UGA will be closed from late afternoon on December 24 through January 3, and as such, we will not be available to answer many questions. Like many of you, I will also be unavailable at times during the break, so Read More >
Archive for 2010
December 21, 2010 |
Suggestions over the Holiday Break
Happy Holidays everyone, and I hope you are enjoying (or about to start enjoying) your holiday break. Our office is still open this week, but we will be shutting down late Friday, and we do not return until January 4. Read More >
December 15, 2010 |
Early Action Facts and Reality
In reviewing the chart to the left , which shows Early Action admitted freshman and their zodiac signs, some people would say “I knew it, they did not admit me because I was a Capricorn” or “I knew that they Read More >
December 13, 2010 |
Summer/Fall 2011 Transfer Applicants
At this point in time, we have received approximately 100 Summer and 300 Fall transfer applications. The next two months or so will be tied up with several issues, from the update of Spring freshman and transfer files as Fall Read More >
December 7, 2010 |
I am guessing that for a number of the deferred students, they are looking at part II of the application and wondering what they should write about in their essays. I am also guessing that most of you do not Read More >
December 7, 2010 |
Admissions – After the EA Decisions are Out
Now that Early Action decisions have been made, here are a few items of note of what will be going on over the next few weeks in Admissions: Starting today (Monday, 12/6), we will begin to enter in the materials Read More >
December 6, 2010 |
Last night, my son wanted his favorite meal for dinner, fettucini alfredo with chicken. We pulled together to boil the noodles, cook the chicken and blend the sauce, along with making a salad, garlic bread and dessert. We had to Read More >
December 5, 2010 |
I wrote this a short while ago as a comment to my latest post, but I thought I would also make it a new post, so here you go: I think I have responded to all your questions as of Read More >
December 4, 2010 |
Early Action Decisions are Available!
Early Action decisions are now available online, and the applicant pool was very strong! Approximately 6,100 students were admitted, and here is the link to the 2011 EA admitted student press release with some statistics included. We are thrilled to Read More >
November 30, 2010 |
Early Action Decisions and Reactions
Early Action decisions will be going out at the end of the week, so here are a few suggestions on how to react to the three different decisions: Admit: Celebrate with family, buy a lot of UGA gear to wear Read More >
November 24, 2010 |
At this point in time, UGA has received approximately 100 summer transfer applications and 200 fall transfer applications. While our principle focus is on freshman at this time, especially on Early Action decisions, we have been able to review a Read More >
November 22, 2010 |
Congratulations Tracy Yang, UGA Rhodes Scholar!
Tracy Yang, a senior at UGA (and Westside HS of Macon graduate), has been named a Rhodes Scholar, the 22nd in UGA’s history. Tracy is an Anthropology major, and has done research in the health disparities within the lower socio-economic Read More >
November 19, 2010 |
We Anticipate That EA Decisions Will Be Released on Dec. 3
In the late afternoon of December 3, UGA anticipates that we will make the Early Action decisions available on the myStatus page. We say anticipate in case something unforeseen causes a delay (power outage, the Board of Regents making a Read More >
November 17, 2010 |
A little over a year ago, I did a post specifically to answer questions from parents, and I thought I would revisit this theme. While I love working with and answering questions from students, parents seem to be put in Read More >
November 13, 2010 |
Foundation Fellowship and Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship Application Deadline
The post mark application deadline is Monday, November 15 for the Foundation Fellowship and Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship application. We realize that many students will be starting, completing and submitting the application over the weekend and may be in a Read More >
November 10, 2010 |
Changing Application Information
You have submitted your admission application to UGA, when suddenly you come to the realization that your email, [email protected], might not be the most appropriate email address to use. You want to change it, but you are not sure what Read More >
November 5, 2010 |
There is an interesting article out today that is a collaboration between The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education titled Application Inflation: When is Enough Enough?. It is a very good read, and it deals with an Read More >
October 29, 2010 |
We received the October SAT scores late yesterday, and we were able to download them into our system this morning. We just updated the myStatus page about an hour ago to show any updated/new scores. We will be running checks Read More >
October 28, 2010 |
Shout out to High School Counselors!
Over the last 3 years, our office has made it so that high school counselors and teachers can submit their evaluation/recommendation forms online. As you would probably guess, it started off slow the first year, but it has been gaining Read More >
October 27, 2010 |
As of today, we have 10,621 Early Action applicants, and just under 2,300 of them are still missing SAT/ACT (with writing) test scores. What this is telling me is that a number of you have waited to send in your Read More >
October 18, 2010 |
The Early Action deadline has come and gone, and we will spend the next two weeks matching up transcripts, test scores, recommendations, etc. Please be patient while we go through the mail, as we had five full bins this morning, Read More >
October 15, 2010 |
Yes, today is the deadline for Early Action Freshman applicants, and that means a huge volume of applications, mail, phone calls, and emails will be generated surrounding this date. As I have said before, do not panic is something is Read More >
October 11, 2010 |
We are coming up on the Early Action deadline, so here are a few suggestions as we approach this timeline: Even though the deadline is October 15, I do not suggest waiting until the last minute to submit your application. Read More >
October 8, 2010 |
Spring Applicant Update part II
As I promised last week, here is the update on Spring admissions: All freshman decisions have been made, and the decisions have been mailed out. Spring freshman application numbers are always small, so I will not go into details about Read More >
October 5, 2010 |
In order to help out with the freshman application process, Morgan in our office has created this video to walk students through the steps to apply to UGA. I hope you enjoy this, and thanks to Morgan and Milly (the Read More >
October 1, 2010 |
The Spring 2011 Orientation site is now open for admitted students, and I advise that you read the introduction carefully to make sure you take the proper steps in signing up. Orientation is mandatory for all incoming freshman and transfer Read More >
September 30, 2010 |
Many of you might not know this, but the UGA Admissions Office has two people based in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. Jackie Pearson, Senior Assistant Director of Admissions, and Lindsey Dean, Assistant Director of Admissions, both work out of Read More >
September 25, 2010 |
Like many of you, my two children had to go through a year of “Etiquette” classes. They learned about table manners, dinner table rules, proper introductions, social graces, etc. It is interesting that one of our most recent Admission Counselor Read More >
September 21, 2010 |
Now that we are a little over a month into the Freshman application cycle, I thought I would let you know how things are going so far in the process. As of today (9.21.2010), we have received approximately 3,000 Early Read More >
September 17, 2010 |
Foundation Fellowship & Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship Application
Happy Friday! My name is Cindy and I work in the UGA Admissions Office as well. I manage the Foundation Fellowship and Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship application process. Many thanks to DGraves for allowing me to guest post today. The Read More >
September 10, 2010 |
Since we are about a week out from the Spring admissions deadline, I thought that I would give everyone a heads up on where we are at this point in time for both Spring freshman and transfers. I expect that Read More >
September 1, 2010 |
September brings about cooler weather, college football (Go Dawgs!), and in the land of college admissions, it is the start of Travel Season. From early September (actually late August this year) until early November, the UGA Admissions team will travel Read More >
September 1, 2010 |
Spring 2011 deadline extended to Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
In order to work with students who may have been impacted by the application being down for a short period of time in early August, we have extended the Spring 2011 Freshman and Transfer deadline to Friday, September 3 at Read More >
August 27, 2010 |
Yesterday, the majority of the Admissions staff participated in a 4 hour campus adventure we called “The UGA Admissions Amazing Race”, modeled after the TV show The Amazing Race. Four of us (me included) mapped out eight locations around the Read More >
August 25, 2010 |
Self-Reported Grades, HS Transcripts, and the Law of Unintended Consequences
I was recently at a fast food restaurant , and they had new, larger cups for their sweet tea (the greatest beverage ever invented!), with a new logo on the side and a cool new dispenser. Life was great, as Read More >
August 23, 2010 |
Status Check on myStatus back up
The Status Check part of the myStatus page is now back up. We will be working hard over the next few days to link up materials with the application files that have just come in, so please be patient. When Read More >
August 20, 2010 |
The Status part of myStatus Page Down
Quick update for everyone. The UGA myStatus page will be down until Tuesday due to some issues with the importing of data from the recent applications. The applications are downloading into our system, but there are at times some minor Read More >
August 18, 2010 |
In an article in the NY Times last week, there was a story about a Texas high school senior who was the first person to complete the “Common Application” that is used by a number of colleges (although not UGA). Read More >
August 16, 2010 |
First-Year Application is now available!
The UGA First-Year application is now open! As is our history, we normally open our First-Year application in mid-August, and it is generally on a Monday to make sure we are available if any minor issues arise. Please remember that Read More >
August 13, 2010 |
Spring 2011 Transfer Application Is Now Back!
Thanks to to hard work of the UGA Admissions technology team, the Spring 2011 Transfer Application is now up and working again! For those applicants who had started an application earlier in the week in the new system, we have Read More >
August 12, 2010 |
Shel Silverstein was a great poet and philosopher (at least I think so!), and one of his best poems is entitled Smart: Smart My dad gave me one dollar bill ‘Cause I’m his smartest son, And I swapped it for Read More >
August 11, 2010 |
Thomas Edison and the Contact ID
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas Edison In our testing of the Contact ID system and the application, we have found that while it works well in production, at this time Read More >
August 9, 2010 |
New Step in the Admission Application
Sometime tomorrow, the Spring applications will be back up and running. In addition, I expect that on Monday, 8/16, the freshman application will be open and available to the public. While I have already mentioned a few changes to the Read More >
August 5, 2010 |
Revisiting the EA vs RD question
I am re-posting a blog post from last August, as it is the time of year when all the questions start coming up concerning the Early Action (EA) vs Regular Decision (RD) process. So without further delay, here is an Read More >
August 2, 2010 |
Application/Status Check sites down this week
Due to testing of a new ID system for applicants, our admission applications, along with the status check, will be down during this week. We are working on a new system that will allow for applicants to enter in their Read More >
July 27, 2010 |
In a few weeks, most freshman applications will go live around the country (UGA’s application will go live in mid-August). As such, Here are a few suggestions to get prepared and organized as you begin this process. Go out and Read More >
July 20, 2010 |
Suggestions for What to Ask (and Not to Ask)
Greetings Everyone! I will be out of the office for a few days, so please be patient as I will not be able to answer your questions for a short while. In preparation for this, here are a few suggestions Read More >
July 16, 2010 |
Spring 2011 Transfer Decisions
Starting today, the UGA Admssions office will begin reviewing Spring 2011 transfer applications and making admission decisions on files that are complete. This will start off slow, as we are still working with incoming freshman concerning final HS transcripts, and Read More >
July 14, 2010 |
Booker T. Washington HS Valedictorian Speech
Just a quick post to share a video that has been circulating through our office for the last few weeks. Deonte Bridges, the Valedictorian at Booker T. Washington HS in Atlanta, GA, gives a powerful speech at graduation. We are Read More >
July 9, 2010 |
As you might have guessed, I am a big fan of fables, and the following one applies directly to the idea of students challenging themselves and working hard. Aesop’s Fable, “The Ant and the Grasshopper” Once there lived an ant Read More >
June 30, 2010 |
Yesterday, I sent out two emails to incoming freshman (and I expect I will send out a few more before the end of summer) asking for more information on why their last semester grades had a serious decline. These are Read More >
June 28, 2010 |
At this time of year, I start looking back at what I wrote last year to see if there are any big issues that need repeating for a new group of rising seniors. One of the more prevalent issues is Read More >
June 18, 2010 |
It is that time of year again, when I will be away from the blog for a week while I volunteer at Camp Sunshine, a camp for children with cancer. This will be my 16th year volunteering for the summer Read More >
June 16, 2010 |
Electronic College Transcripts
I sat in on a very interesting meeting today involving transfer admissions and XML transcripts. While this might not seem exciting to talk about, it could lead to a dramatic change in the processing and review of files in the Read More >
June 10, 2010 |
It is summertime, which means that the summer reading lists are out in full force. In my house (with a rising sixth and a rising eighth grader), there is now a great deal of moaning going on whenever I bring Read More >
June 5, 2010 |
This will probably be the last update on Fall transfer decisions, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. As of late this afternoon, we had approximately 30 files left to evaluate for Fall transfer decisions (this is excluding students Read More >
May 28, 2010 |
Freshman Application Changes Part IV
The last change that we will be making to the freshman application has to do with your high school grades. Over the last 6 years, the number of freshman applicants has grown from roughly 12,000 in 2005 to over 18,000 Read More >
May 26, 2010 |
Freshman Application Changes Part III
In reviewing the UGA admissions process and the information that we ask for on the application, we started looking at Part I and Part II of the application more closely. While the separation into two parts has worked well for Read More >
May 24, 2010 |
Freshman Application Changes Part II
As I said in an earlier post, there will be a few changes to the Freshman application this year. I will give you more information later this week on the other changes, but I want to go step by step Read More >
May 21, 2010 |
At this time, we have offered a limited number of students admission for fall term off the wait-list, and a little larger number of students spring admission off the wait-list. I do not have an exact number for these groups, Read More >
May 21, 2010 |
It is that time of week to update you on how the fall transfer process is going. Please excuse me if the updates look fairly similar, but I figure a consistent style is the best way to convey what is Read More >
May 18, 2010 |
For the last four years, the senior admissions people from all 12 of the SEC universities have gathered together to talk about admissions policies, recruiting, best policies in higher education, and other topics related to student enrollment. This year, we Read More >
May 14, 2010 |
It is Friday, so it is time to once again give you an update on fall transfers. At this time, we have reviewed and made decisions on approximately 1700 applications (rough average of 60 decisions a day), and if we Read More >
May 11, 2010 |
Spring Admission Deadline Changed to Sept. 1
Every May, a small group of UGA admissions people gather to discuss the past year’s admission cycle, and to look at the next year in order to plan out the admissions process for the future. We talk about what worked, Read More >
May 7, 2010 |
Here is my weekly update on the Fall Transfer process, and how the general timeline is looking for this group. Our evaluation team is moving along at a very strong pace, as almost 900 admit decisions have gone out, and Read More >
May 4, 2010 |
We are now at the time of year where we can begin to review the wait-list, although we are just in the initial stages of the process, as we are still waiting on the last of the deposits to roll Read More >
May 3, 2010 |
Essay Examples from 2010, part II
For part II of the essay examples, we have actually included two essays from a particularly strong writer who will be here next fall. All of her essays were great, making it too difficult to choose just one. I hope Read More >
April 29, 2010 |
Due to an elementary school chicken dinner late this afternoon (“winner, winner chicken dinner” as my co-worker and friend Charlie would say) and a furlough day tomorrow, I will not be back in the office until Monday. As such, I Read More >
April 29, 2010 |
In continuing with the theme of working with rising juniors and seniors in high school, the question of admissions essays always comes up. In our file reading this year, our counselors read a lot of essays, from the great to Read More >
April 29, 2010 |
As I stated last week, I will try to post a weekly update about Fall transfers and how the process is going. Since tomorrow is a furlough day, I will be out of the office an unable to see what Read More >
April 26, 2010 |
At this time of year, our office starts to move its focus from the incoming freshman class to the rising junior and senior classes in high school. We will still be doing a great deal of programs for incoming freshmen, Read More >
April 23, 2010 |
Although I cannot give daily updates on what is happening with Fall transfer decisions, I will try to post a weekly update either on Thursday or Friday about the progress our office has made in reviewing Fall files. I will Read More >
April 20, 2010 |
Later this week, UGA will be celebrating the 225 anniversary of the founding of the university, with a focus on both the history of UGA and the future for our institution. On Thursday, April 22, the focus will be on Read More >
April 15, 2010 |
We are coming up on May 1, the date by which most freshman applicants need to make a commitment to attend their chosen college. UGA, along with all the other colleges, wants you to take your time and make sure Read More >
April 12, 2010 |
After a review of the application numbers, the projected enrollment numbers for the overall student body next year, along with discussions about future budget issues, the University of Georgia will move forward with Fall transfer admission decisions based upon the Read More >
April 6, 2010 |
The UGA Admissions Office has just been given the approval to make admission decisions on all summer transfer applicants. The University has been waiting for more information on the overall budget situation for UGA for next year, but understands the Read More >
April 6, 2010 |
Every year, UGA works with between 60,000 and 70,000 potential applicants to UGA. These students come to our attention through college fairs, emails and letters asking for information, SAT or ACT scores sent to UGA, visits to campus, etc. We Read More >
April 1, 2010 |
Stats on the Admitted Class of 2014
As I promised earlier in the week, here are the statistics on the Admitted Class of 2014. I do not have the stats for the wait-list group ( 1,120 were offered wait-list) at this time as we do not know Read More >
March 29, 2010 |
The Parable of the Elephant and the Six Blind Men
In reading the different comments from students after decisions have gone out, I am reminded of the parable of the Elephant and the Six Blind Men: Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived six blind men. Each Read More >
March 27, 2010 |
For those of you who have been admitted to UGA, here is a post for you, and a chance to comment. Congratulations to all of the freshman who were admitted to UGA, and we look forward to you becoming a Read More >
March 27, 2010 |
For those of you who have been denied by UGA, here is a post for you and a chance to comment. Unfortunately, we were not able to admit a number of strong applicants, as we are limited in the size Read More >
March 27, 2010 |
For those of you who have been wait-listed by UGA, here is a post for you and a chance to comment. Every year, our office has to predict approximately how many students we can admit in order to enroll our Read More >
March 27, 2010 |
The UGA status check page is now open and freshman applicants are now able to see our final decisions. Again, I will be putting up three different posts (UVA has done this very well, so I am using their great Read More >
March 26, 2010 |
Later today, we will be opening up the status check so that all final decisions, and I will give you a heads up when it goes live. Before it happens, though, I wanted to let all the followers of this Read More >
March 24, 2010 |
Yes, the question that all freshmen applicants (and their parents) have been asking again and again can finally be answered. Final decisions for freshmen applicants will be released on Friday, March 26! As normal, we will open up the status Read More >
March 18, 2010 |
Book Recommendation for Parents
Since I cannot give you any news about decisions yet, I have one suggestion as to how you can pass the time during this challenging waiting time. As I have said before, I love to read, and at times I Read More >
March 15, 2010 |
Since we are coming up on freshman final decisions shortly, and this is also the time when a vast number of high school juniors begin their college visits, I thought I would go over the concept of grades and GPA Read More >
March 11, 2010 |
The University of Georgia Office of Undergraduate Admissions is proud to announce the release of version 1.0 of our iPhone App. This application can be downloaded for free from iTunes, and will run on any iPhone or iPod Touch. The Read More >
March 9, 2010 |
In my mind, there are two methods of cooking; working within the scope of a recipe, and working with what you have available. When you are cooking with a recipe (let’s say a cake), you gather all of the ingredients, Read More >
March 3, 2010 |
Right now, there are two things going on; one, our office is knee deep/swamped/up to our ears, etc. with file reading, and two, you are waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for us to finish reading. But I know that Read More >
February 27, 2010 |
Freshman February Wave of Admits
The status check is now back and open for viewing, and the small wave of freshman February admit decisions that I discussed earlier are now showing up on the site. Please remember that this is a small group of admits Read More >
February 26, 2010 |
Later this afternoon (Friday, 2/26), we will be releasing acceptance letters for a small group of freshman applicants. These admits, who are primarily Regular Decision (RD) applicants, are students who meet the criteria that UGA admissions used for Early Action Read More >
February 23, 2010 |
File Reading – Admissions Counselor Perspective
As a follow up to Dave’s file reading entries, Kelly Ochs – with the help of Bartley Sides – gives you a picture of file reading from an admissions counselor perspective. When I first became interested in working in college Read More >
February 19, 2010 |
Summer and Fall Transfer Decisions
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 Read More >
February 17, 2010 |
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney A recent post brought up a good point for all high school junior and below students and parents about how to learn more about colleges and Read More >
February 12, 2010 |
File Reading, Part VI (the final chapter!)
Several years ago, I read a great book by Robert Fulghum called “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten”, and a portion of it applies to the last part of File Reading: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t Read More >
February 10, 2010 |
The fifth part of the review is already known to most everyone, but I will go ahead and share it with you. In this section, we are looking at an applicant’s academic progress over the 3-3.5 years of high school Read More >
February 8, 2010 |
Ara Parseghian: What’s your problem, O’Hare, what’s your problem? Jamie O’Hara: Last practice of the season and this ***** thinks it’s the Super Bowl! Ara Parseghian: You just summed up your entire sorry career here in one sentence! If you Read More >
February 4, 2010 |
This section will be brief, as I have written about it a number of times. The file reading topic for the day is Intellectual Challenge/Rigor of Curriculum. First, don’t ask how many AP/IB/Honors/Advanced/Dual Enrollment/Post-AP/TBE (The Best Ever!) classes you should Read More >
February 2, 2010 |
Here is the second installment of the UGA holistic file reading overview, with a focus on the area of an applicant’s writing, self-expression and creativity. I know, it is a mouthful, but this is the section where we look at Read More >
February 2, 2010 |
Last week, I said I would write about file reading, and I will break it up into six areas. The first thing we generally see during the review of the files is how a student spends their time outside of Read More >
January 29, 2010 |
In my family, I am known for cooking one thing well; my homemade chicken noodle soup. I take great pride in making this, and it becomes a half day process of cooking the chicken just right, making sure I have Read More >
January 27, 2010 |
I opened up a teacher recommendation letter this morning, and it stated that John was a great student, a wonderful person, and an all around great applicant. Unfortunately, this letter will never make it into John’s file, as his teacher Read More >
January 22, 2010 |
The Magic Eight Ball of Admissions
Every once in a while, I will receive an email or a response to this blog asking “I have X GPA, X SAT’s, …, so what are my chances for admission at UGA?” While it may sound like an easy Read More >
January 20, 2010 |
As of 3 p.m., we have received 17 bins of mail today. If we had to stack it up one on top of the other, it would be about 15-20 feet high. It is sort of like our own small-scale Read More >
January 15, 2010 |
While about 85% of UGA applicants apply before the deadline, it is that other 15%, the ones that submit right on the deadline, that at times causes me headaches. Not major migraines or anything that bad, but more of a Read More >
January 13, 2010 |
There is a scene from Animal House, where Kevin Bacon’s character, Chip Diller, is shouting “Remain Calm! All is well!”, while a panicked mob crushes him as it runs away from a parade gone mad. This is how I feel Read More >
January 11, 2010 |
2010 Transfer Applicant Update
Although most of the focus will be on Freshman applicants for the next month or so, I did not want to leave out our transfer students. While our evaluation team will be reviewing a large number of freshman files through Read More >
January 6, 2010 |
I Do Not Like Faxes, Sam I Am!
“Do you like green eggs and ham?” “I do not like them, Sam-I-am. I do not like green eggs and ham!” – Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham I feel the same way about faxes. I would not like them Read More >
January 5, 2010 |
Ten days and counting until the January 15 deadline for Regular Decision applications, part II of the application for deferred students, and any and all required materials! My suggestion is to try and take care of things a few days Read More >