Early Action Suggestions - UGA Undergraduate Admissions

Early Action Suggestions - UGA Undergraduate Admissions Early Action Suggestions The Early Action deadline is quickly approaching. Here are a few suggestions as we approach the deadline: Dont wait until the last minute. Even though the deadline is October 15, you should not wait until the last minute to submit your application. We do not hold it against you if you wait until 11:59PM on October 15 to apply, however if you do this you are not giving yourself any time to account for issues that could occur to prevent you from submitting. For example internetconnectivityissues, computer problems, etc. The deadline is the deadline, you should always plan to apply earlier than the last minute. Also be sure to take time to review your application before you submit it. Please note while the application is available 24/7, the credit card payment option is only available from 7AM to 9:30PM EST. You can still select the check/fee waiver option after 9:30PM Be patient. After you submit your application, please be aware that things will not happeninstantaneously. We are likely to have around 10,000 Early Action applicants and the majority of the supplemental material will be sent within the next two weeks. We will be vigorously matching material, but please give things time to get here (both mailed and electronically submitted documents) before contacting us. If an item is mailed, allow time for the postal service to deliver it. If a test score is sent, allow time for it to be both uploaded by the testing agency and downloaded by UGA. Our deadlines are postmarked/submitted deadlines. The next few weeks will be a little hectic in our office as we pull together all of the materials for each application, so we may be a little slower in responding to voice mails, emails, etc. Do not send a fax. If you or your counselor faxes something in, it will be shredded. We place the shredder next to the fax machine for a reason. Check your myStatus. It is the applicants responsibility to get in all required documents. The myStatus page is updated once a day, generally in the morning, so you do not need to check it multiple times a day. Documents do not need to show up on the myStatus by 10/15 to be in by the deadline, so please be patient. If it has been over 10 business days since you both applied and any missing documents have been sent in, you should begin to inquire about the missing document. If it is a GACollege411 transcript, we occasionally have one that does not come through. However, it is easy to go back into the system and access it again. Missing SAT/ACT scores. If you sent your SAT/ACT scores a while ago and they have not matched up yet, verify that they were sent to UGA through College Board/ACT. Then verify that the name, social and birth date on the test scores are the same as the admissions application as these are important matching fields. If you have given us enough time to receive them and they are not showing up on myStatus, email admproc@uga.edu with your situation and we will work on manually matching your scores. Please be patient as it takes longer than a day for scores we receive to get into our system. School Evaluation. Your counselor will have additional time to submit the school evaluation. We will leave the online school evaluation open for at least a week beyond the 10/15 deadline so your counselors should not have to stress about any last minute applicants. Go Dawgs! Early Action Suggestions - UGA Undergraduate Admissions Early Action Suggestions We are coming up on the Early Action deadline, so here are a few suggestions as we approach this timeline: Even though the deadline is October 15, I do not suggest waiting until the last minute to submit your application. We do not hold it against you if you submit the application at 11:59 pm on 10/15, but if you do this, you will most likely be praying that everything goes smoothly, and that you do not have a computer issue, spill your Mt. Dew on the keyboard, or accidentally fall asleep while thinking about what to write. In other words, while the deadline is the deadline, always shoot for an earlier time. After you submit an application, be patient. If you take nothing else away from this blog, take away the idea that you need to be a little patient with admission offices. I expect we will have approximately 10,000 Early Action applicants, and a majority of the materials will be sent in over the next two weeks. We will be matching up materials fast and furiously, but please give things time to get here before contacting us. Items will not be matched quicker if you call or email. If an item is mailed, allow time for the postal service to deliver it. If a test score is sent, allow time for it to be both uploaded by the testing agency and downloaded by UGA. If is not an in your file deadline, but a postmarked/submitted deadline. If you or your school faxes something in, I will shred it. As I have said before, we place the shredder next to the fax machine for a reason, as we cannot accept official documents by fax. Tell your counselor, tell your friends, tell your fourth cousin twice removed, UGA does NOT accept official documents by fax. Please remember that while the application is available 24/7, the credit card payment option is only available from 7:00 am to 9:30 pm EST. You can still select the check/fee waiver option after 9:30 pm and submit this document though. And just so you know, debit and check cards cannot be used to pay the application fee. Take time to review your application before you submit it. Again, take time to review it, make sure you have followed the word/character count areas, and that you are comfortable with the finished product. Test scores must be sent to UGA by the testing agency. If you send it by mail or if it is on a transcript, it will not be used. It has to come to UGA from the testing agency! And remember, if you want to use an ACT score, we must have an ACT Writing score as well. Good luck, and Go Dawgs! Early Action Suggestions - UGA Undergraduate Admissions Early Action Suggestions We are now about three weeks from the Early Action deadline, so I thought I should give out some suggestions about the application process: Make sure you review the application before submitting it! We receive about 20 emails a day stating that an applicant made a mistake or left out something on the application. We can easily add updates to an applicants file (test scores that did not fit in the 6 spaces, correction to the self-reported grades, etc.), but it is easier if you double-check the application first. Do not over-think things! It is okay to give us descriptions of your activities in bullet form or as a complete sentences, review your high school transcript and enter in the core grades from there, and do not worry so much about how to phrase your reason for choosing major section. Whether you put a colon or a semicolon will not make or break your chances for admission. Remember, no faxes. I will say it again, no faxes! The deadline is October 15, so do not wait until the last minute to apply. This will save you, your parents and your counselor a lot of worry. We will keep the online school evaluation open for at least a week after the 10/15 deadline to help your counselors deal with last minute applicants (see previous bullet point). UGA now accepts electronic documents through Docufide (which is linked to the program used by many high schools called Naviance), so let your counselors know about this. Make sure to get a copy of your high school transcript to use for your self-reported grades. The transcript is what we look at and require, and it has your official grades, so this is where you should be looking in completing this section. And remember, the self-reported grades are the completed grades, so you are not to try and predict what you might get senior year for this section! All SAT/ACT exams that can be used by UGA for Early Action must be taken by the 10/15 deadline, so we are fine with the October 1 SAT but not the late October ACT. In addition, if you have not already sent in SAT/ACT scores from previous test dates, I suggest you do it ASAP so that we will have it in time for Early Action. I cannot say how long it will take a previously taken SAT or ACT score to get to UGA, as that depends on when you request it and how long it takes to be sent. I can say that we do multiple test score downloads a week. Be patient as we get closer to the 10/15 deadline, as we will be receiving a great deal of materials in the mail, through online submission, etc. I always say to give us about 10 business days to get things into the system. In other words, if you apply on Monday, do not contact our office on Tuesday wondering why things have not been matched up. Give us time, as I expect over 10,000 applicants for Early Action. If you apply using the GA411 site, know that UGA does not control this site, and it is a common application for Georgia colleges. If you apply EA through GA411, you need to write the essays, as they are a part of the overall application on that site. I have a magnet in my office that states Your lack of planning is not my emergency. I do not mean to sound harsh, but this is your application, and as the mature, thoughtful and bright students that we believe you are, we expect you to apply on time, get in materials, and make sure that things are in by using the myStatus page. On the Honor Code page of the application, we have about 8 application fields that are very important that you get right. Your SSN needs to be correct, your address, email, etc., so double check these very closely before submitting! If you sent your SAT/ACT scores a while ago and they have not matched up yet, make sure that you sent them to UGA. Then verify that the name, SSN and birth date on the test scores are the same as on the application, as these are important matching fields. If you have given us enough time to receive them (not overnight!),they are not showing up on the myStatus page, and some of the key fields are different (no SSN on the test scores, Jimmy instead of James), email admproc@uga.edu with your situation and we will work on manually matching the scores. Be patient though, as scores that are sent on a Monday do not get into our system on a Tuesday (or Wednesday, etc.). This generally applies to most colleges! Remember, college admissions offices run on business days, so if you apply on Saturday, your application will not show up in our system until the next business day (Monday), and we can then work on matching materials, reviewing transcripts and courses, etc. Go Dawgs!