Does the honors college at UGA make a big difference? My kid got into the one at Penn State and I have a good idea of how they would benefit from being part of it. At other schools, I don’t know much more than priority class registration. If my DC chooses to attend UGA, is it something that they should look into during their first semester or is it not a big deal? Thanks!
It does not make a big difference at all other than priority registration (which can be a big deal) and if applying to the business school you are guaranteed your first choice major if in good standing with the Honors program. If you are in it as an entering first year you can live in Myers the honors dorm but you don’t have to and many don’t opting for other dorms.
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We are weighing UGA/Terry vs. some direct admit options such as IU/Kelley.
Can anyone shed any light on selectivity and selection criteria options into Terry?
Aside from the minimum requirements, I’m not finding much on the UGA website. I’m more interested in hearing what % of applicants to Terry are admitted, and the criteria used.
I saw some comments on Reddit that ACT/SAT is factored most heavily, but that seems odd for a score that’s probably 2+ years stale by the time student applies.
I expect @VirginiaBelle can provide insight. Here is a link to a post addressing some of your questions. Best of luck to your student!
We attended New Dawgs day this Thu and left very impressed.
DD is now leaning towards Terry against DA to Kelley, Madison, UIUC Gies, Purdue and the likes.
We were also concerned about the non direct admit part of Terry, but not anymore. Here are a few things we learned.
- Typically 75-80% applicants get accepted to their first/second choice major.
- Those who are not accepted are also not blind sighted; it’s not like a lottery and you’d know well in advance if you’re not on track.
- Your overall GPA is not used in the criteria, only some relevant business courses + an accounting exam for Accounting/Finance majors only.
- There’s an e-proficiency exam which can be waived as long as your SAT/ACT score was over the 80 percentile; otherwise also not a difficult part.
- It’s indeed competitive and you need to work hard, but the idea is to groom and prepare one academically for their intended major and not just make a selection.
Here’s my final take: we left UGA/Terry feeling great that my kid will be academically challenged to prove that their intended major is indeed the right career choice. If they can’t compete at this level and get it, then perhaps it won’t serve them very well in their career and they better pivot to something else.
Loved the campus, facilities, downtown, students and of course weather compared to our mid-west options.. lol..
There was nothing to dislike actually.. in two days, I became a fan of UGA from a skeptic..
GO DAWGS!!!
PS:- you apply to Terry major when you believe YOU are ready and NOT at a set date; advisors help you make the right choices/ decision throughout the process and you’d have more than one opportunity to apply if you’re dead set on a certain major. A lower overall GPA or a bad grade here and there won’t set you back.
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The general sense I got is this: UGA wants you to succeed in life, and not just force fit yourself into your “intended” major.
They have a very thoughtful criteria to challenge students and prove that they’d indeed be competitive to their intended major; if not then they help figure out alternatives.
My ideas about direct admits have changed for better after visiting UGA.
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@Idontgetthis thanks so much for the very helpful reply. Great info.
A couple questions…
re. 75-80% get 1st or 2nd choice major, is that also to say 75-80% are accepted into the business program and get their 1st or 2nd choice within the program? (e.g. finance, marketing, …).
re. e-proficiency criteria, is that waived w/ ACT/SAT in 80th percentile for UGA or overall?
Lastly, did you get this info from a session or a convo w/ someone at the school? If the latter, I’d love to reach out to see if I can get a few mins of their time.
Thanks again!
Just now seeing this conversation. That is a great summary. While I will let him respond to your question, it seems like the 75 to 80% acceptance rate for Terry into first and second choice majors is about right. Some majors are more competitive than others. There is an additional percentile that does not get their first or second choice major but is placed in economics. This sometimes happens when you put finance and MIS which are usually the most competitive as your first and second choice. This will allow you to continue to register for some of the early business classes that are only available to Terry students. Once you’re in Terry you can apply every semester spring, summer and fall to switch majors. Typically those switching from economics do get in to another major if they would like to, although rarely the most competitive ones. My finance major son tried to add a MIS major as a double major after he was accepted to Terry and did not get in. His advisor told him that transfer spots for the very competitive majors are very limited, and it varies from semester to semester whether they have any room. He did a minor instead.
I do believe that the acceptance rate is high enough that even though it is not direct admit those who they believe will succeed in the business school get in. It is not like some other schools where you can have perfect grades and still get denied. Also, I have heard that SAT/ACT are more important for some majors than others. Finance is one. There is a lot of math in finance and perhaps that is why?
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That’s right; the numbers can vary by the semester in which you apply and the competitive strength of students applying; more often than not, you’d know in advance if you’d get accepted/rejected. I’m told it’s uncommon for a hard working and competitive applicant to not get accepted; those rejected typically don’t do well on the pre req courses.
SAT is overall.
I got this info from different sources: breakout sessions with Terry advisors during New Dawgs day; 1:1 discussions post sessions, talking to student ambassadors on a Terry tour, randomly striking conversations with Terry students in the RLC.
You may reach out to terrycb@uga.edu to setup virtual/in-person time with a Terry ambassador if you’d like.
Thank you for this information. Regarding the SAT/ACT, do they super score and do they look for a certain mark for the math?
UGA only looks at the English and math scores on ACT. They super score and from what I understand their system only shows them the highest score on each section.
No idea what the floor is on math, but you do have an option to take an alternate test if you would like a stronger application. It does sound a little confusing to me what the prior poster said about being in the 80th percentile since that is well below the 25th percentile for UGA accepted students. I have read about kids who have a high GPA and low test score who have not gotten in so I do think it matters for some majors, especially with finance which is our experience.
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The 80 percentile did seem low to me as well, but it’s what the Terry Advisors said during the breakout session; I did cross check and it was confirmed.
They were basically trying to say that’s it’s usually not something that concerns most students.
UGA does admit students with SAT scores under 1200, so the e-proficiency exam may be necessary for such students to apply for Terry.
For families who attended Dawg events, do they have any session for honors college ? Any insights about Morehead honors college ?
Yes, they do have a breakout session for honors college.
It sounds really good, particularly for business intended applicants, among other benefits. Honors students in good standing are guaranteed admission to their first choice Terry major.
They also take you to the honors college during the walking tour and talk about the benefits (which are all available to read on their website FWIW, but you can directly ask any questions)
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I know this is a little old but thought I would chime in for anyone who comes across this.
You actually cannot put MIS, Finance, Accounting or Marketing as a second choice. From the Terry FAQ page:
“The majors available as a second choice are as follows: Economics, Management, Real Estate, and Risk Management and Insurance.”
Don’t love that rule.
Not sure I knew that! I thought you could put both. I remember the debate about what to list but maybe it was between finance and MIS for first.
Regardless you can be put into Econ even if you don’t list it to get into Terry and keep working on requirements. We know several people this has happened to who didn’t list Econ as a choice.
So interested in knowing how many spots they want to fill with those 300 offers! (they don’t publish waitlist yield AFAIK.) Here’s the CDS for 2023-24 (the latest available)
It would be interesting to know.
David Graves is answering questions in the Comment section of the Admissions Blog under the 2025 Waitlist article. He did say they plan to admit from the WL in batches every Friday until the class is filled, but I didn’t see mention of how many spots need to be filled. I just skimmed the comments though so perhaps it is in there.
I also found it interesting that they are targeting more GA students. That tells us they haven’t met the goal of an 80 GA/20 OOS class.
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Very interesting! I know they posted before decisions were released that they planned on using the waitlist this year a fair amount to get to the correct number. Focusing on Georgia students makes it sound like out of state yield was high!
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