A new two-part application -process may be responsible for a 60 percent increase in the number of prospective students applying for an “early-action” decision on their admission to the freshman class that will enter the University of Georgia in 2006.
Letters have been mailed to more than 9,000 early-action applicants—up from some 5,700 who applied early last year—informing them of their admission status. Students can also get the news online by using the password-protected status check on the admissions office Web site (www.admissions.uga.edu). About half of those who applied by the early-action deadline of Oct. 15 will get the good news that they have been offered admission; others will learn that they have been denied admission or that a decision has not yet been made.
Those whose admission decision is deferred must now complete the second part of the application form, which includes short-answer essay questions and an activity résumé. They also must provide a recommendation from a teacher of an academic course taken in their junior or senior year and ask their school to send updated transcripts, if new grades have been posted.
New standardized test scores also may be submitted. All materials are due by Jan. 15, the deadline for all freshman applications to UGA.
“With such a significant increase in the number of students who applied early this year, we were forced to defer many more students than last year,” says Nancy McDuff, associate vice president for admissions and enrollment management. “It’s important for them to realize that deferred does not mean denied. Many of them will be offered admission as we begin making rolling decisions in late winter.”
The students who applied early this year are academically very strong, according to McDuff. The high school grade point average of the mid-50th percentile fell between 3.5-4.0, with test scores between 1150-1320 on the SAT and 25-29 on the ACT.
The early-action pool was also diverse, with almost 20 percent of the students identifying themselves as other than Caucasian. More than 500 applications were received from African Americans, more than double the number received in last year’s early–action process. Another 200 early applications are from Hispanic students, almost double last year’s number.
“A major factor in early-action decisions is the rigor of the courses that the students have taken,” says McDuff. “Students admitted at this point have taken very rigorous curricula, availing themselves of the most challenging courses available at their high school.”
While the first offers of admission are extended to students with the strongest academic records among those in the applicant pool, additional criteria—including leadership, creativity, intellectual curiosity, respect for cultural differences and other factors determined by the Faculty Admissions Committee—are considered during the regular admission process.
