It is mid-April, and life is still fairly hectic in our office. Freshman decisions are out, but we are still in the thick of reviewing transfer files, monitoring commitment deposits for the freshman class, traveling, hosting accepted student events on campus and around the US, mailing out tons of materials, etc. But we also know that this is a hectic time for you as well, so here is a quick update on what is going on at UGA.
- Admitted Freshman: We suggest you do not wait until the last moment to decide where you will be attending college. We are fine if you wait until May 1 to submit your commitment deposit, but we do not want you to get it in late and suddenly have problems attending your intended college. Make a good decision, and make a well thought out decision, but don’t put it off just to delay making a decision. In addition, make sure not to catch “senioritis”, as if it is too severe, it could be fatal to your enrollment at UGA! In addition, all of our merit based scholarships (except for the Goizueta scholarships that had a separate application) have been awarded. Approximately 9-10% of the class was offered a merit based scholarship (with out of state at times having a partial or full waiver of the OOS fees), so it was a very competitive process. Scholarship offers are displayed on a student’s myStatus page if one is offered, and the section only appears if an offer is made.
- Wait list students: We will be monitoring the deposits that come in, but we will not be able to determine the next steps until sometime after the first week of May (May 1 is a postmark date), so move forward with plan B and then be patient. I wish I could say that we would know things earlier, but I can’t, as we need to make sure we know what our freshman class is looking like numbers wise before we take any action with the wait list.
- Transfer Applicants: There are still a tiny number of summer applicants that we are working with, but these should be cleared up within the next 2-3 weeks, so be patient. As for fall transfers, we have almost exactly 2,500 applicants, and we have made roughly 1,200 decisions. We are able to review about 50 or so files a day, but it may get a little slower as we get into more detailed and difficult files. As for what files we are working on and what application/complete file dates we are at, it is tough to determine exactly, but my estimate is that we are working on files that were complete as of the very end of January/the early part of February. Again, this is not exact, but this is the best example, while also knowing that some tough files from earlier in the year may have to wait to be reviewed, while some later files may have been reviewed earlier due to the request of a department or due to being well below the consideration levels (and thus being denied).
- Transfer Applicants: Make sure we have Fall 2011 grades in your file for review, or we cannot make a decision! If your transcript shows a date prior to early December, there is no way that we could have Fall grades on the transcript, and we need Fall grades to make a decision! We try to communicate with you, but 2,500 transfer files is a lot to check, and it is not always easy to tell if a term is not on the transcript yet.
- HS Juniors and below: Make sure to challenge yourself and do well in your classes, but also to enjoy life. Read a book for fun, watch a movie (I have Moneyball on DVR and can’t wait to watch it tomorrow night), cook a meal for your parents, and take a nap once in a while. Oh, and get off call of duty, it rots your brain (just kidding!).
- Parents: Help your student in the admission process, but make sure that your child is the one that takes the lead. I am reminded of the projects in my daughter’s second grade class, and you could tell which ones were done by the student and which were done by the parents. Let your student take the lead!
Go Dawgs!