David Graves      July 2nd, 2014 in Blog


Every Spring, our office reviews the freshman application for changes that we would like to see for the next year. During this review, we also look at the short essay questions that are required for First Year applicants
who apply Regular Decision or are deferred Early Action (Early Action applicants do not submit essays unless they are deferred).  For 2015, we have made a slight change in our short essays. Instead of requiring four short essay responses, we now will have one short essay that all RD or deferred EA applicants must complete, and three additional short essay topics with the applicant selecting to respond to two of these. Essay 1 should be between 200-300 words, while essays 2-4
should be between 150 to 200 words, but remember to focus on substance and
not word count.  Before submitting your application and essays in the
Fall, always remember to proofread and edit!  The First Year application
will be available on September 2, but we thought that some people would want to know the essays earlier than that date.

Here are the four essay questions as we now have them, with
Essay 1 being required (200-300 words) and Essays 2-4 being three options
from which the applicant can select two (150-200 words).
  
  1. (Required) The
    UGA faculty has defined the qualities that the student body should demonstrate in the Admissions
    Philosophy Statement    .  After reviewing this, help us understand which of your qualities will add value to our community of scholars. (200-300 words)
  2. Share a story about someone in your life
    (not a family member) who is significantly different than you.  How
    are you different and what have you learned from your relationship with this
    person? (150-200 words)
  3. Tell us an interesting or amusing story about
    yourself that you have not already shared in your application.     (150-200 words)
  4. UGA’s First
    Year Odyssey Program offers more than 300 seminar courses for new freshmen.
    Some examples include “The History of     Horseracing”, “Einstein and the Theories of Relativity” and “The Zombie
    Plague”. If you could create your own seminar course at UGA

    in any subject area that interested
    you, what would it be? What would the course be named and what would you hope
    to learn?     (150-200 words) 

In addition, here is an example of a strong essay that we received this year for Essay 3, and the applicant (and UGA class of 2014 freshman) has given us permission to share with everyone.

“I am an accidental criminal. My school counselor asserts that I am exactly the kind of criminal every college desires. In fact, since I was about 12-years-old, I have been developing my criminal record and have been flaunting it since. As a result, BET (Black Entertainment Television) gave me the opportunity to speak to millions of viewers this past August. I can only imagine how people’s mouths dropped when I told them how cavalier I am about the rules of legal consent. You see I am 18 years old now, but before then, I ignored my age and indulged in “adult” activities. Despite being a minor, I signed a renter’s agreement for the Greening Forward office headquarters and rented trucks for volunteer events. These companies only wanted my money; they did not care that a minor’s signature is invalid. I illegally acquired goods and services and used them for the greater good. I was the Robin Hood of environmentalism.”       Charles O. – UGA Class of 2018



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