Tag: scholarships

2021 Initial Scholarship/Honors Offers

  David Graves      December 3rd, 2020

On Friday, December 11 in the late afternoon, UGA Admissions will release the initial merit scholarship offers and Honors acceptances through the admissions status page, and then later through a mailed letter. Please remember that these are only the initial offers for both of these programs, as additional Honors acceptances and scholarship offers will be sent out through April. Both of these offers are made based on academic and co-curricular information, and are made to both test optional and test submitted students. I do not have specific data or percentages on these groups (focused on Spring enrollment and file reading right now), so please just know these are extremely strong admitted EA students. As well, I do not have any information on the Foundation Fellowship scholarship process/timelines. The Honors Program acceptances are initial offers made to a group of students from the Early Action admitted pool. If a student is not offered an Honors Program acceptance initially, they should then submit an Honors Application (visit their web site for more details). These decisions are made by the Honors Program, so any questions should be directed to Honors, as admissions cannot answer for them. The Scholarship offers are initial offers to a small group of EA admitted students, and the Admissions Office will be making a number of additional offers through mid-April. UGA uses the admissions application for the review of scholarships, so there is no additional application or step a student needs to take to be considered for these awards. […]

Read More

2021 EA Timelines

  David Graves      November 2nd, 2020

This morning the UGA Admissions Office announced that our Early Action decision release date would be Friday, November 20 in the late afternoon. If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know not to ask when late afternoon is, as I cannot give you an exact time. In the lead up to the decisions going out in three weeks, here is some data about this year’s Early Action application group. Total EA Applications: 20,800 (submitted and app fee paid) This is an increase of 28% or so from last year, which is a very big jump. Complete Early Action Applications as of today: 20,550 99% are complete right now, very impressive. EA Applicants Applying within 3 days of Deadline: 11,620 Wow, just wow. Percentage of EA Applicants using Common App: 80% We are fine with any application source, but in our first year with the Common App, this is big (and it part of the reason for the increase in applications. Residency data on EA apps: 51% in-state, 49% out-of-state/international We do not make different decisions based on residency, but it is an interesting data point. Most common majors: Biology – 2,211 applicants, Undecided Business – 1,765, Psychology 1,253 We do not make different decisions based on major, but it is always interesting to see the different academic interests of our applicants. I order to deal with the large increase in applications, UGA will be delaying the release of EA scholarship information and the Honors decisions until early […]

Read More

UGA is Test Optional for Fall 2021

  David Graves      August 26th, 2020

Due to the continued challenges facing prospective applicants concerning access to standardized tests caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the University of Georgia has decided to make SAT or ACT test score submission optional for the Fall 2021 application process. UGA has taken this step as a part of our commitment to help reduce barriers for rising high school seniors who will be applying in the upcoming year. High school students who apply as freshmen to the University of Georgia for the Fall 2021 term will not be required to submit an SAT or ACT score as part of the application process. This change will allow the university to better serve future students by ensuring that testing limitations related to COVID-19 do not impact a student’s ability to apply to UGA. The university has been evaluating the impact on high school students based on the cancellation of ACT and SAT test dates, and we expect that future testing opportunities will be limited as a result of the continued pandemic. As such, the University of Georgia has determined that suspending the SAT/ACT test requirement for fall 2021 is necessary. This is a temporary suspension for fall 2021 admission, and we will re-assess the testing situation and how it impacts applicants for future terms. More details of the Test Optional decision can be found at the test optional FAQ page, with details concerning scholarship review, Honors, etc.   Go Dawgs!

Read More

January 2020 UGA Admission Thoughts

  David Graves      January 3rd, 2020

We have now closed out the 2020 Fall Freshman application, and we will be very busy over the next few months. We have a large number of materials and test scores to connect with applications, transcripts to review and files to read, and we only have a limited number of days in which to do it. Admissions is not like Match.com, where we swipe left to admit or right to deny, so please be patient as we take time to review in detail the applications you have submitted. As such, here is some vital information for applicants and parents of applicants about the next steps in our process. The application deadline for freshman was 1/1, and the document deadline is 1/8 for materials. The required documents for freshmen are an official transcript and a counselor school report/recommendation (not a school profile). As well, any test scores must be requested to be sent to us from the testing agency by 1/8 (not an in-office deadline), and the last test scores we can use were from the December SAT/ACT. If things are sent in after 1/8, we might be able to use them, but we cannot make any promises. If the item in question shows up on the status page, that means we have imported it into your file as on time. We have a very large freshman applicant pool, with the overall number of EA and RD applicants together totaling 28,600 or so. Some of these applicants will not submit all […]

Read More

2017 UGA Merit Based Scholarships have been Awarded

  David Graves      April 10th, 2017

Over the last several months 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.)  All scholarships available through Admissions have now been awarded, and we have contacted each of the recipients via email and mail. 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.  Always continue to search for scholarship opportunities, whether or not you have been awarded a scholarship from Undergraduate Admissions Office.  Search your academic major for scholarships online.  Use our web site and the Office of Student Financial Aid web site to search for external scholarship opportunities. Also, remember to look for local scholarship opportunities for students in your home community. https://www.admissions.uga.edu/Prospective-Students/Tuition-Fees/Scholarships/External-Scholarships http://osfa.uga.edu/announcements.html If you have been selected for any of our Academic Merit awards, congratulations!  Please be sure to read your offer letter carefully.  Keep it for your records.  In this letter you will see what requirements you must maintain to renew your scholarship each succeeding year and, in general, how much the scholarship is worth in relation to your overall costs. 

Read More

December/January Admission Notes

  David Graves      December 12th, 2016

The Holiday break is coming up, which means a large number of students will be completing their application (or part II of their deferred EA application). Here are some suggestions for Regular Decision and Deferred Early Action applicants to review. Patience. Patience is key, as this time of year brings out a rush of supporting materials. We will receive tens of thousands of documents over the next month, and we need time to match these items up, enter them into our system, and have them show up on the application status page. We have made great strides in importing documents, so the status page is almost a live feed, but mailed items take a little longer to add to a file. You do not need to call/email us if you do not see an item on your Status page. Give us 10 business days from when you applied or the document was sent (not requested but actually sent), whichever was later. As well, make sure your name on your documents matches your application data (and both name and email on test scores). Part II for Deferred applicants. For deferred EA applicants, your next step is to make sure you complete part II of the application (the 3 short essays), give us any updates on the Update section, and contact a teacher through your status page about sending in a recommendation.  Test Scores. We will take the January SAT for admissions review for this year and the February ACT (without Writing!), […]

Read More

First Year Academic Merit Scholarships have been Awarded

  David Graves      April 12th, 2016

Over the last several months 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.)  All scholarships available through Admissions have now been awarded, and we have contacted each of the recipients via email and mail. 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.  Always continue to search for scholarship opportunities, whether or not you have been awarded a scholarship from Undergraduate Admissions Office.  Search your academic major for scholarships online.  Use our web site and the Office of Student Financial Aid web site to search for external scholarship opportunities. Also, remember to look for local scholarship opportunities for students in your home community. https://www.admissions.uga.edu/Prospective-Students/Tuition-Fees/Scholarships/External-Scholarships http://osfa.uga.edu/announcements.html If you have been selected for any of our Academic Merit awards, congratulations!  Please be sure to read your offer letter carefully.  Keep it for your records.  In this letter you will see what requirements you must maintain to renew your scholarship each succeeding year and, in general, how much the scholarship is worth in relation to your overall costs. 

Read More

April 1 Random Admission Thoughts

  David Graves      April 1st, 2016

It is April 1, so we are juggling a wide range of things at this time. We are working with freshmen, transfers, deposits, recruiting future classes, orientation planning, etc. I am also in the middle of a large installation of a new recruitment system (which is going great), but it is eating up most of my time right now. As such, here are a few notes about what is happening: Transfer applicants: We are well into reviewing transfer files, but each ones takes time, as we have to determine how your courses transfer into UGA, calculate an overall transfer GPA, determine hours, etc. Transfer decisions go out daily once we start the review process, and we are averaging roughly 50 files reviewed per day, M-F. I cannot guess when an applicant will hear a decision, as it depends on the number of applicants, when a file is complete, how complex the files is, etc. I am an admissions officer, not a fortune teller who can predict the future. Documents: Transfers, please remember to give us 10 business days from the day a transcript is sent OR you submit your application, whichever is last. It is a mostly manual process to match college transcripts, so it takes a while. If you left a college off the application this will cause problems, as we need official transcripts from every college you attended as an Undergraduate. Timelines: The Timelines page at under the blog header is the best place to understand more about […]

Read More

Application for UGA’s Top Freshman Scholarship Program Available On September 15, 2015

  David Graves      September 9th, 2015

The Foundation Fellowship and Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarships are the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship programs at the University, if not in the country. The Foundation Fellowship currently provides an annual stipend of $11,372 for Georgia residents (in addition to the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship) and $18,892 for non-residents (plus an out-of-state tuition waiver). The Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship provides $5,686 for Georgia residents (in addition to the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship) and $9,546 for non-residents (plus and out-of-state tuition waiver). Much more than financial support, program membership provides: Spring break travel-study programs, a May study abroad program at Oxford in England immediately following the first year, travel-study grants closely related to students’ academic and professional goals, which can be combined with study overseas for a full semester or academic year, grants to attend research and academic conferences, seminars and book discussions with UGA and visiting professors, and faculty and peer mentoring. For more information about the amazing opportunities for Foundation Fellows and Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholars, please visit the Honors Program website. To be considered, all applicants must be current high school seniors with a minimum unweighted high school GPA of 3.80 and a minimum combined, super-scored SAT total score of 2100 or ACT composite score of 31. This separate scholarship application will be available next week on Tuesday, September 15 on the admissions website.  The deadline to submit the online application is November 2, 2015. This year, two online recommendations will be required to complete the Foundation […]

Read More

Random Admission Thoughts, February 2015

  David Graves      February 11th, 2015

It is February, and we are deep into reading Freshman files, and just about to start reviewing transfer applications. As such, here are some thoughts about issues that usually pop up about now. Freshmen: At this time, our counselors are reading thousands upon thousands of freshman files in great detail, and it is a long and detailed process. As such, we have limited availability to speak with students or reply quickly to emails. But this also means that freshman decisions will go out within the next 1.5 months or so. We always have a small group of freshmen admitted in late February (you can look at my 2014 February Decision blog post for details, and a new post will be available later this month). As well, we expect final decisions to go out in mid-late March. Please be patient, know that we are reviewing files as fast as we can, but we need time to look at everything. We do not have any specific dates for these decisions yet, but I will post an announcement here when we do. Transfer applicants: We will start reviewing transfer files sometime within the next few business days. Transfer decisions go out daily once we start the review process, and we look at summer files first and then move onto fall applicants. I cannot guess when an applicant will hear a decision, as it depends on the number of applicants, when a file is complete, how complex the files is, etc. I am an […]

Read More