My D received the Presidential Leadership Scholarship 2 days ago. This was the most pleasant surprise of this crazy application season. She was actually deferred EA with 4.1 GPA, 33 ACT, AP classes, leadership, etc… like all other very competitive candidates. To be honest, she was worried about getting in RD since the numbers for incoming freshman were just getting higher and higher. Once she was in, she really needed at least the 1/2 waiver to even consider the cost difference between U of SC (South Carolina) and UA (Alabama). Now it is a no-brainer.
From what I have read, UGA recalculates your GPA and only really cares about your core classes as well as trends. Next, they do superscore ACT/SAT, but only care about English and Math so be careful when looking at other candidates stats because they can be deceiving as their actual composite can be very different taking out science and reading (BTW - is there really a difference between a 32-35 ACT or a GPA of 4.1-4.4 ??). When looking at scholarships, they look at the whole file with attention to Leadership throughout your high school years (not just a year or so), the candidates individual story, essays, etc… They claim they don’t look at OOS, where your from, demonstrated interest (visiting many times, calling in, emailing, etc…) when giving out merit scholarships. I don’t want to seem naive but I believe them. The process is pretty transparent and their mantra is consistent on UGA’s admissions blog as well.
As I’m sure you know, there are soooo many smart kids with incredible stats but when it comes down to it, there are little things that can separate one candidate from another so keep moving forward. If it was that simple, every kid with a 35 ACT and virtually straight A’s would get all the scholarship money and thankfully, my daughter did her a solid and put a lot of time on the essays and worked her butt off in and out of school. Little did she know that it would pay off in the end.