Our UGA representative, Lindsey Dean, was here this week to give information to our kids.  We found out some interesting information and I wanted to share it with you. 

The admitted student profile for the current freshman class is as follows:
Middle 50% Core GPA (only the academics) – 3.68-4.01
Middle 50% SAT (CR + M, no writing) – 1190-1360
Middle 50% ACT – 26 – 31
Last year, the middle 50% of students had taken 3-7 AP/IB courses.

These numbers continue to rise each year and the importance of taking rigorous courses continues to be a large factor in the admission process, not just at UGA, but schools all across GA and the US.

One thing that our rep. told our kids is that they calculate the GPA entirely through the junior year.  Once first semester of senior year is complete, you need to send new grades and an updated transcript, however, they will not recalculate the GPA they have on file.  These new grades are still looked at, but this just emphasizes once again how important those freshman-junior year grades are.

For students interested in taking the SAT and/or ACT once more before submitting their applications to UGA for early action, the deadline for SAT will be Nov. 1 (a little later than in previous years) and October 25 for the ACT.  However, you must have noted that the scores be sent at time of SAT/ACT registration.  If you wait for them to come back and then request that they be sent, it will be too late.  You can still go back into your account and add UGA as a college to receive your scores if you did not list them at time of registration.

Lastly, (and this is probably the biggest announcement), UGA will now be considering the Writing portions of both the SAT and ACT for this year’s applications.  For the previous years, they have been requiring a writing portion to be submitted, but this is the first year they are actually using it for their admissions decisions.  What this means is that if you have taken the ACT without the writing portion (because writing is optional) and you are wanting to use your ACT scores (because they’re the higher scores), then you will need to take it again and include the writing portion.  SAT has the writing portion built in and it is not optional, so that score will already be there.  UGA will NOT take the writing portion from the SAT and mix it with the ACT to make up for the missing ACT writing score.  Last year’s admitted Writing score for the SAT was a 625.  UGA does not know what this year’s score will be, but this may give you an idea of what they are probably going to be looking for.

To apply to UGA, visit www.admissions.uga.edu

Parents!  This week, we are hosting our first annual Senior Coffee, designed to give you the opportunity to ask us questions regarding college applications, financial aid, HOPE, etc. as your senior begins to navigate the college application process.  We will have one each morning this week from 8:30 – 10:00am with a different counselor hosting each morning.  To hear specifically from your child’s counselor, please note the following dates:

9/8 - A – Co

9/9 – Cr – Ha

9/10 – He – Mc

9/11 – Me – Sa

9/12 – Sc – Z

After the meeting, we ask that you fill out a survey to let us know how we did, what we could do better, and what information you still need.

We look forward to meeting with you!  Bring all your questions and we’ll help you navigate this rewarding, but potentially confusing process.