Students ask, ‘Why didn’t I get into UGA?’

More than 18,000 high school students applied for admission to the freshman class that will enter the University of Georgia during the next academic year. With space to accommodate only about 5,000 new freshmen, we faced a very tough job in making decisions. We certainly understand the disappointment felt by students who learned recently that their application was denied.

In comments on newspaper blogs and in calls to our office, we’ve heard a lot of misconceptions about how the process works. In fact, our staff compiled a list of top 10 “UGA Admissions Urban Legends” that can be found on our Web site www.admissions.uga.edu. But here is a basic explanation.

Two factors continue to give students the best chance to be admitted: taking academically rigorous courses and doing well in them, and doing well on the SAT/ACT test, including the writing section.

Grade point average in academic coursework is the most important factor in the admissions process, with rigor of curriculum a close second. We expect students to take advantage of the most challenging courses offered at their high school.

In calculating an applicant’s GPA for admission, we use only those classes that satisfy the college prep curriculum in the core academic areas of English, math, science, social sciences and foreign language.

For freshmen admitted in 2008, the middle 50 percent scored 1180-1350 on the SAT and 25-30 on the ACT. This year, those scores increased to 1200-1360 and 27-31. UGA now requires prospective students to submit the writing portion of the SAT or ACT.

Students determined to be “academically superior” based on strong GPAs earned in academically challenging courses, coupled with excellent SAT/ACT scores, are admitted on these factors alone. But a large number of applicants —- more than 6,000 this year —- fall into the “academically competitive” category, with very similar academic profiles. Because UGA can’t admit all of them, additional factors are then considered, including intellectual curiosity, creativity, commitment to citizenship, integrity, respect for cultural differences and personal maturity.

The admissions application solicits information in each of these areas, provides additional opportunities for students to express themselves in writing, and requires a recommendation from a teacher in an academic subject. Every academically competitive application receives a thorough and holistic review evaluating all of these factors. Factors that do not play a role in the admissions process are race, gender and family history of attending UGA. Also —- contrary to popular opinion —- UGA doesn’t set quotas for the number of students admitted from any high school, county or state.

The parts of the equation that students have no control over are the number of applications we receive in any given year and the overall quality of the applicant pool, which this year was quite strong. That meant we were turning away students who would no doubt do well at UGA. Obviously this is frustrating to those who worked hard throughout high school and hoped to earn a place in the freshman class.

What these students can do —- if they choose —- is to apply again after completing a minimum of 30 transferable semester hours at another accredited institution. Information about deadlines and further requirements for transfer students can be found on the admissions Web site. A significant portion of each of our graduating classes did not start at UGA as freshmen, but nonetheless finished their college careers with a UGA degree.

> Nancy McDuff is UGA’s associate vice president for admissions & enrollment management.