Big News!! For the UGA Freshman 2021 application, the UGA Admissions Office will accept the Common Application as an option for prospective student applicants. Okay, now that you have recovered from your shock (it only took us 10+ years to choose this option), here are the details for applying for next year.
Applying
- UGA will accept any of the following freshman applications: The Common Application, The Coalition Application and the UGA based Application (only submit one application from one of these options).
- We will still accept documents from all the same providers (SCOIR, Naviance/Parchment, documents submitted through the UGA admissions site, mailed in materials, etc.)
- We will still require a Secondary School Report (SRR) from a counselor, an official transcript sent from your school, and we will accept optional letters of recommendation from teachers/community members.
- Currently, we will still require an official SAT or ACT exam result sent to us from the testing agency. If the University System of GA and UGA change this policy, we will announce it ASAP.
- The Freshman Application will open up on September 1.
Essays
UGA will require two essays, a longer personal essay (250-650 words) and a shorter essay (200-300 words).
- The longer Personal essay will use the Common Application prompts or Coalition Application prompts for 2021. I have listed the Common Application prompts for the Personal Essay below for your knowledge. We will also be using these prompts for the UGA based application.
- Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
- Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
- Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
- Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
- Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
- The shorter essay prompt will be the following – “The college admissions process can create anxiety. In an attempt to make it less stressful, please tell us an interesting or amusing story about yourself from your high school years that you have not already shared in your application.”
Review Process
UGA still intends on having both Early Action and Regular Decision rounds, and we currently are still working on the same deadlines for both rounds as last year. If we need to change the materials deadline for one or both rounds, we will make an announcement as soon as we have made this determination.
- UGA understands that Spring courses and grades might look very different for some students and school systems this year, and we will take that into account in our review of an applicant’s academic record. We will calculate a GPA based on the grades that are on the official transcript, and P grades will not hinder a student’s chances of admission (though we cannot use them in a GPA calculation).
- UGA also understands that different student activities might have been altered due to the coronavirus epidemic, and we will take this into account in our holistic review process.