APs: At the end of senior year I will have taken 15 and I have passed every exam except 1
SAT: 1510/1600
ACT: 33 (I retook it a week ago and made a 35, in assuming it would help my application if I sent that score in)
Extracurriculars: Marching Band, Church Stuff, Piano, National Honors society, etc.
I don’t know what the problem with my application was. People with much lower test scores and GPAs got it. Any ideas? Would retaking the SAT or ACT help?
Have you read the blog on the U of GA website? It explains how they refigure GPAs and test scores. They rework the GPAs to make them more comparable and only focus on the English and Math portions of the ACT and SAT. They say they don’t look at extra curr. but since they ask for them, I think they do. I don’t understand why you were deferred with your stats, but I suggest you rework your GPA and just look at your English/Math portions to see if they put you near the acceptance pool. They have the average stats of the EA accepted students listed on the blog.
Don’t despair. You should still get in with your stats. If you are interested in being in the college band, you should contact the band director. Band students are like athletes at colleges. They get not only get in, but get good scholarships. See if your band director can contact their band director.
If you aren’t interested in doing bank in college, get good recs and write a good essay. The blog said that a lot of deferred kids don’t even complete the second part of the application.
If you really want this school, don’t give up. You can get in there.
Any break in schooling? Any disciplinary action? Are you certain that you have stellar letters of recommendation, including band director? What does Naviance say about admits to UGA from your school? What major did you apply for? Do they have a supplemental essay? How strong was your essay? Did you visit or have contact with admission counselors on the road or by phone? Very good suggestion above about contacting the band director.
I also think contacting the band director is a good idea. It is a bit confusing since those stats are very high. For EA, they have said they only consider course rigor, GPA, and test scores so I’m not sure why you didn’t get in at this time. However, I think your chance in the next round is very strong.
All that was required for EA was a transcript and my test scores (ACT,SAT,AP). For disciplinary action I was suspended for a few weeks my sophomore year, Could that be the factor that got me deferred?
What are your math and English subscores and reconfigured uga gpa? UGA can be pretty unpredictable with admissions and mayve thought you were using them as a safety. Being suspended for a few weeks definitely could have been a factor. How long was the suspension? I know of people who had 3 days of in school suspension who got in.
My math subscore from the ACT was only 33 and my English was 33. And those were the scores on the ACT I sent them. On the last one I’ve taken I raised my English score to a 36. For the SAT I only made a 750 on math, but I made a 760 on English, and I will also be taking it again to hopefully raise my score. My recalculated GPA is also a 3.87/4.00.
My suspension was for nine weeks, so it was a pretty long suspension. But other than that one incident I never had any disciplinary action.
@Ga5530 9 week suspension? Yeah, that’s going to be a big issue for many competitive schools. Did you write an essay to explain it? May I ask how you got suspended for that long? It must have been a very serious offense.
The suspension must have been it. I would recommend addressing the suspension in at least one of the essays for regular admission and how it helped you realize real world consequences and change for the better (kind of a suck-up ‘fake it till you make it’ approach). Or, if you believe that it was wrong to suspend you for that long (like if you were suspended for protesting or it was a misunderstanding), you could VERY RESPECTFULLY say why you think it was unnecessary but how you respect the schools decision to suspend you on the grounds that they saw fit. Really emphasize that you have changed and how you would be a good model student. Most schools will be wary of suspensions (especially of that length and if the offense was for something destructive to school property or other students). Good luck!
@Ga5530 In your initial post you said you didn’t know what the problem was with your application. Did you not realize this suspension would be disclosed by your school counselor on the school evaluation form? Since this was a deferral, not an outright rejection, there is still a chance to disclose what the issue was and what you’ve learned from the experience. 9 weeks is a long suspension, particularly since you never had any disciplinary issues before that. 9 weeks is an odd number. Were the 9 weeks the last 9 weeks of the school year?
ETA: You should sit down with your guidance/ college counselor and ask them to work with you on a statement that discusses what occurred, what you’ve learned and your plans to move forward. I believe there is a section on comm app that asks about disciplinary history and a text box for such statements. You will need this not only for UGA but other schools you are applying to. Good luck!
I would definitely use one of the essays on the deferred students application to explain the suspension! It is always better to address the elephant in the room than to leave the admissions officers wondering! Good luck!