Go Dawgs!

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