Pay the $25 (or $35 maybe, can’t recall) housing deposit as soon as you can, even if UGA is not your top choice. It determines your place in line for dorm room selection. Last year a lot of parents of OOS EA students were annoyed that in-state EA students got a couple weeks head start placing housing deposits. It looks like this year they may be equalizing it for all EA students.
But really, it wasn’t worth grumbling about. EA students can place their deposit before RD students, and complaining that in-state EA had a slight advantage over OOS EA seems ungracious to me. I’m just glad my OOS kid is getting to go there, since our in-state public universities don’t offer her major.
However, many students are dead set one of the freshman high rises, so the timing of housing appointments starts to feel high stakes. For anyone new to this, students can go random for roommates at UGA, or they can find a roommate via a UGA app or social media. EA students are somewhat in demand as roommates, because as long as they placed their deposit promptly, their selection time is going to be earlier. Once a roommate group is formed, the student with the earlier selection time picks the room and “pulls” the roommate in at the same time. And if a non-honors student wants to live in Myers (not a high rise, but a really nice location), it’s not hard to find an honors roommate who gets priority there.
Regarding Honors, my daughter was one of many whose Honors acceptance came much later than her EA acceptance, even though she submitted her Honors app the same weekend she submitted her EA app. Note that the deadline to apply for Honors is Jan 15, so there’s plenty of time to go for it if you haven’t already.
Main perk of Honors is earlier registration starting Spring semester of freshman year. (Fall registration for freshman is based on summer orientation date. Earlier is better.) But if not Honors, bringing in lots of AP scores and DE courses helps too, because registration times are based on number of credits earned already.
Also for anyone with kiddos who need accommodations from the disabilities office, priority registration is a common accommodation. It’s a rigorous approval process often requiring documentation of past accommodations and retesting. However, an extra time accommodation goes hand-in-hand with priority registration so you can ensure that your classes are not all back to back.
AP Scholar / Small town Rural Recognition
Lots of ECs w/ leadership, Captain of dance line, volunteer hours, member of ballet company, lifeguard, etc
That 30 ACT had her worried yesterday when the stats came out showing middle range of 31-34.
Congrats to everyone who got in!
Note that unlike the SAT score range, the ACT score range is a bit misleading. UGA reports the composite scores in their accepted student data, but in admissions they focus mostly on the sections that are most comparable to SAT sections, so just the English and Math. They say they do see the composite super score, but it is not their main interest.
UGA has a holistic admissions process so stats are not the only consideration. Obviously your student stood out in a positive way.
Best wishes!
ETA: As a long-ago recipient of rural recognition (even with Ivies), I do not discount your student’s achievements. I appreciate UGA’s focus on admitting students from across the state.
UGA is not holistic for EA. Look at common data set. They look at gpa and test score. If you get deferred, then they’ll take a closer look at whole application. But EA round is straight numbers.
That is no longer true and has not been for several years. David Graves makes that clear on the admissions blog.
Edited to add: From what I understand the denials, which were about 10% for EA, are not holistic. Those decisions are made purely on academics for students that are not academically competitive.
I am confused by your reply. What does Graves make clear on the blog? Is it different from what the Common Data Set reports? (UGA does not separate out EA decisions from RD decisions on common data set; clearly, rigor and GPA are listed as “very important” with standardized test scores being the only attribute listed as “important”. Everything else is “considered” or “not considered,” which translates to GPA and test scores (and rigor) are the deciding factors.) also, this year’s EA for in-state was a 43% acceptance rate; no info on how many of the rest were deferred v. straight denied. https://oir.uga.edu/_resources/files/cds/UGA_CDS_2023-2024.pdf
also, just read through the lengthy comment section on the UGA admissions’ blog to see where Graves said 10% of EA in-state apps were flat out denied due to academic concerns. Thank you for pointing that out. I am a college counselor and am seeing a very direct correlation between the discrepancies between a high (non-UGA-recalculated) GPA and a lower standardized test score (as UGA requires test scores) which is showing that grade inflation is a huge, huge issue.
If you are a college counselor I would highly recommend you read the UGA admissions blog and the comments to the admissions blog. David Graves, who authors the blog and is now the head of admissions at UGA, makes very clear that a holistic review is used in both EA and RD rounds. Years ago UGA used to make EA decisions based on grades and scores only. That changed a few years ago. Now there are a small number of kids with super high GPA and test scores that are admitted based solely on academics. The next group which is also very academically strong, receives a full holistic review. The group under this which is academically less strong based on grades and test scores Is subject to deferral to wait for fall grades. The next group is denied All of this is discussed multiple times in the blog. UGA is extremely transparent about their admission procedures
I would agree that grade inflation is a big problem, which is why UGA calculates GPAs to standardize them. As you can see from the statistics of the admitted students GPAs are very strong and test scores are in the very top percentiles. In that instance, you worry less about grade inflation since it is independently verified by test scores
David Graves, the UGA Admissions Director, clearly states there is a holistic review in both the EA and RD rounds. I encourage you to read the UGA Admissions Blog as there is a wealth of information about UGA’s process.
I see others have already addressed this so I won’t repeat the information already shared by @VirginiaBelle and @jplain .
Agreed. My child’s school only offers AP beginning junior year so my child will top out at 7. I see these people listing 15 AP’s, 4.89 GPA and 1580 SAT’s. It’s demoralizing.
I believe the school profile must be taken into consideration (as David Graves has stated in the blog).
My D’s school offers one AP sophomore year for a limited number of students, otherwise it is only junior and senior year APs. The top students can only achieve 7-9 APs.
As our GA school has a reasonable acceptance rate at UGA between EA and RD, I must surmise the profile and availability of APs is taken into consideration.
My guess is for EA you have to have a good combination of GPA / # of AP or IB / test scores. One may be lacking but the others would have to compensate. Nothing “holistic”. I highly doubt they even read the supplemental essay if you are a good match on the above three criteria.
I believe David Graves’ description of the holistic process. He’s been transparent for years and is highly respected in the college admissions community due to his transparency and responsiveness.
If you question the UGA process, rather than theorize you should state your concerns in the blog and I can almost guarantee you’ll get an answer. Perhaps it will help others with similar concerns.
It would be fantastic if you’d share what you learn here.
