The applications are all in for the 2025 UGA Regular Decision group of students, so here is some detailed information on the total UGA freshman applicant pool for Fall 2025 (EA and RD). Admissions decisions can be overwhelming and confusing, and at times people hear unusual theories, sometimes wild ones, as to how decisions are made (some on par with Calvin’s dad and his bridge idea). Hopefully this data and the blog in general helps in letting everyone know what UGA looks at in our admissions review, and gives at least some insight into how decisions are made.
- The total application numbers (EA and RD) are roughly 47,850, which is up approximately 12% from last year.
- Roughly 30,490 students applied for Early Action, and 17,360 applied for Regular Decision. We do not treat either group differently in the review process, only in the timelines for decisions.
- Roughly 45% of the applicant pool is in-state, and 55% is out-of-state/international. Due to UGA being the flagship university for the state of Georgia, we have a goal of our enrolling class (not accepted but enrolling) being roughly 80% in-state and 20% out-of-state, so it will be more challenging to be admitted as a non-GA resident.
- We have applicants from over 6,600 high schools, with the range going from 1 applicant (a number of schools) to 478 applicants (Lambert HS). We do not limit decisions based on the high school a student has attended, but instead look at each student individually.
- The top six choices of major by applicants is Biology (4,224 applicants), followed by Finance (3,989), Business (2,800), Psychology (2,401), Marketing (1,872) and Mechanical Engineering (1,708). A student is not tied to their initial choice of major, as enrolling students can change their major prior to orientation using the UGA student system called Athena. As well, this means we do not have admissions limits based on different majors, as this would not make sense due to the ability to change majors.
- We have applicants from 156 of the 159 GA counties, with the three outliers generally being from counties without a high school in the county, ones with a tiny HS age population, etc.
- The average core course GPA for the entire applicant pool is roughly a 3.81 using the UGA GPA calculation method. This is not the GPA you see on your HS transcript, as that is usually very different from our GPA. We see such a wide variety of HS GPA’s and grading scales, ranging from 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 12.0, and 100 methods (and more), thus using the various HS GPA’s on a transcript does not allow for equal comparisons. The link I have provided shows exactly how we calculate a GPA. Again, this the UGA GPA average for the entire pool, so as you can see the applicant group is very strong academically.
- The average ACT and SAT for the entire applicant pool of 47,850 is roughly a 29 Composite/1285 Total. While core grades and a student’s curriculum are generally better indicators of academic strength than test scores, I am giving this data out due to the state of Georgia mandating test scores for all the GA public colleges/universities.
- The projected enrolling freshman class is 6,200 students, and since we know that not all applicants we admit will enroll at UGA, we will offer a much larger number of students than the size of the class (we do not have details on this specific number). We will not know exact details until we are able to look at the overall applicant pool, do analysis of how we project the admitted students will yield (meaning will they select UGA), and are then able to finalize decisions. As well, a much larger percentage of In-State admits accept an offer of admission as compared to Out-of-State Admits.
- Currently, we are deep into the review of freshman files, so that means we are reading hundreds of files daily.
- Remember that UGA does not use demonstrated interest in our admission or scholarship reviews, so there is no need to email, text, or call us to let us know that UGA is high on your list of future colleges. We assume that if you applied to UGA, you are interested in us.
This applicant group is the largest we have ever had, both overall and broken down into Georgia and non-Georgia apps. As such, I expect this to be a very competitive year for admissions to UGA.
Good luck, and Go Dawgs!