As our review of the freshman transcripts (just the transcripts, not the entire file!) comes to an end, we are now starting up our transfer reviews. The transfer decision process is very different from the freshman process, so please take note. While the freshman decisions go out at three times during the year (December, late February and late March), the transfer decisions go out beginning in February and ending in late May/early June, and are made on a daily basis. In fact, we made about 30 transfer decisions yesterday!
Just so you know, though, transfer decisions are not a quick process. First, the file has to have all transcripts from any and all colleges an applicant has attended, and we must have any completed work through the Fall term of the previous year (so for this year, it would be Fall 2009 work). We then have to review the transcripts, see what classes transfer in, determine the number of transferable hours, and calculate a transfer GPA. If we then admit a student, we must plug in exactly how the transferable courses come into UGA, and whether they match specific UGA courses or come in as elective work. In addition, we must plug in the hours and GPA for HOPE scholarship purposes for those applicants that fall into this situation, and make sure that everything is correct. In other words, it can take a while.
In addition, the speed of the review depends upon the colleges an applicant has attended. If we have a large database of knowledge about a college and the courses from there (for instance GA State Univ.), then almost all of the equivalent courses are already in our database. But if you have attended several colleges where we have almost no information on (for instance, Green River CC and Central Washington Univ.), then it will take a while to research your classes and determine how the courses translate over to UGA courses.
As you can guess, this means that I have no idea how many transfer applicants we can review a day, and how many decisions will go out on X date. As well, I cannot even begin to guess, beyond a rough monthly estimate, when you will receive a transfer decision. What I would suggest is that you should make sure that all transcripts are here through the status check system, that if you have any other names you have used (last name is Jones now but was Smith), you should contact us to let us know after the transcript is sent, and be patient. Remember, transfer decisions will both come in the mail and will be posted on the status check.
I hope this helps!
Go Dawgs!