<p>If you should get lucky and get an invite to the Foundation Fellows Interview Week-end, how many nights do you need to plan on staying in Athens - Friday and Saturday or just one of those?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>We stayed just the Friday night. D1’s interview was early on Sat and she was finished by lunch time. Interviewees stay overnight ( Fri) in the Georgia Center. I think some of the OOS students arrived Thurs night and left on Sunday.</p>
<p>The program starts early Friday. D1 went to class with a current Fellow. H and I enjoyed a nice breakfast with some of the Honors college staff at Moore college.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!</p>
@Gibson1514 … Do you know how many of the 60 finalists are offered the Foundation Fellow? Looking in their report it looks like there are very few Ramseys. Do a lot of the ones who do not receive the FF turn down the Ramsey. That is what it looks like. It appears that both programs (FF and Ramsey) are amazing!
About half will be offered. The number can vary slightly. I think they are looking for a class of around 22.
The number of Ramseys have been growing steadily over the past few years. The students invited the the Fellowship weekend normally have several scholarship offers and places at top/Ivy schools. Some choose not to accept the Ramsey and opt for a better fit for them.
Did your student move onto the Finalist stage?
@Georgiamama I believe that in 2014 they offered about 20 Foundation Fellowship Scholarships. It was not half (and I believe about 58 attended, including my son). They name a couple of the Finalists as “Alternates” and if any of the original offers are turned down they may offer it to an Alternate. The number of students accepting the Ramsey does seem very low…there were only a handful accepting the past few years. They spend very little time during the weekend speaking about the benefits of being a Ramsey Scholar.
@MAsecondtimer …Is your son a Fellow?
I did a quick count from the Annual report;
The class of 2018 has 21 Fellows.
Class of 2017 - 22
Cass of 2016- 30. This will include the mid terms ( this was a bumper yield year)
Class of 2015 - 19. 17 started, 3 midterms and one moved on to new things.
I am sure they will announce during the weekend how many attendees will be offered the Fellowship. As I said, it is my understanding that they are looking for a class size of around 22. This fluctuates and depends on how well the endowment is performing.
Not all 60 will attend the interviews. One or 2 will accept ED spots at Ivies.
Good luck to all. Relax and be yourself!
Eeep! My D is attending the interviews next week and I couldn’t be more excited for her! :->! I love that the Ramsey feels like a great option no matter what too!! Thanks for the info :->.
@Georgiamama, no he is not. He turned down the Ramsey. Good luck to your kids. It was a challenging/exhausting weekend with very smart, successful, accomplished students. Our “take-away” after the weekend is that we wish they would have spoken a bit more about the benefits of being a Ramsey Scholar. They spoke about it very little…even when we tried to ask questions. Given that almost 2/3’s of the students there will be offered a Ramsey Scholarship (which is significant…especially if you are OOS) we wished that they had spoken about it a bit more.
@MAsecondtimer… Any advice for the ones attending next weekend?? What were the individual interviews like??
@Georgiamama he felt that he did better in the individual interview. That was with a group of several people. They definitely focused on his resume and interests and his background. The group Interview, which focused on the lecture that they all attended was harder for him. He isn’t always the most outgoing person, especially in new situations…so it was hard to make himself heard with some of the other students. The whole weekend was a great experience, but it was hard for him. He had to be “on” all of the time…at the lunches, when meeting the past Fellows, etc… He was definitely pushed a little bit out of his comfort zone. It also can be hard not to be intimidated by the other Finalists. He also was not the “typical Finalist”. Most seemed to be interested in politics, medicine or the environment. He was one of the few Finalists with an interest in a future in Business and possibly the Sports Industry. I think to just be yourself, be confident and put yourself out there. It is an amazing opportunity.
Son got the FF! We are feeling so blessed right now. UGA here he comes!
who else got it? where to find the finalist list
The UGA foundation Fellows fb page will announce who accepts. The finalist list is not published anywhere. ( Though I think current fellows know)
Congrats to @zbd5421
Yeah zbd5421! ;->! It was fun meeting y’all at FF weekend.
Echoing someone above, the UGA FF Facebook page is listing people as they accept. My D sent hers in today :->! Also, the kids have their own chat page UGA FFIW Finalists Class of 2019. I think word is getting around via the kids on who was offered.
Stats from 2014:
62 finalists invited for the FFIW (17 oos)
32 finalists were offered Fellows (9 oos)
21 accepted 9 oos (2 of the 9 oos were added from alternate list)
Instate: 45—>23—>18 51% offered / 65% yield
Out of State: 17—>9—>7 53% offered / 78% yield
They really do offer about half the kids Fellowships. It is a fantastic program, but it is a state school, so it is not surprising that they favor in-state students. Some programs are a little better for oos kids (Morehead Cain tends to be 50/50) and some are MUCH worse (UT’s 40 acres had 3 oos last year!)
All of the kids invited for the FFIW are truly exceptional, and many are already admitted to Ivy League schools and do in fact choose the FF over the Ivies.
They ave a very good idea what their yield is going to be and it is very high – ~2/3 of the offers are accepted. The kids offered the fellowship will get an email soon letting them know who else was offered positions so they can start chatting and bonding. FWIW, the Ramsey kids do great and all the kids hang out together. All of the kids are incredible and should be so proud to be a Ramsey or a Fellow! And that community, in my opinion, is what is so magical about the Foundation Fellowship to begin with.
Congrats to everyone – Ramseys and Fellows alike, you should all be very proud!