Essay Questions for the 2014 First Year Application

  David Graves      June 13th, 2013

As promised, here are the essay questions for the 2014 First Year application. 1.  Choose an intellectual or creative opportunity (for example, community involvement, a summer program, a unique project, travel abroad, etc.) from your high school years that you have enjoyed and highlight how you have grown personally because of the experience. 2.  It […]

Read More

2013 Essay Questions

  David Graves      June 7th, 2012

As promised, here are the essay questions for the 2013 First Year application.  The application will be available in mid-August. 1.  Choose an intellectual or creative opportunity (for example, community involvement, a summer program, a unique project, travel abroad, etc.) from your high school years that you have enjoyed and highlight how you have grown […]

Read More

Question about Essay Questions

  David Graves      April 27th, 2012

 At this time of year, we start looking at the freshman application, and what need need to tweak/alter for following years. We often debate back and forth about our four short essay questions (150-200 words), and what we could ask that is creative yet specific, allows for an applicant to share more about themselves, but […]

Read More

Essay examples, 2012

  David Graves      March 7th, 2012

While we are still in full swing reading freshman files, I thought I would share a few essay examples from this year that I think are impressive. Please understand that while some people believe that great essays should have as many impressive words as possible, or flow like a poem cascading through the mind (okay […]

Read More

Essays and Jokes, and How they are Similar

  David Graves      December 6th, 2011

A number of you are now starting to write the four short essays for UGA, either because your decision was deferred or because you are finishing up your Regular Decision application. As such, here is some advice on good essays, and how telling a joke well and writing a good essay are similar. Just to […]

Read More

Great Essays!

  David Graves      March 29th, 2011

Yesterday, a recently admitted student and her parents visited the Admissions Office, and they asked to speak to me. It turned out that she was one of the students that I had mentioned in a previous post concerning the strength of her essays (see the Random Thoughts post from January 26, 2011), and they wanted […]

Read More

Part II/The Essays

  David Graves      December 7th, 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 want a long post about how to write essays, so I will make this quick. […]

Read More

Freshman Application Changes Part III

  David Graves      May 26th, 2010

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 UGA (and for the applicants), we want to make sure we have enough information from […]

Read More

Essay Examples from 2010, part II

  David Graves      May 3rd, 2010

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 these samples give everyone a little insight into the strength of our applicants, and as […]

Read More

Essay Examples from 2010

  David Graves      April 29th, 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 the less-than-great (a kind way of saying bad), and we were given permission by two […]

Read More